SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist
Santa Monica City Council. October 22, 2013. Item 7-A. Second Reading and Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Santa
Monica Municipal Code (SMMC) Chapter 4.55 Related to Commercial Fitness or
Athletic Instruction, Classes or Camps in Parks and the Beach.
The question before the Council: Should
commercial fitness classes be allowed in Santa Monica Parks? Top of the list, should they be allowed
in Palisades Park?
When the agenda item was called Gleam Davis
moved and Pam O’Connor seconded the motion to adopt the Ordinance. Bob Holbrook voted no. Kevin McKeown
voted no. Tony Vazquez voted no. Ted Winterer voted yes. Terry O’Day was not present. Under parliamentary rules an ordinance
needs four votes to pass. This was
a tied 3-3 vote. The Ordinance
failed.
That was it. If the City wanted to take up the issue again it would have
to be as a new item. Or was
it?
About 25 minutes later Council Member McKeown
made a procedural motion to reconsider the vote on 7-A. He said, “I’ve decided to pull on my
big boy pants and do the right thing.
If we do nothing tonight we will not have regulated fitness trainers in
any of our parks.”
Council Member Holbrook offered an alternative to
McKeown’s motion to vote to reconsider the ordinance and instead suggested moving
on and enacting regulations regarding commercial fitness training classes in
parks as appropriate. He said he
planned to put an Item 13 (a Council Member item request) on the next agenda to
do just that.
Council Member Vazquez, a consistent opponent of
allowing commercial fitness training classes in Palisades Park, recommended letting
the failure of the ordinance stand and directing Staff to return with an
ordinance regulating commercial fitness classes in appropriate parks and
banning them in Palisades Park.
Council Member McKeown said, “My desire to
protect Palisades Park remains unchanged.
But we have to do something because what we see now (with the fitness
classes) is the Wild West.”
Council Member Davis said, “We have been
considering this issue for over a year.
All this ordinance calls for is a pilot program (in Palisades Park and
regulations for all the parks). Let’s
go ahead and see what happens.”
Council Member Holbrook stated that a lot had
changed in just the last two weeks since the First Reading of the
Ordinance. He said many City
Commissioners had asked him why the Council was ignoring their advice to ban
the commercial fitness classes in Palisades Park.
Holbrook
added that the all the Neighborhood Organizations had communicated to Council,
recommending a prohibition on commercial fitness classes in Palisades Park. He also said he’d received a slew of emails
asking him to ban the classes in Palisades Park. “This is the loudest I’ve seen our community since the hedge
ordinance. It’s a big thing in the
City and it’s getting bigger.”
Mayor Pam O’Connor thought it was an age thing. “It is a difficult decision and we know
that there are appropriate uses of different parks. But I think this is an age thing. There are a group of younger folks who are into fitness
training and they want this and I think we have to change with the times. I think we owe this (to allow fitness
trainers in Palisades Park) to our young people.”
With Kevin McKeown's vote his motion for
reconsideration passed and the Ordinance was adopted. Council Members Holbrook and Vazquez voted no.
Council Members Davis, McKeown, O’Connor and Winterer voted yes.
Council Members Davis, McKeown, O’Connor and Winterer voted yes.
In an email sent
on October 23, the day after passing the ordinance, McKeown wrote, “The balance
here is only one vote… One
advantage of my casting my unenthusiastic vote last night is that I'm now on
the prevailing side, and have the right to bring the ordinance back for
reconsideration, with a clause protecting Palisades Park…. I don't see any
point in my doing that until the community works on that fourth vote.
I've argued the case as best I could, and failed to sway my colleagues.”
In a letter to the Council dated October 8, 2013,
Phil Brock, Chair of the Recreation and Parks Commission, wrote, “Our
Commission revisited the issue in May of this year and voted to ask the Council
to ban all paid fitness training in Palisades Park. The Commission supported the proposed ordinance detailed in
item 7-A in all other Parks in Santa Monica.”
