Recommendation to authorize City Manager to proceed with the entitlements for the revised baseline programmatic requirements for the proposed Belmont Beach and Aquatics Center, incorporate the recommendations from the Stakeholder Advisory Committee, and to increase permanent, indoor spectator seating from 650 seats to 1,250 seats with an additional estimated cost of $4.7 million, for a total estimated project cost of $103.1 million.  (District 3)
Item 20 is a report from Parks, Recreation, Marine and the city manager's office with the recommendation to authorize city manager to proceed with revised requirements for the proposed Belmont Shore Beach and Aquatic Center for additional estimated cost for estimated cost of $1.3 million. Mr. WEST. Mr. Mayor and Council members, one of the most painful decisions I've made as city manager was closing the Belmont Pool in January 2013 due to seismic safety concerns. What followed was an amazing commitment from the Long Beach City Council. Within 30 days, they voted to unanimously fund and construct a new 50 meter temporary pool and begin the process for a new permanent pool complex. This began the long journey to get to the point we're at today. It's important to remember Belmont Pools ceased being a 50 meter pool sometime in the mid-eighties because of the bulkhead. Only ten months after the Belmont was closed, we once again have a 50 meter pool. The first 50 meter length in 30 years. I can't emphasize enough the incredible commitment from the Long Beach City Council. While initially led by former Councilman Gary DeLong, the pool has seen fantastic and exceptional leadership from current councilwoman Susie Price. Recognizing the commitment and leadership from the entire mayor and city council, both past and present, it is important to recognize the early input of many residents. Early on, leading the charge were people like Eric LaBounty, Richard Gilday and Rich Foster, who chaired the city's efforts in hosting the 2004 Olympic swimming trials. If you're here, please stand up for a second. Rich, I know you're here. We have incredible user groups who daily motivate, train and teach our youth in all things aquatic. Dr. Theresa Pascual, who for decades has been leading Long Beach swim team to create Long Beach champions. Hank Wise, former Olympic trials swimmer and as rocket fish program for early age youth and a master's program for those not so early aged and Long Beach Olympic water polo star Chai Cadel leading perhaps the most successful youth water polo program in the country. Shaw Aquatics. Chai Sara, I believe. And then Debbie McCormick from a famous Long Beach diving family with deep roots in Long Beach, teaching future divers in both springboard and platform. Now it's important to recognize our Belmont Poole Stakeholder Advisory Committee, who have taken their turn at the head of the lane line the past several months. First off, we've had representation from the USA groups. I don't believe they're here right now. But Frank Busch, the national team director for USA Swimming. Steve Foley, the high performance diver, direct diving director for USA Diving, Cathy Hatty Drum, a Long Beach Olympic swimming champion who competed in the 1976 Montreal Games. And Long Beach resident Ryan Bailey, graduate of Millikan High School right here in Long Beach. Ryan is a four time Olympic water polo star. He competed in the 2000 2000 for 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Raquel Bartolo, a Long Beach native and graduate of Wilson. Raquel is a competitive diver and a state champion who competed for the University of Hawaii. John Norris, a recreational swimmer all his life, jumping into the Belmont pool every morning at 530. Now retired, he hits the pool much later every morning at 7 a.m.. Lucy Johnson, a masters coach and former competitive swimmer who is active and enthusiastic about aquatics in Long Beach. John McMullen senior, a former Stanford champion swimmer in the early seventies who has raised quite an impressive aquatics family right here in Long Beach. Shawn Ody, a former Long Beach lifeguard who remains active in aquatics and the community. Kiah Headland Kiah has been active in aquatics throughout her entire life and was very active in the 2004 Olympic trials here in Long Beach. Susan Miller, a member of the Belmont Shore Residents Association that is dedicated to issues concerning residents of our unique Long Beach, California, seaside community. Susan de Rossi, executive director of the Belmont Shore Business Association, which works to promote, protect and maintain prosperity for the Belmont Shore community. Dick Miller isn't here, but he's a former Long Beach lifeguard chief and board member for the aquatics capital of America, which serves to communicate and promote Long Beach as an aquatic destination for businesses, education, sports on a local, national and international basis. And finally, George Chapman. He's our director of Parks Recreation Marine for the city of Long Beach. George represented the interests of the public recreational users. And he will be charged with scheduling, managing. And maintaining the pool. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Deputy City Manager Tom Modica to go through the rest of the report. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council want to give a kind of a brief overview of where this process has come from and where we are today before we get to the recommendation. Essentially, we have the opportunity to create a facility that really is unlike any other municipal aquatics facility on the West Coast . It needs to be a facility that is in harmony with the neighborhood. We want it to employ an iconic and sustainable design. We want it to meet the needs of our local residents from all districts in the entire area of Long Beach. We want it to support the Coastal Act and we want it to be able to support competitive events as necessary. And so, as the manager mentioned over the past several months, the city is engaged in a collaborative stakeholder process to review the project and make modifications to meet those goals. This is essentially where we are in the project development process. Down and Blue returned to the Council for approval of a baseline program. But essentially a lot of work has gone in over the past year and a half to really get us to the point that we are today with public input and public meetings. And we were back at the City Council on June 17th and the last time, and then we have a number of steps on the right and we'll talk about those a little later in the presentation. But we have a long way to go in terms of the environmental review and the design in more public meetings and and planning commission and city council. But today is a very important day in the project. So want to talk a little bit about the site. It is a very complex site. I think we all know kind of where it is. But when you look at it from this perspective, you can really see that it is right on the beach, that it is it has so it has coastal issues. There's seismic, an earthquake issues to deal with. It is surrounded by two parking lots. It is surrounded by a business area. It has businesses right across the street from it. And most importantly, it is right in the middle of a neighborhood with houses in residential, the predominant use all around it. And so one of the most important things we need to bear in mind is the role of the California Coastal Commission because of its site down right near the beach. It is in the original jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission. And so while the Council is going to have a significant role in developing this project and approving a project, it ultimately has to be passed and approved by the Coastal Commission who have the final say. And so anything we do, we need to really bear in mind what the Coastal Commission is going to be looking for in a project. And so the Coastal Commission really provides their mission is to provide public beach access, maintain beach use and provide recreational amenities. It's very important to them that any project maintain beach views and contain and minimize the building footprint. They have given us a definition of what they're looking for. And essentially, it is a public facility where the entire facility is primarily for public recreational use that can accommodate that private use when public recreational demand is low. And so they've told us very clearly that the design of the building should not be primarily for private and exclusively use, and that they place a very high priority on free or low cost public service and public use rather than exclusive use, which could be anything from a competition to even having some of our great competitive programs out there that teach swimming, that in their mind is a competitive use or a private use as opposed to kind of an open recreational swim where kids come in or seniors come in just to use the pool. That really is where their focus is. So in June 17th, we came and we talked about the baseline programmatic requirement. And you essentially see the design here that we presented to you in in June, and this is what it looked like on the first floor. So it essentially had an integrated 50 meter pool on the left that was inside a building, had a teaching pool, had a 5000 square foot restaurant on the right. It had an outdoor 50 meter by 25 meter deep water pool, had a recreational pool down at the bottom, had a banquet facility. And this was at a project cost of approximately $99 million. And at the top it also or on the second floor, it had 1250 seats indoor and 1250 seats outdoor. And you see the banquet facility there. And so what occurred on June 17th is the council took that design, that initial concept, and asked us to go out and work with a stakeholder advisory committee to hold some workshops, very specific workshops representing the aquatics, but neighborhoods and residents and businesses and have everyone really come together and be represented and really dove into the details. And so that stakeholder committee was formed. The manager mentioned the names 14 members confirmed to have no financial incentive in the project and really there to represent all of those stakeholders who who are really interested in this facility. And their goal was to make recommendations to Long Beach on creating that high quality aquatics facility within our end identified resources and constraints. And they held three working sessions through July and August to get to where we are today. This is just for the file. We have the names and all the groups that they represented. Again, they were designed to represent everything from the different disciplines in aquatics to businesses to residents. And there were a number of stakeholders who represented everybody, so that everyone had a chance to to have a voice. So I wanted to do a side by side comparison just to give a sense of what's changed. On the left, you see the June 17th design, and on the right you see the stakeholder design. And so, for example, one of the big issues was a separated diving. Well, that was not in the first facility. It is now included in the second facility. You'll see here the moveable floor is in the first it was in contemplated it in the June design but was really incorporated as a compromise in the stakeholder design to ensure both competitive deep water and the ability for recreational use. The restaurant was about 5000 square feet. It is now 1500 square feet. The training pool was over here on the left side and now it's over here down near the water. So it's not impeding the deck space. In the indoor facility, there was a banquet room that was there and also there were some comments about the shape of the outdoor recreation pool. It now has a new shape and there is a new banquet facility there as well. The