New Dune Rules Receive Mixed Reaction

Residents expressed mixed feelings about last week's City Council decision to reopen the dune in Sand Dune Park under a restrictive reservation system.

Some were more pleased than others.

"Even though some of us were very vocal about closing the dune," said Jason Clark, who owns two nearby houses—one at the top and one at the bottom of the giant sand hill, "we knew that would never happen."

"I think it was a good compromise for both parties,"  he added, "to start with baby steps, to hear concerns from residents near the park and implement solutions to ameliorate those concerns.

Those residents who have pushed for a full reopening of the popular recreation and workout spot vowed to continue putting pressure on the city to make it more accessible.

"I'm glad that the dune will be reopened for exercise soon," said Jake Rome, co-founder of grass-roots group Citizens for Outdoor Recreation and Exercise (CORE), "but the rules governing the dune are too restrictive and available times are far too limited, while not accounting for the hundreds of neighbors that regularly and spontaneously walked to the dune for exercise."

He said local users of the dune typically get there on foot and that even more would bike if the city provided bike racks.

"So capping the number of users based on parking availability with the assumption that each user drives to the park seems inappropriate," he said.

CORE co-founder Bill Hory agreed, and said both the cap on visitors and the proposed access fees were excessive.

He also called the council's proposal to bar parents without reservations from joining their kids on the dune "the most bizarre recommendation of all." Children under 13 years of age have unrestricted and cost-free access to the dune under the new regulations.

"The City Council was correct to focus on peak-period usage and the highly restrictive reservation system alone will accomplish this," Hory said. "So why add additional costs that would charge an individual and family $300 and $1,200 respectively each year? As staff mentioned, the dune and surrounding parking can easily accommodate 50 users, so why [limit it to] only 20?

"Also, the dune costs less than 3 percent of the $5-million Parks budget," he continued, "so why add a usage fee that would penalize Manhattan Beach residents the most as they already pay for this through their property taxes?"

Still, park neighbors echoed concerns raised at the council meeting and said that the true penalty—a major disruption to community peace and safety through increased traffic, noise and litter—has been theirs alone to pay.

"People talked about democracy in numbers [at the meeting]," Clark said. "Well, the majority don't live in our shoes and see what we have to see every day. We spend millions of dollars in mortgages to have that lifestyle."

Thirty-fifth Street resident Brad Porter called the city's middle-ground approach "a solid option to limit the use to a manageable number of users," and said he remains cautiously optimistic about its success.

"It also assures a flow of people at set times, rather than during peak hours," he said. "What will be the key is the enforcement of these rules. We have already seen the [dune] stairs begin to be used for exercise, when clearly that use is not permitted, but is allowed nonetheless."

Clark, whose daughter is enrolled in nearby day care center Beach Babies, agreed that enforcement will be crucial and framed the problem mainly in terms of safety.

"We need flashing signs, whatever it takes to get [drivers] to slow down," he said. "There's no signage that there's a school there, so they need to do a better job of properly enforcing speed on that street."

Nonetheless, Clark congratulated the council for avoiding what he said could have been a "halfhearted" attempt to reconcile concerns from both sides.

"It was really the energy and the passion of the council that satisfied me," he said. "They're still open at the end of the day to closing it down if this doesn't work out. It's not like this is the permanent answer."

Advocates for a less restrictive opening of the dune also saw wiggle room in the city's new position, but in the other direction.

"We are confident that when the council sees that these rules reduce usage far too much, that they will adjust the operating rules appropriately," Rome said. "CORE intends to remain active in restoring greater access to the dune for all residents."