Calling himself a ‘pragmatic optimist’ he went
on to say in the letter that he had come to realize that the Council could not
be convinced to ban the classes in Palisades Park and so, reluctantly, he would
support the proposed Ordinance because it would enact regulations for the
classes that would protect other parks.
The
Neighborhood Groups: North of Montana Association, Santa Monica Northeast
Neighbors, Wilshire Montana Neighborhood Coalition, Santa Monica Mid City
Neighbors and North of Montana Association all signed an open letter to the Council asking the Council to reconsider their decision
to allow commercial fitness instruction in Palisades Park.
“Palisades Park is more than a municipal resource. It is a
national treasure, “ they wrote.
It’s “America’s gateway to the Pacific, a cherished view corridor that
daily welcomes thousands of people, both local residents and visitors from all
over the world….
“If
the ordinance is enacted as currently written, private businesses will be free
to use taxpayer-supported lands as their private fiefs, interfering with the
public’s use and enjoyment of the historic lands that make up Palisades Park….
“Under
the measure that received provisional approval from the Santa Monica City
Council members of the public would be barred from the use of four newly
designated “commercial group training zones” (in Palisades Park) for up to 15
hours a day, 6 days a week, from 6 a.m. to 9 pm.”
Adding
their voices to the discussion, the Ocean Park Association, Friends of Sunset
Park and the Pico Neighborhood Association wrote to the Council saying, “It is our opinion that all parks, beaches and
public areas should not be used for commercial purposes except by special
permit for a limited time use that is in the public interest….
“Are Santa
Monica taxpayers who maintain and fund new parks expected to make way for
commercial business interests in our parks…?”
The
Neighborhood Groups listed above represent every neighborhood in the City. Their opinion should be, and
historically has been, of utmost importance to the Council.
So what
happened? Why the schism between
the Council and the Neighborhood Groups, the Commissioners and the hundreds of
Santa Monicans who have communicated with the Council directly and the thousand
plus who have signed petitions?
This is not about
fitness classes. Santa Monica is a
place where just about everyone exercises. Santa Monicans jog, ride bikes, surf, swim, go to Yoga classes and NIA
dance classes, hire trainers and go to gyms to work out.
This is about the
City Parks. This is especially
about Palisades Park. The Council
has somehow blundered into messing with an icon.
Palisades Park is
the first City Park. Originally
named Linda Vista because of the great views from the Park, it was a favored
promenade of both Arcadia Bandini and Senator Jones.
Palisades Park
has a unique plant palette, the gorgeous Arts and Crafts Pergola and is our
only Park with a Landmark Designation.
Allowing sections
of the park to be set aside for commercial fitness classes is a misunderstanding
of how the park has been used historically and how it continues to be used by
the hundreds of Santa Monicans and visitors to Santa Monica who come, daily, to
Palisades Park.
Santa Monica
supports surf camps on the beach, tennis at Ocean View Park, basketball at VAP,
softball at Memorial Park, soccer at the Airport Park. There are also appropriate
parks for fitness classes, but not Palisades Park.
Palisades Park is Santa
Monica’s only park specifically designed for contemplation and quiet thought.
Its linear character naturally supports its original use as a Grand
Promenade, a place for leisurely strolls at sunset and for early morning
jogging among the beautiful trees and, yes, for the gorgeous views. It’s also a great place to picnic, to
meet your friends, a place for children to run and play.
Palisades Park is
a place of meaning and memory, of imagery and importance in a way that cannot
be said about any other park in Santa Monica. A photo of Palisades Park is synonymous with Santa Monica
and is recognized around the world.
At the Council
meeting Davis said, “the Council has been working on this matter for over a
year.” Her frustration is
understandable. It may be fair to discuss whether people should have
communicated their concerns sooner to the Council and/or whether the Council
should have gone out into the community earlier. But that is in the past.
Now is the time
to show respect to the founders of Santa Monica for their gift to the City and
to recognize our responsibility to protect that gift for our benefit and the
benefit of residents and visitors of the future.
What Say You?