banquet facility is gone excuse me. At the banquet facility has now been deleted under the stakeholder design. The original design had 1250 indoor seats and 250 outdoor seats. And the committee really felt strongly that it should have 150 seats, but essentially ran out of money. We asked them to come in with a $99 million and and they did that. And this was their design. But it came to about 650 indoor seats with the request that if more funds were available to look at the additional seating, we also, beyond the stakeholder committee, once they were done with their work, brought it out to the public and had about 150 to 200 people show up at a public meeting to talk specifically about this. We did speak up Long Beach and received comments via email and on the website and did a public engagement tool. We have a matrix of all those comments included in your packet. Essentially the common concepts we heard were, you know, the need to increase seating. There was discussion about the merits of a 25 meter versus 25 yard width of those 250 meter pools. Some concerns about loss of open space, mitigating the impacts to the residents, ensuring access for public recreation, support for building a world class facility that has a design that we can be proud of and concerns about the overall cost of the facility as well. One of the things the council asked for was an economic impact study. And so through the Convention and Visitors Bureau, we have contracted with Joe McAdoo, you know, to do a study of the economic impacts, essentially, of a 650 seat facility and the 1250 pool. Essentially, what he found is that 650 seats, you can host some competitions, mostly regional and local, and it'll generate up to $3.7 million in annual impact. However, if you invest in a larger facility with the seats, you can get up to $30 million in annual potential impact. These are things like hotel stays, food, lodging, and also includes some direct tax revenue, such as TOT and sales tax. And so what he really found is that the financial impact increases as the ceiling increases. And additionally, every fourth year, there are some there's some additional competitions that can potentially be held that would bring you 13 to $19 million. And so what we found is the impact on seatings really does the seats available is impacts the number and types of events the facility can attract. But 650 is for local and regional events, and 1250 can accommodate the larger competitions and is the recommended minimum number. There was some discussion about 25 yards versus meters and the pool width, and the stakeholder committee recommendation was for those 250 meter pools and then kind of the best of both worlds. One was in yards, one was meters. And that is the recommendation in front of you today to make both pools 25 meter wide. There is a cost to that. It costs an additional 1.9 million to grow the building. And one thing we did is we looked at all the pools that are out there and about 31 pools that we looked at or are under construction or built in the last five years. Only two are those 25 meter wide. And so before we look at the final design and have our architect go through it, the recommendation from city staff is essentially to approve the recommendations of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee. This is supported by Parks and Rec staff who are going to be the ones to actually run this facility when it's completed. And we recommend modifying the location of the indoor therapy teaching pool, modifying the conceptual shape of that outdoor recreation pool, and include 1250 permanent indoor seats. And we'll cover a little bit later where the funding for that will come from. And so I'd like to turn it over to Brant Miller, our architect, to talk and walk you through what the baseline programmatic requirements are. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and fellow council members. Let me walk you through what's been a phenomenal process with the city and the advisory committee. And this really represents a lot of work from everybody, a lot of expertize, which I'd like to commend the advisory committee on all their input over the last several months. And the expertize that they've brought to the process has made this project much better than it was when we first started out. So we appreciate everyone's input. Starting off with the site planning, you know, over the past year we really did set guidelines and priorities of how we were going to site the building. Those priorities have still stayed very similar to what we have been showing throughout the process. And once again, they are driven by certain components, the California Coastal Commission and then obviously input from our advisory committee and public outreach throughout the process. An important part of the connections through the through the project was the boardwalk access that we felt from an urban standpoint, this connection across the board access tie in to the front of the facility. So we wanted to maintain that connection. Another important aspect and what coastal is really driving is that we minimized the footprint of the facility on the site. And so we've done our best to to minimize that, that footprint. Obviously, the views are incredibly important to California Coastal. They have a designated view corridor which runs down Termino. And so you can see how our building is pushed over to the east and doesn't impede the view corridor. The other concern that Coastal has is just general views to the beach and to the ocean itself, and that is from the public side of the project. And so by turning the building north south versus east west, we really have provided an increase in the views from the city side of the project to the beach and so forth. Another important piece of the siting were the views from the interior of the facility and the users of the facility. By providing the pools and this orientation North-South, you can see that the users of both pools can now enjoy views out to the ocean and to the beach itself. Another important critical component that we heard early on was that from the outdoor pool, the sense of when you get out, you have very strong wind in Long Beach , that gust quite often. And to protect those. Swimmers and divers out in that facility and users of the outdoor pool to protect them from the wind. So the prevailing winds, you can see it coming really mostly from the west across the site, the way that we've located the outdoor pool on the east side. The structured indoor pool on the west side really does create a natural wind barrier, really allowing to take the best advantage of the site from a viewpoint and from wind throughout the throughout the field facility itself. Next. As we start to look at a little bit more detail of the plan itself, we have the main entry, which is right off that area that was aligning with the Boardwalk Access. You would enter into a main lobby. This piece here that I'm outlining is the building component. So everything here is an indoor part of the facility. And so as you would come into the main lobby, you then come down a dry corridor. We have support facilities, multipurpose rooms and offices off to the side. But really leading you down to a series of locker rooms from these locker rooms, users would then exit to either use the indoor pool or the outdoor pool or down through to the teaching pool or to the outdoor rec pool. The other piece of this is the exterior 50 meter pool, as Mr. Modica noted earlier. We have the 50 meter by 25 meter on the outside and the 50 meter by 25 yard pool on the inside. Here's a separate dove. Well, that we indicated was a result of the advisory committees suggestions, the diving platforms located at the North End. We have a small whirlpool that really is for general public use. But we do find is that divers within their programs, when they dove into the water and they get out, there is a cooldown period. So we want to make sure that their bodies stay warm. So there's a warm pool for divers at this end and for the general public. The teaching pool was relocated, as Mr. Modica noted, from what was really to the side of the pool down to the end. And that came from a variety of input so that the teaching pool could actually be in a separate room itself. It might be open during different hours, but it really needed to be in a separate area from the main auditorium itself. As you can see, the small restaurant, the 1500 square foot component on the left hand side, also within the teaching pool area is a little bit larger. Whirlpool, probably an 8 to 12 person whirlpool. And then outside the outdoor rec facility, which would really be a lot of family enjoyment, would have a mixture of short or shallow water to mid depth water within that within that facility next. So as we go up to the second floor, the lobby at the front below, you can either take stairs up or take the elevator up to a raised area that would then enter at the back of the seating. The 1250 seat that would allow a viewing of competition or just general viewing of public into the an auditorium itself. This is open all the way through to the beach side itself. We would hope to be able to open this wall up with windows and so forth so you could maintain views to the outdoor pool, to the east. And everything that you see in this half tone is actually down at the bottom lower level. It's really just this area here that would be accessed at that second level itself, and that is the basic general arrangements that have been put together at this point. And I think once again, it's been a phenomenal effort by the advisory committee and public input process to actually get to this point. Mr. McCann. So what we just want to show here is essentially this facility can meet any real aquatics need that is that is needed. And so the outdoor and the indoor pool have tremendous flexibility through the use of bulkheads. It can accommodate virtually every use and it will be a facility that that really is unique among facilities built by cities and on the West Coast as well. And so we believe that the facility proposed tonight enhances those view corridors, enhances beach access, has the maximum flexibility of water space for all of our recreational uses. Users can accommodate virtually all competitive events at that 1250 indoor seats. And it has the right size restaurant and beach snack bar, which is now at 1500 square feet and has an outdoor seating but has a fully commercial kitchen so that it can be a quality restaurant, even though it's a little bit smaller and just has outdoor seating now. One thing we want to point out is the open space comparison. The original. Today's building has a green space out in front and it has a lot of inefficient space for open space and it has about 113,000 total open space, although we're building a larger facility there. The team has been able to identify 120,000 of open space for the new facility. So you actually grow your open space. The existing vegetated area is about 60,000 square feet of that 113. And as we go further in the design process, we'll be working through the entitlement process to determine how much of that open space will be vegetated, will be green space and balance that with with plaza and and other types of open space. So to talk about the funding, the pool essentially is we've set aside approximately $60 million in cash. This just shows you kind of the five year work plan. And you'll see in FY15 that there's $39 million projected for the Belmont pool that gets us to the $99 million. And then we'll talk a little bit about the enhancement that's being proposed. I just want to point out that pools essentially do not pay for themselves. There will be a public necessity to to pay the difference between the operating cost and the revenues. Our old pool essentially brought in about 300,000 in revenue and costs 1.2 million an expense. The new pool is expected to bring in about $1,000,000 in revenue, even with some of those leases and and facility or events, fees and costs approximately 3.2 million. And so it will be more operating costs to operate and maintain. We will be including those costs in our long term projections for tidelands operating and make modifications as necessary to afford that. I do want to point out that the $99 million and the entire five year capital plan is really based on the price of oil. So the oil is assumed at $100 a barrel for those five years. Unfortunately, as of today, oil is actually at $77 a barrel and that's a 23% decrease. And it's seen a pretty rapid decrease over the last several months. And that $39 million we're hoping for 15 is really based on a $100 a barrel assumption. And so city staff will be developing a strategy to address the potential revenue shortfall. We plan to come back in December with some projections, updated projections and some options about what would have happened to this project, what would happen to other projects, what are some of the impacts? And it will likely be necessary to delay projects or reassess previously funded projects if oil continues this trend. So we do have to find $4.7 million to increase the seats up to 1250. What city staff are recommending is first to reduce the restaurant to 1500 square feet, which saves approximately $600,000 in project cost. Then we need to identify 4.1 million in cash in additional funding, and we're suggesting that 1.55 million come from unallocated projects. And that way 16 that 1.2 million are basically reallocating some extra project funds from other projects that are no longer needed. And then 1.3 million, three 5 million is essentially delayed or downsized projects. In the staff report, we have about 366,000 and projects yet to be identified, but I'm happy to share that this week we believe we've identified about $600,000 in money from a county bond that is specifically earmarked for Belmont Pool rehabilitation. And we believe working with our supervisor, we can ask for that to be dedicated towards new construction. So that will require some approval. But we believe that that'll be part of the funding mix and help not impact some of those delayed or downsized projects. So the next steps, if the council moves forward tonight, that gives us direction to move forward with the Environmental Impact Report, the design, the actual design of the facility and release it for public comment. And then we expect that to happen over the next six months. Will then be conducting community meetings and planning commission and Parks and Rec and a number of other meetings on the project and. Through a planning commission review, council review and approval, Coastal Commission review approval and essentially being ready to construct at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016. And so just in summary, we think through that collaborative process that the Council asks us to do through the Stakeholder Advisory Committee with with Councilmember Price and with our committee and with our stakeholders and with all of the public that have really been involved in this. We think we've got a facility that really will be unique among aquatics facilities, something that we can be very, very proud of provide. It's going to provide sufficient water space to meet nearly every aquatic need you can possibly imagine. It will enhance recreation in Long Beach. It'll support use of the city's coastal area. It will be that facility that provides some economic development benefit. Approximately 10% of our hotel room nights is what we expect for an increase at maximum capacity, and it will continue the very proud tradition of aquatics excellence in Long Beach. And with that, we're available to answer some questions. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I do have some questions, but before I ask my questions, I'd like to make a motion to approve staff's recommendation. Again. Thank you. The motion in a second. Mr. Modica, I have a couple of questions that I want to ask you, so if you'll be patient with me. I did read all of the comments from the residents that's attached to this. And as you know, I've been very involved in this project since April. So as a result of that, I want to have some answers to some questions where I believe there's some serious misinformation that I think we should clear up tonight. So in regards to the funding, the $99 million is the amount of money that we had budgeted for this project, is that correct? Yes, that's correct. And in order for us to accommodate the additional seats, that would have been the preference of the stakeholder committee. We need additional money. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. In regards to the attachment that you've included with the staff report attachment F, it appears that there are several projects that are identified as either being downsized and or delayed . Is that right? Yes. There are certain projects that are that are identified that could be either downsized or delayed. Okay. And I want to talk about those projects, because all of these projects here they are third district projects. Am I reading this correctly? Yes, that's correct. Okay. So I want to go through them because we've gotten a lot of emails just today from people talking about major projects in the third district being delayed or deferred in order to make this pool a reality. And I just want to talk about that a little bit. So in regards to the Colorado Lagoon restroom, that's one of the projects that's going to be downsized. Is that correct? Yes, that's a facility that was originally planned for for teardown and and reconstruction. And we believe that while still putting aside some money, we can renovate the restroom. Have we done successfully with some others and still provide an upgrade, but at a reduced cost? Now, this is a particular restroom that we had discussed renovating as opposed to replacing long before talking about funding for the Belmont Pool, because this particular restroom is at the Colorado Lagoon and has some architectural features that are unique to that, the time period where the restroom was built. And so we had talked about that before. And is this 350,000 the amount that it would take to renovate that bathroom? Yes. And you're right that this had been talked about for a long time about what's the best way to address the need there? Is it to replace it completely and you lose that historic character or do you renovated? And so, you know, this would be a recommendation to renovate it instead. And renovating it would cost 350,000, replacing it would cost 600,000. The I believe it's 250,000. Yeah. That there's $250,000 to, to renovate it and you get a savings of $350,000. Great, great. That's right. And then the Belmont Pier restroom. Could you tell us what the city has done in regards to the restroom situation over at the Belmont Pier? So that's a project that we completed. It's actually up and functioning and it's working very well. When we had originally planned this budget or this item, it was to construct a brand new restaurant. I'm sorry, restroom out there on the Belmont Pier. The Belmont Pier is in pretty bad shape and is going to eventually need to be either fully renovated or torn down and replaced. And so what we did there instead was we actually put a trailer out there, a very nice trailer for the restroom, instead of building a brand new facility. So this is $400,000 that is already available. It's it's not impacting any project. And that restroom is there. It's just it's a savings from the different type of construction. And similarly, I see Marina Vista Park Restroom as the other project that is going to be delayed. The one other project that's going to be delayed. Can you tell us a little bit about that project? Yes, this is a restroom that really is only not available to the public on a normal basis. It's really just open for special events. It's actually directly across from another restroom that, you know, so it is directly across there. And so this is one that we think can be delayed without really any impact on the public. And I have to tell you that I've been out there prior to today's meeting to check out that situation, and I agree with you on that. And in regards to this, then, in order for us to be able to accommodate the additional seats, there will be no new projects funded in FY 15 out of Tidelands for the third District, is that correct? I believe actually it was no new projects in FY 1605 16. That's right. I wanted to ask you a few questions about. Noise mitigation. As you mentioned, this is a project that's in a residential neighborhood. And I would like to know what efforts or what proposed plans we have to mitigate the noise that would come from the facility, specifically the outdoor pool. So as we go through this design process, you know, that will definitely be one of the things that we will be looking at. There are construction methods that can be employed to do things like sound walls that can do light, you know, ways to read to, you know, to have light shine in a in a way that's not going to impact the residents. There are systems we can explore. There's some experimental ideas out there right now about underwater whistle systems, not yet in development, but maybe by the time we're constructed here that we can be looking at. And so there are a number of things that can be done for that outdoor pool to mitigate against sound. And I'd actually like, you know, those are really the the those are the construction items. But there are also programmatic things that can be done. And I'd like George Champion to talk a little bit about what we've already done and what can also be done in a in a new facility. Good evening, Councilwoman. Mayor and council. We have. Limited the use of the facility. For water polo. After seven. There's no. Water polo. We've issued whistles to all of the user groups that. Are about 90 decibels versus the 115 decibel whistles. And it makes a dramatic difference. In what the neighbors here. We've also been working with the groups to make. Sure they keep their noise level down when they're leaving, when they when they've stopped. Using the pool, because people have a tendency to kind of loiter and talk loudly. So we've done that as well. And we've also turned the overhead lights off during the summertime to mitigate the the light impact to the neighborhood. So we've turned those down as well. So but we may have to turn those up during Daylight Savings Time, but those are. Those lights were designed for low. Impact, as low as as illumination as you can possibly get by the designers of the temporary pool. And I understand it's probably premature at this time to talk about programing for the new pool, but will the staff make it a priority to think about programing in a sense that is most conducive to residents? Absolutely. We will now have an indoor pool, so we will try to mitigate as much of that inside the pool and Indian indoor pool as much as possible. Is there anything at all, based on the research that you've done, both of you and any member of our design team that would preclude our water polo players, our water polo teams from practicing indoors in the evenings? I don't think so. No. That's something that we've really looked at as we looked at the 25 meter versus 25 yards. And, you know, both of those can be set up for a practice court course for water polo, for games. You require 30 meters. And so 30 meters you always are going to do in the lengthwise of the pool. But there's a lot of flexibility as we showed on that slide before that you can use anything from the diving well to the to half the pool to a quarter of the pool. There's a lot of different flexibility that you have to be and that George would be able to program whether you do it inside in the in the facility or outside in the facility. Now, while we have any stadium seating outdoors that would disrupt the residents. The the plan is proposed does not include any permanent outdoor seats. In regards to the open space around the pool. We currently have some large open space around the existing Belmont pool. Will we have the same amount of open space or more? Once the new pool is built. We'll actually have more open space than we do today. So it's approximately 113,000 square feet worth of open space in the current model and the new in there in the in the current project, in, in the new project that is being proposed will have, I believe, 120,000 square feet worth of open space. And can that open space be used? Part of that open space be used as greenspace so that people can walk their dogs and take walks and enjoy the outdoors? Certainly, and exactly how much and where it will be and what it'll look like, that'll be through that design process and through the environmental process where we're getting feedback about what are the features that people want out in those spaces and how to make it really an active, you know, plaza that people can benefit from and use . As we realize, there's not a lot of green space in Belmont Shore in that area, and that's going to be an important public space. In regards to the diving. Well, I, I know first of all, I want to thank the stakeholder committee who's here. They worked incredibly hard on this. And the recommendations that are presented tonight are as a result of them working together, really as a community, to do what's right for the city as a whole. So I want to thank them for their service. But going back to the dove, well, well, the pool at the dove will be able to be used for other programing functions. Or is it exclusive to competitive diving? Absolutely. It will be used for other function. In fact, in order to pass muster with the Coastal Commission, it will have to we will need to be able to show that they and the Coastal Commission is, as we mentioned, very cognizant of the fact that every pool needs to be available to the public. And so we will have to show an. I believe we will show that we can use that facility to do that, to do many different things. It can do swim, it can do water polo, it can do dove classes. We can have our junior lifeguards jump off the tower and do and do trainings there. We can have police and fire using that facility through their training. It can be diving, it can be a competitive diving, it can be public diving as well. So there's a number of different uses for that pool and it'll have to be kind of a shared space. Now, in terms of the project we've heard and again, I think this is probably something that's going to be addressed more in the air process. But we've heard a number of concerns about the number of mature trees that will have to be removed in order for us to build this new facility. Have you considered that? And what is the city's plan to replace those trees and make sure that no nests are destroyed? Yes. So that would definitely be something we look at very closely in the air. You know, we already have an arborist on staff that is out there through the demolition process and we're doing an assessment of all of those trees. It will be yet to be determined about whether or not we can move some of those trees and replant them. Whether or not they need to be replaced, where they would be replaced, but where the new project would definitely have trees in it. It hasn't yet been determined whether they'll be reported or remove or replace those trees or whether they're actually going to be transplanted. And finally, you talked a little bit about the $39 million being premised upon a $100 per barrel per barrel oil price. Was that a correct conclusion? Yes, that's correct. And if, in fact, there continues to be fluctuation in the oil market and we are asked to go back and look at our five year plan for Tidelands funding. I want to make sure that that staff, as is clear, that in my opinion, this is a city wide asset. In fact, last week we approved a an agenda item which will allow children throughout the city to be able to swim at this pool for a dollar. So given that this is a citywide asset, I want to make it very, very clear that the two major safety projects that are in the third district, Naples seawalls and the marina rebuild will not be delayed as a result of any future plan with the pool. And I just want to make sure that that's clear and that staff understands. And if you have any concerns about that, perhaps you can share those with us now, because if those projects were going to be delayed, that would obviously impact my support for the pool. So that direction is actually very helpful as we come back in December. We're going to need to have some ideas from the council about what are the highest priority projects and which ones are going to be more important to fund first and which come other come later. And so we'll be looking comprehensively at projects that are currently already funded, looking at projects that haven't yet been funded and and bringing you some scenarios. And so that direction will help us as we, as we craft that plan. And then the Council will have the chance to make those decisions about, you know, which ones go where. At the end of the day. And so, you know, that direction actually is very helpful for us. And well, when will we expect to see staff come forward with some planning in regards to fluctuation in oil prices? So we expect by the end of the year that we'll have a better handle on whether this is a temporary drop in oil or if it's going to be prolonged. You know, some of the analysts are expecting it to be six months. It might. You know, oil is very mercurial. It goes up and down. And so we're not quite sure exactly how long it will last, but by December, we believe we'll be in a better position to give some estimates and then determine what that possible impact may be. I want to, just for a moment, acknowledge Councilmember Austin. I had a chance to talk with him briefly about this project. And, you know, I want to say that I think he and many of my colleagues understand the the citywide resource that this pool will be. And he has expressed to me early on his support of helping financially do whatever we can to make the citywide asset a reality. And and I know many of my colleagues share that. So I want to thank staff for preparing this report. And and I want to thank council former council council member DeLong for really starting this project and allowing me to be involved as early as April in this. I think this is going to be a great project and I envision that there are a few kids here today, tonight, but all those kids that will be going to college on swim scholarships will be able to proudly tell their college, college dorm mates and swim swim team, you know, swim team colleagues that they grew up in the LBC and swam in this amazing pool. And it will be a source of pride for them and not a source of embarrassment. So I'm very proud of that. Thank you. Councilmember O'Donnell. Thank you. And I you know, I, I mostly appreciated your comment that this is a citywide project. This is an asset that every district will use, and it's an important asset. You know, people might think this is political. This isn't political. This is absolutely good policy to rebuild this pool. But it's also personal. It's personal for me. It's personal for a lot of you. My own kids learn to swim in that pool. And I know many of your kids now swim that pool. Some you swim in that pool. I see the newly minted commissioners who want to try out there who's there probably every day of the week with his own kids, his own five kids out there, you know, involved in water polo and a lot more. And again, this. Proposal. Is largely consistent with the vision that was laid out in January. So I thank the committee for their input. And the way I look at this project, this project will benefit kids in our community. This is a long term investment. And this is important because I hear a lot of people leaving this community to go to other communities where they have amenities such as this. This is economic and it's about building families and about building community. So this is significantly important, more important than City Hall, quite frankly, because a lot more people are going to use this pool on a daily basis than that. And what I mean is residents coming to visit. I want to thank Susie Price for jumping into this. You know, Gary did a good job and you picked up on it. There's also a couple others I want to thank, shy crowd also out there. So I give everybody a wave. He's very passionate about the pool. He's very passionate about swimming. He's passionate about the kids that he teaches. He makes Long Beach a better place because of what he does, his commitment to our kids. My own kids have swam underneath him before and without him tonight, quite frankly, without him in the past, being active on this issue, engaging early on tonight, we would be talking about one pool because that was the original concept. And so he and I talked and we leaned on some folks. And I'll tell you what you want to know. A gentleman that can bring out a lot of people talk to him and he does a good job because he's passionate about what he does, and that translates into the kids. And so without your help on this, you know, we would again be talking about just one pool tonight. So you've done a wonderful job in advocating for our kids and ultimately our city. So thank you. Some others, Rich Foster. You know, I sat down with him and we heard his comments many a time. He's a quiet guy, but he has played a big part in getting us to where we are today. And I should also mention, Sheri Bath. I went in to get my teeth cleaned how many years ago? And I walked out and she had my cell phone number. She never let me alone since. And that's Sheri Barth. We love her because she loves, you know, really what her family does. Right. And this is just a much, much about what she what's important to her as it is to all of us. So thank you, Sheri, for staying on me. And she's very passionate, too. And we went and met with some folks at Long Beach State when Long Beach State was playing games with water polo. And, you know, she's done a lot of groundwork on this, so I appreciate that. With regard to the plan, the layout of the pool, I've heard some comments about moving the pool. So the inside pool would be where the outside pool is. Is that possible? Can someone respond to that? Do you need me to detail that question any further? No, no, sir. I think I understand the question. So our architect, Brant, covered that a little bit, but that's the concept of how best to situate this poor to, you know, to do what it needs to do and to satisfy the majority of users. And so our team really spent a lot of time looking at all different aspects and rotating it 90 degrees here and there. They took wind readings, they took sun readings. They looked at the shading, they looked at noise and looked at what coastal was really looking for as well, which is, you know, the view quarters are incredibly important to them and they've been very, very clear that a building that, you know, that blocks views is not going to pass coastal muster muster. And so at the end of the day, you know, the recommendation is to have it instead of being an east west orientation, to have it be a North-South orientation, as is the plan . So we have we realize that's an idea to turn it so that you mitigate some of the noise. We believe that there are other ways to mitigate that noise and to work with the residents so that they're not hearing the noise and still being able to use the pools. And just, you know, say, I hear with regard to the lights, have you put shields on the lights? So they are shining more in a downward direction and aren't, you know, creating light, light, if you will, that bleeds into the neighborhood, councilman. I believe they were designed that way so they really don't shine into the neighborhood. That was part of the mitigation measure for the temporary pool. And with regard to the temporary pool, is there any way to make that permanent as part of this project? So we get that question a lot, too, is can we keep that pool and actually have three pools? And what I think we would all enjoy more water space. The Coastal Commission was very clear when they gave us the permit for that pool that they want their space back, they want the parking lot back and they're sitting on about 129 parking spaces. So unfortunately, we will have to give up that temporary pool and have and have the two poles that are seen here today. Mm hmm. Yeah. The only, you know, I guess you could always go back to the Coastal Commission, but that's something we can discuss at a later point. And that parking lot could stand to be activated, quite frankly. As you know, I used to work in Marine patrol and I was in there a lot of a lot of days. And what we could do to activate that parking lot a little further might might be good. But anyways, that's something down the road. And with regard to to third district funds, walk me through that. There was some some conversation behind the rail here and in the last couple of days with management about, you know, any any dollars over $99 million only coming out of a third district projects. You know, this isn't a district project. This is a citywide project. So can you walk me through what the solution proposed solution is there? I have a real problem with saying, hey, third district residents, whatever you have on schedule, be at seawalls or otherwise, you know, they might have to be held off. Is that true? What's going on there? So we absolutely agree that this is a citywide project and it does have citywide benefits. Historical practice, however, in the Tidelands has been to to the extent possible, the council has given us direction to invest equally in that area. So yeah. I have never heard that. If there's a look at the pier we're talking about rebuilding that the seawalls are very expensive. They're a third district project. But you know, the. Well, I am a little concerned about that. I really don't think that's the direction year to year. You're going to have an expensive project in one district and maybe the next year will have an expensive project, another district. But I don't think on an annual basis we should be splitting the dollars evenly. The infrastructure isn't the same. And that's certainly the direction that we can take from the fall city council past practice has been, you know, you do have those large projects. For example, when this one was funded, it didn't come just out of District three, it came out of the tidelands pot. However, on a go forward basis, the past practice has been that wherever possible to equally invest in both. And so as we look for that $4.7 million, we first looked within District three and we're, as the councilmember mentioned, we were able to find those funds with very minimal impacts to existing projects. I think if there had been larger impacts then yeah, I think that would have been something we would have had a different recommendation on. Okay. Well, as we go. Forward and look for for more funding because this is going to exceed the $99 million mark, I just hope that we'll think more broadly and recognize that this is a citywide project for an entire city. And I would say the same for a project in any district. No district is an island. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you. So I just want to start by saying I've watched this discussion for a number of years. City Manager West Tom Modica great job on bringing us all the way to this point. I was wondering how many people would be lined up and ready, but I see a lot of smiles here, so that means somebody has done something right. Secondly, the the Pool Stakeholder Advisory Committee, I know that a lot of time goes into this. This is what civic engagement looks like. So congratulations on the work that you've done. And then I just want to go back and just talk a little bit about purpose. I've watched this from the beginning, and every council district participates in this discussion. And I want to make sure that and I want to I'm going to, you know, ask a question of the city manager. But I want to make sure that I'm clear on what my purpose is and what this council's purposes for doing this. And one of the major outcomes elements is to provide a world class resource, particularly for our youth. There are a number of stakeholders here, but when we have this asset of a Tidelands Fund and we should think about how we can really use this unique asset to bring something special to Long Beach families among these youth. So, so that said, Mr. or Mrs. City Manager, I know we've talked, we've spoken. And we talked about the last time this agenda item came up. But just walk me through the next level of discussion where we go into detail on how we make sure that the whole city connects to this and understands the value of this pool. Mayor Councilmembers Yes, this definitely will be a pool serving all 52 square miles, all 480,000 of our residents. It's certainly enough water to do that. There's deep water for competitive uses or shallow water to learn to swim and for recreational swimmers. One of the most important things happened was just last week when the City Council directed us to reduce the cost of the pool. Time for youth under the age of 17 at the Belmont is $3 per use, and now it's going to be $1 at Silverado and an MLK. It's two, it's $2 now. It'll go to $1 as well. The council also directed us to work with Long Beach Transit to develop a pool bus, so to speak. So we'll create a pool bus system working with Ken McDonald, Miami Transit, so that we will work with the council offices. I mean, but I don't want to presume where the stops would be and things like that. But once we had a commitment on what we can do, the funding sources that we can have to get a bus to or busses after school during the winter hours or all day long during the summer hours to get youth from all areas of our 52 square mile city to this wonderful resource. Those are things that the Council directed us to do last week, and we'll be doing those. And I just wanted to say that, you know, the more we can emphasize that lanes, when we speak about this in the public, I think the better off we are in reminding our residents that, you know, the next Michael Phelps or whoever world class driver is, they can live, they can go to Jordan High School, they can go to Poly High School. They're here and they're going to have access to that because we're taking these steps today. Thank you. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank staff and the community for the process that we went through to get here and the amazing product that you have delivered to this council. I know you've all sacrificed your time. Many of you are not public servants in the definition that we are and probably did not sign up for that level of engagement to get something done here, but it is well worth it and I'm very thankful and I think everyone's done a great job. Councilmember Price has been working on this for some time, even before she was sworn in, and I'm very thankful for her leadership on this as well as Councilmember De Long's leadership on the funding. I'm very glad that we have come within the budget that the Council has has instructed and and indicated that we should add any overages . I'm glad that staff and the council office was able to make up that gap. I do want to share, while it's very important for us to get this city wide asset built, their sacrifices made throughout the Tidelands area. And I've been on this council for eight years and I think many of us remember significant city wide projects that have been stalled for very important projects such as the seawall and other priorities. And so I wouldn't want any of the new council members here to be left with the belief that the downtown or the downtown area or the second district area of the Tidelands has not sacrificed. The Convention and Visitors Bureau brings in about $300 million in economic development. That is a city wide asset. We have forestalled many projects several years in order to have the seawalls built, in order to have things built in the third district, which is very important to us . And so we have made sacrifices throughout and and those have been investments so we can make this pool happen. And I want to be very clear about that. I'm hearing some buzzwords about some folks chipping in and some folks not. I have numbers here exactly with the history of Tidelands funding, and that is the benefit of having served on the Budget Oversight Committee for eight years. Yeah, we we have a track record of contributing to make sure these projects do get built and, and the visitors, the CVB projects are not ones that we can afford to put off any longer. And so I'm thankful that Staff and Councilmember Price have come up with a way to to make up that gap without asking these other projects to be put off any longer. The public restroom facilities and all of they're all very important. But what's most important is that collaboratively this got done. And if the oil price does continue to go down, I want to remind all of us that while we may have the intent of wanting to chip in, it does affect our one time funding. We would have nothing to chip in with, and so that's important to remember to it. Those one time dollars that that each of our council districts is able to look at right now would also go away or at least be greatly reduced. And so we are all willing to chip in. And if anyone is interested, I'm happy to share with you all of the projects that have been forestalled so that we can make this pool come to fruition from the second District. And I do count that as our investment in our commitment to this. And so I'm very proud of that and I'm very glad that we're moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Mongo. I want to start off with a couple of thank you's. I want to thank each and every person who served on the committee. Each and every person who diligently emailed our office week in and week out with examples of things that will help us make better decisions here for you today. We appreciate those comments. We know that each of you want to make public comment as well. But I think that for me at least, I have a lot more time to think through the comments that you e-mailed in advance. So I just really want to thank people who took the time to sit down and thoughtfully outline their ideas in a comprehensive way so that I was able to, in advance of this meeting, have those dialogs and discussions with our city management to make sure that all of your concerns were addressed. Additionally, I do want to comment on the idea of this is a citywide project. This is something that we will all be very, very proud of. This will be a world class facility. We will be known around the world. Quite frankly, we are known around the world already for so many great things. It's just one more fantastic thing to add to the list. As one of the most experienced budget professionals in the room, I would like to say that in terms of discussing contributions of different types of funding, it's often important to remember the practice that most restrictive funding should be allocated first. When you have funding that is available for anything, you want to use that lasts. So an example of that is within infrastructure dollars. In the city, we have certain funds, whether they're measure funds or measure C funds, that can only be used on certain types of infrastructure. And if you look at the policies on a global level and the cities and counties and states that have done the best over time, they look at their most restrictive funds first and they allocate those to the needs of the city that fit in those categories so that they have more flexibility and balance both for good times and bad. And so I appreciate the methodology used by the city. I think it is that of the best practices of the country and has proven as well in good times and bad. And so I want to thank everyone for that and I am excited to support such a great world class facility here in Long Beach. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. Speaking of funding, there were in the comments that we received, there were some issues that I think we need to clarify right now in regards to those who may be watching at home, are reporting about this tomorrow. Are we using general fund taxpayer dollars to build this pool? No, we are not. The source of funding for this project is 100% what are called tidelands funds. And those are funds that actually belong to the entire state of California that we hold in trust. And so those are funds that are generated in the beach area, and it's primarily from oil revenue that is actually it's entirely oil revenue that is generating those funds. So there are no taxpayer dollars in this in this pool. No, no tax. Tax. Like property tax. Sales tax. So some of the comments that we received that I'm sure you've seen as why not use this money to hire more police officers, for example? We can't use this money for other services, correct? No, we can't use this money for any services outside of the title in the area. Now, when I started learning about the pool, the first question I had was, how in the world is it going to require $99 million to build a pool? I mean, that to me, that seemed like an outrageous number when you look at the square, the price per square footage of this pool. Is it comparable to the cost of pool construction throughout the United States? It is. That's something the council has to look at to make sure that we were getting a good value for the pool. And our team put together a very good analysis. I believe off the top of my head we looked at about nine different pools that were built at different times and we basically adjusted for where they were built and how they were built and the facilities that they had. And if you normalize for all of those things, what we found is that this pool is essentially, I believe, fourth out of fourth out of ninth in terms of cost per square foot. So definitely not the highest right in the middle part of the curve. Now, in terms of the temporary pool, with the given the understanding that it's going to have to be disassembled, it's a Murtha pool and it's going to have to be disassembled at some point. Can it be resold? Yes, we believe it can be resold. There are a number of ways to to do that. It can be resold to a government can be resold to ourselves. It can be resold on the private market. It could also potentially you could do a contract for someone to remove the pool and have that be part of the compensation for removing the pool can also be reused somewhere else. So that's something that will be continuing to look at over the next couple of months. Thank you. I have nothing further. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. I also want to thank the community for being here. It's often it's just great to see that community can build consensus. Stakeholder meetings that are organized and that folks are really coming together to discuss this very important, you know, citywide project. It's wonderful. What I, I did have a couple questions. I guess I am not clear on the operating costs for the recommendation of the staff's recommendation and where that will be coming from. So the operating costs are also not general fund because it's in the Tidelands area, it will be Tidelands operating. We essentially separate our funds into two different kind of buckets. One is our operating funds and one are capital funds. So the 99 million plus now the 4.7 is going to be paid for out of capital. But then our operating fund will need to basically absorb the cost of operating the pool. And so that's a long term projection. We won't see those costs until the ports open. Most likely, I believe in F y 18 and will be doing long term projections about how to either make reductions in other services or if there's potentially revenue or how to make that balance work when the pool is open in 518 and 1419. Okay. Thank you. And I see here that the annual economic impact. So what we project for this would be about 30 million. And it's a total of up to $30 million if we were to receive all of the events that we had identified as this facility being able to host, which essentially is just about every event except for Olympic trials, those now are so popular that they aren't held in these types of facilities. They're held in like an arena that holds 20,000 people, and you import a pool into the arena. But essentially the $30 million is annually what we think we can expect an annual economic impact of which tot and we're going to receive some hotel bed tax and some additional sales tax if we were able to get that that amount. And it's an estimate. It's it's not a hard projection yet, but it's an estimate. Okay. And then what is the can you clarify the 600,000 in the Belmont pool rehabilitation funds for that requires county approval. Oh, councilman, that is from the 1992 property issue, park bonds. So back in 1992, you had to identify certain projects. That would be funded. So these are monies that. Come in from the county, from our tax dollars. It was for rehab rehabilitation of the Belmont pool. We've checked with the county. We believe we can have that designated for new construction. It's a it's a process that we'd have to go through with the county county board of Supervisors. And the Parks District. But we believe we can move that from rehab rehabilitation to mill construction. We thank you. And then I would just reiterate with what Councilmember Richardson said, because I think accessibility is very important for many of our districts who don't see water in their district at all. And so this is a city wide asset. But we certainly I'm certainly very proud to know that, you know, there are going to be, you know, strides taken to have that accessibility open for all of our residents. And our last council action last week certainly proved that. But, you know, continuing that that mission and that message, like Councilmember Richardson said, is very important. So thank you. And Councilman Price, great job. Thank you. And just one comment on that is we absolutely agree it needs to be for the entire city. It actually needs to be for the entire region as well. So because this is a these are tidelands dollars, it it really is in the definition of title and dollars that this is available for people outside of Long Beach as well. And that's something we need to bear in mind. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. I wanted to just clarify one thing regarding the moveable floor. I know that the Stakeholder Advisory Committee did something very prudent, which was to recommend setting aside some money for maintenance to cover the costs of the moveable floor. Can you comment on that a little bit? Because some of the comments we've received are that, you know, how much is that going to cost us and that's going to, you know, break the bank. And we've actually taken a conservative approach in regards to that. We have I think we came down to a very good compromise. There was a lot of reticence on behalf of the committee and and frankly, on behalf of city staff as well, that if we had a movable floor, how do you make sure it doesn't stick? We've had that bulkhead stick in the middle of the Belmont pool, and we haven't had a 50 meter pool ever since. But how do you make sure that doesn't happen with the moveable floor? And so what the committee did is they pre-funded the maintenance. So to make sure that we have enough maintenance money already, you know, guarantee that it's going to be there so that this floor needs, for example, divers to go underneath and maintain it once a month. And so it is a cost that we need to budget for. And I think it was very prudent that the committee set aside money to do that. And finally, you talked a lot about the Coastal Commission, and we met together. We met with the Coastal Commission early on in this process. How important do you think it is to the Coastal Commission and in the approval of this project that we're actually replacing a pool, that we're putting a pool where a pool was before because some people have said, well, why can't we put this pool next to the Queen Mary or next to, you know, the convention center or somewhere else? How important do you think that is? You know, given the conversations that we've had with Coastal Commission staff and that your expertize in that. Based on on our discussions with them and it really is kind of a feeling from all of our discussions with about this. The reason we get to do this project, the reason we get to have this idea is because we have a pool there already. The Coastal Act really doesn't envision this was you know, this facility was built before the contract was in place and doesn't really envision putting, you know, those types of facilities on the beach. But because we have one already, I think we get a very unique opportunity to replace it. I think it would be a very difficult proposition to ask the Coastal Commission to place a pool where one does not exist currently. I think they would they would have some issues with that. Now, with the 1250 seats, will we be able to host NCAA tournaments here? Yes. PAC 12. Yes. I think it's yes. And we can't host Olympic trials because we would need about 20,000 seats. So that's not even an option there. Correct. There remains to be seen potentially for diving. We can potentially have some work for have some trials there, but not for swimming. Great. Thank you. Councilmember Austin. So I think most of the questions have been dealt with in. But I wanted to also thank the stakeholder advisory group, the committee, the community. When this process started several months ago, you you helped sell this vision to this council. And. You know, I think many of us were skeptical originally, but as we have seen this kind of process matriculate to where we're we're believers now and we see the value of rebuilding this pool to be a world class pool diving facility. And and, you know, the presentation here was was very, very encouraging. I'm optimistic about the future. I do want to congratulate and commend Councilmember Price for really taking the leadership on this, picking up a difficult issue as a new council member. Picking up where Gary DeLong left off and not missing a beat. And so you've done a great job that thorough questions are greatly appreciated, I know, by this council, but I'm sure by the public as well. And as far as the Murtha pool, the temporary pool, I have a recommendation. We will sell it to you. Okay. For $1. We'll take it in the eighth District. We have we have plenty of room for it. So thank you very much. Thank you. We're going to go to public comment here in just a minute. I also want to just say, if you think he's one, I want to start by thanking the committee who I know worked incredibly long hours and a lot of discussion on this issue. Believe it or not, Mr. Modica and Mr. West have been briefing us almost on a weekly basis on the status of what's been going on with the poor. I think I get a pool update from Mr. Modica. It seems like multiple times a week, but it has been great to see a real community process happen. And I want to commend Councilwoman Price for leading that community process. And I think that when she came on board this, it's very difficult to come into a a situation where a project has the process has somewhat begun. And to have the first thing kind of on your lap as you as you began, it was a lot of emotion behind an important project, as it should be. And so I want to commend her. I want to commend the community and also want to commend Mr. Modica and our city team, because they've done a great job at getting this thing to this point today. And in conclusion, this is this is an exciting project for the entire city and the region, as was said earlier. We're going to build a a historic world class facility. And it's going to be a point of pride for all of Long Beach. It's going to be used by people from all over the city. We're going to encourage that as someone that has on multiple, multiple occasions use the facility to swim and for recreation. It's a very special place with a lot of history, and it's going to be exciting to see the future of of the art space. So thank you to all of you. And with that, I'm going to open it up for public comment. Good evening, counsel. And please, as you come forward, if you can just identify yourself for the record and then we'll begin. Good evening. My name is Susan Miller. I live across from Belmont Pool. The cost of the Belmont Pool plant continue to increase. The projected oil revenues may not be sufficient to sizable construction costs of the current plant are due to the location, the liquid vacation, soil geological makeup and the sea level. Rising construction costs. Building in another location would reduce and eliminate these costs, construction cost and ease the impact on the tide line funds. Dollars realized from eliminating the underground stabilization costs needed at Belmont Plaza could be used to fund more seating. Urban quality facility changed to another location mitigate the Harry Bridges Memorial Park, the Queen Mary as a new location for the world class aquatic facility. When the current Belmont pool is demolished, Belmont Plaza is eligible for open space to replace the Harry Bridges Park near the Queen Mary. This mitigation is in compliance with the California coastal. Locating the aquatic facility to the Harry Bridges Memorial Park doesn't have the negative environmental impact of the Belmont Plaza location. A key factor for the California Coastal Commission approval is the Environmental Impact and Aquatic Facility. Downtown has been an ideal, an idea for a long time. In Long Beach, as in any good Master City plan, there are main elements that should be the nucleus core of the downtown. Locating the aquatic facility downtown is a good strategy for the city. A world class aquatic center is a good idea for located in the right location and built at a reasonable cost. Aquatic facility of Queen Mary makes sense for logistics, infrastructure and Smart Master City Planning. The Harry Bridges Memorial Park of the Queen Mary has infrastructure and the land space. The location has public transportation, freeways, parking, hotels, restaurant, the Shoreline Aquarium. The world class facility should be located there to be the crown jewel for Long Beach and bring in all the world class aquatic events. Plus, the world class aquatic facility could be featured every night on Channel seven Eyewitness News opening webcam shot of the Queen Mary with our world class aquatic facility. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Dr. Garcia and members of the council. My name is Lucy Johnson. I live in the fifth. District and I've been. A an advocate of this project from day one, or probably even well before day one. I was one of the first people in the pool in 1968 when it opened. My team was brought down here with our coach, who was a five. Time Olympic coach. And I. Wanted to add one thing that city manager. Was sad about. Cathy had a. Drum. She actually when she made the Olympics, it was in Belmont Plaza Pool in the 1976 Olympic trials. Unfortunately, our most recent Olympian, I think, in swimming is Jessica Hardy had to leave the city to train because the facilities here were inadequate. Couple of points. Councilmember Pryce, I want to. Thank you for. Towards the end here on talking about the difference. Between the general fund and the title. It's on a lot of the comments I've seen on our Web page or Facebook page and on other Facebook pages about Long Beach have said, why are we spending this kind of money on school streets, tree trimming and everything? And I think Councilmember Price and Mr. Modica. Addressed that very well. It is not. General Fund, it is Tidelands Fund can only be used in that area regarding the pool operating cost. And also like to point out that when you say fiscal 12, all pool on the expense in revenue, please keep in mind that that. Was 150 meter pool. A 25 yard, six lane pool outdoors and then a little wading pool that is almost never used. And the little outdoor pool got used. It was actually almost abandoned for a number of years until some of the club teams went in and. Started using it. So you're getting essentially five pools, you're getting. To 50 meter pools, the recreation pool. The therapy pool and the diving pool, the deep water pool that is used for many more things than just diving. So for the same, for that 3.2 million in expenses, you've gone from essentially one functioning pool to kind of to five. So I think that's a tremendous. Advantage to our city to have that kind. Of of additional. Pool space. One of the things I've lived here now in the city since 1980, partly because I was swimming and training at Belmont Plus Pool. And one of the things that's been a shame in a city of our size that there's only. Three public pools in this entire city. And in the summer, Jordan is open and Millikan is open, but not during. The winter to the public. So I think this is a tremendous advantage and I'm really. Pleased to hear about. That, working with the transit to luggage transit to try and get additional opportunities for people to come down from the other parts of the city. Lastly, regarding the diving pool, I was on vacation this past week, three weeks, two weeks. And came back with a call. Sorry. But I was talking to a gentleman that lives in Charlotte, North. Carolina, and he kayaks. And he uses a deep water. Pool in his hometown for kayak roll. Training, rolling over and getting back up. So there are many other things besides. Thank you. Time's up next. Speakers, please. Thank you. Hi. My name is Elaine Nasser. I am 11 years old. I started diving with the McCormick. Team. When I was eight years old. My dream is to be on the University of Indiana's diving team because they have an amazing Dove facility and a wonderful team. Another one of my dreams is to go to the Olympics and win the gold medal. Your vote today will help me achieve my dreams. Thank you for considering making the Belmont Pool a. Great diving facility. I can't wait to dove on the new platforms. The Belmont Pool will provide formal. Thank you. Excellent. Last few Olympians come out of USC right here in SoCal. That's right. You don't have to move far. To. Make speaker. Hi, my name is. Drew Coons and I want to thank city. Council members for supporting the sport. Of diving. I have two sisters who also have been dating for four years who also thank you. I've been diving for over three years and got to dove at the old Delmar Pool for about two of those years. I didn't get to jump off the platforms very much at the Belmont Pool because I was only eight years old and pretty new since being at the King Pool. I don't get to dove off the platforms because there aren't in this. Last summer I went to a diving camp at the University of Indiana and got to dove off those platforms. It was so much fun. Then this last year I went to a diving meet and so lots of kids my age competing off the platforms. I felt like I was missing out. Now that the new Belmont. Will have its own separate pool for diving in platforms. There will be a day where I can really be at a world class pool. I want to thank all of you and the advisory committee for helping kids like me work towards my goals. Thank you for building as our own pool and platforms. Thank you. I'm not sure how I can top that, except that I'm glad that they're going to go to IAB Indiana University. My son went there and it's a fantastic school, so hopefully they make it. Anyway, I am a resident living in the neighborhood that surrounds Belmont Plaza Complex. And if you can also just identify yourself for the record. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. My name is Ellie Harlowe, and I live directly across the street from where the outdoor pool is right now. And speaking of the noise, I want to thank Suzy Pryce first for bringing up all the questions that I know her residents or her constituents have been sending her, because I'm quite well aware of what's going on, and I thank you for bringing that up and talking about them. However, the noise problem is still the noise problem. It's not going to go away. As long as you have competitive swimming and in water polo, any kind of competitive aquatics will make noise. It will not go away if it's outdoors. That has to be all indoors in the new pool. You cannot have any of that outdoors. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that all the city council representatives are aware that this project decimates the only local park in the area. I'm here to talk about the park. This park includes grass paths and shade trees. And I mind you, these are old growth shade trees. And all they talk about is removing the trees and transplanting them. I'm sorry. You can remove palm trees, but you cannot remove old growth trees. They will die. And there were about 20 of them there. Come and see for yourself. It's a beautiful little park. Anyway, it's in a high impact neighborhood, devoid of greenery. Most people take for granted there are virtually no yards and absolutely no parking strips of any on the streets surrounding the pool complex. In June at the stakeholders meeting was was formed to make sure that the development plans meet the needs of the multiple interest. Interestingly, the vast majority of the committee members, 64% or nine out of 14 were those with only aquatics interests and only one. Commune. Committee member was a resident living in the immediate vicinity of the project. At the community meeting on September 17th, where the plans to eliminate the park were unveiled. We were told that we had an opportunity to give feedback which would be taken into account. Since then, multiple residents have expressed their desire to have the park preserved. To the committee, to the third District Councilwoman Susie Price and the city manager's office. Amazingly, the plans before you today are pretty much exactly the same as presented on September 17th, meaning our desires have not at all been incorporated into the development plans only the desires of the special interests aquatics groups. There are multiple. Solutions. Which would provide an excellent swimming and diving facilities while maintaining all or a significant portion of the existing park. Some that come to mind are eliminating the. Outdoor pool. Altogether. And thank you so much. The pool to another site. So, distinguished representatives, I'm asking you to represent us where our own council works. Thank you. So stakeholders and advisory committee are not. Thank you. Hello. My name is Diana Reed. You were in a good shirt there. Oh, thank you very much. Yes, my name is John Reed and I am a product of Belmont Poole. I started with becoming divers when I. Was ten years old and I went on to Long Beach Poly and I was able to dove and compete for them. I won a lot. Of awards. While I was there and I was able to go to Duke University from my first two years because of diving, came to my senses and I'm now at USC. But without diving, I wouldn't be able to do any of the things that. I do now or have any of the competence that I have. Now. And I know this new pool would definitely be able to offer the same opportunity to other other kids who stumbled upon diving like I did. I didn't know anything about diving. I kind of saw and thought it was cool and I was like, I want to try that. So because of that, I was able to accomplish. All of these things that I've accomplished. And I think that this new pool will be able to open up so many opportunities for other kids in the city just like me. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, City Council, City Management. My name is Richard Foster. Been a long time local, national, international aquatics person, also vice chairman of the Aquatics Capital of America Committee. As some of you know, I had some misgivings about this pool design, but I can tell you I'm very much in favor of it. I think Mr. Westen, Mr. Modell, that very nice job of presenting a competitive pool that also functions very well as a recreational pool. I recognize that the number one use of this pool is going to be recreation, but competition is also very good for the city. Economic impact, the impact it has on our children. Watching the Jessica Harvey swim, watching the Tony Acevedo play water pool, the Ryan Bailey's play water polo. Well, he's retired now, but I'm a little concerned. And I would urge Mr. West and Mr. Modica to look at the seating issue a little bit more carefully, because the seating right now is like the minimum. We've got $105 million facility, we've got 1200 seats. I don't know if CIA is really going to want to go to a sea meet there. I think we need to expand that. And then socially with no seating outside, we just I just urge it in this development process, I totally support your project , but let's see if we can do a little bit better job on the seating. One small point is Belmont Plaza pool is rich in tradition. It's known across the country, and we're going to call it the Belmont Beach Aquatic Center. I mean, it just doesn't. Let's let's keep that history. Let's keep the legendary, iconic status. Let's call it Belmont Plaza Pool. I mean, our community deserves that. And third, I know I do know that some of the residents are very concerned about the noise factors. And I can understand that the water polo whistles especially. But if we can do something to try to negate that the noise factor even more than we've done in the past, I think we can make the water pool people happy, the swimming people happy and the residents happy. So my congratulations, everybody just it's going to be a fantastic facility. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Dennis Dunne, the city manager, enumerated some advantages, but mostly they were redundant. What he did admit, however, was pools do not make money. Now, Mr. O'Donnell said it sounds like good economics to me. That sounds like debt to me and not fiscally sound policies. But then again, what city would buy three helicopters to deter crime when it takes many in the field to do that, maybe we should buy a fourth helicopter. I want to address myself to the reason required to the proposal of having a diving well. The pool is problematic. I won't get into some of the problems I have with that. However, the the diving pool diving will seem to me and extravagances are just not needed. Millions and millions of dollars are going to go to the construction of this diving. Diving? Well, now it's just not needed. Boys will suffice buoys in the water to separate the divers from the swimmers. You also have lifeguards to separate the divers from the swimmers. You also have swimmers who don't want to hit the divers who will separate themselves from the divers. Yeah. The separation. Occurs because they're there, mindful of the catastrophe that can. Happen. But what is a catastrophe going to happen? The worst thing to happen is a diver hits a swimmer in his dove. However, the water cushioned the fall and there would be no damage really made. And this would be very rare indeed. There's no injuries ever been listed. The deaths that that diving was responsible for any injury of a swimmer. I'd also like to add that the diving will also be used. People do not like to get out of the water. It's cold out there. I've been in competitive swimming, so I have some expertize. It's cold out there to wait for a dove. To wait to dove. And it does take some expertize. I mean, the diving board wouldn't be used much. Now, what I am saying is this do not eliminate, eliminate diving. I would never do that. But eliminate the diving well, which is going to cost millions and millions of dollars to make. Now, you know, it sounds very. Great and wonderful, but as I said before. Afford will take you for it is all you need to do to take you somewhere. You don't need a Rolls-Royce. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Council and Mayor Ann Cantrell. I find that tearing down a usable structure because of earthquake concerns and then spending millions to rebuild in the same location. Ludicrous. I believe that finding another location such as the events part next to the Queen Mary or even at the pike, remember, the plunge makes much more sense. However, tonight you're being asked to throw money at this project. So I will quote John GROSS, your financial advisor, which nobody mentioned in the staff report. He said, quote, In this even more uncertain oil revenue environment, it's beginning to appear likely that there may not be enough funding available in the short term to fund the proposed Tidelands budget and capital plan. The argument that competition will bring millions into the city does not address the possibility that these competitions may choose to go to other facilities. Nor the possibility that swim meet visitors may not spend as much on lodging and food as tourists do. The Coastal Commission has told the city that this pool must serve the public, not just those who want it for competitive swimming, diving, water polo and other sports. The staff report states there's a tradeoff with public versus private use. While the economic development aspects of the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center are not inconsequential. They do do come at a cost, reduce public access to the facility. And this is from your staff report. Using the facility as a tool for economic development involves reducing public access. Like many other public versus private issue, the decision of speeding issues uses is to be made by our elected official. That's that's the staff's end of quote. This means it's up to you to be fiscally prudent. Denied this request for additional funds and find a better location for this aquatic center. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. I'm Debbie McCormick. I'm a member of the acquirer capital of America. I coached the McCormick divers in Long Beach and has been at Belmont. I meant to say thank you, and I really meant to say that they first the advisory committee and the council members. I said it all along. I'm sorry. Okay. Anyways, and before I start, I did this again. I wanted to introduce Dr. Sammy Lee. Dr. Sammy Lee won the Olympics in 1948 and 1952. He was on the President's Commission for Physical Fitness under five presidents and won the Sullivan Award as well. Two Olympic gold medals. Dr. Samuel Lee Sammy has been here. This is the fourth time Dr. Lee has been here to support the diving. I'm so thrilled that you guys are doing all the right thing. I know a lot of people aren't real happy, but you really made my day. Today just happens to be the 19th anniversary of my husband's passing. And Glen McCormick was such an icon and very well loved by everyone in the sport. A little over a year ago, some of you that were on the council before had received letters from all over the world, from diving. You had a petition with 1500 signatures and one and a half days. The world of diving is so excited that you're doing this. They will come. U.S. Diving has pledged that they will want to come for all these meets as long as the pool is built correctly. And you do have an opportunity to have Olympic trials for diving. So that's not out of the question, which is millions more to the city. So I know. I had a cousin that could do it for one and a half, and I thought he was the coolest thing since sliced bread. And I want to learn to dove I a little boy that was going to talk to you tonight. He was six years old. He fell asleep, so he had to leave. Sorry, but if you're not exposed, he saw a splash on TV and he said, I want to dove. So he was so excited by watching it on television and he just loves the sport and dived in his first meet this weekend. Anyway, the Olympics is a dream that everybody can attain, but there are so many kids out there with dreams and hopes and you're going to give them all the opportunities to do something with their lives and you're giving them everything. So swimming, diving, water polo, we applaud you for doing the right thing. And I've never worked so hard in my life for anything, and I feel really good right now. Thank you, Susie and Gary DeLong and Lucy Johnson for everything. And Patrick, you were there from the beginning and helped make this happen. And I am very emotional right now, but thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Larry good you clerc as the address. I support this project wholly and in this location. It's just some random notes here on the trees. I'm not an arborist, but I like trees. And I know when we redid in 1995 a rebuilt the Pete Arthur Rowing Center, we had had a tree that Pete had planted out front back in 1968, and we, the city, found an arborist and relocated that it's now growing five times better. It's down next to that restroom that that Colorado gone. Secondly, in terms of seats. I don't know what the exact seating capacity is of that facility now, but I know the Coastal Commission would probably hold about to be required to have no less the amount of seats combined seating that there is there now. They would do that just as they do slips or parking spaces along the coastal area, i.e. you can't reduce the number as long as they're there. Although I do, I do support the the thinking that they probably would not support a little relocation to another area of. The last thing. Obviously, the dollar amount of this is enormous. And so you've got to ask yourselves, you know, is it worth the money? How do I make that decision? And it brings it brings to mind my experiences in the 1980s, where I spent half my life, a business life down in downtown L.A., sitting across a desk and talking to CFOs of of every Fortune 500 company in most companies. Wanting to know, well, how can I justify spending that amount of money on the largest Xerox, that Xerox base? One of the biggest the biggest blue applicators. And I'd always responded and was pretty successful in getting the right response from the customers. You've got three fundamental decisions you have to make. One, you have to evaluate the cost. Of your initial acquisition to evaluate the cost. The operation. And three, most important of all. Evaluate the cost to your reputation. For having made the decision. You did. And I think the best way the best decision here is to rebuild and follow the plan as it is now rebuild in that location for all the reasons that have been earlier stated. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Goodhew. Thanks, Speaker, please. Good evening, everyone. My name is Steve Everly. And I'd like each of you to think back in your history being in a public facility like this. And seeing some kid. Running around the pool deck. Her behind the bowling alley. Looking for mischief. Looking for trouble. When I was six and a half, seven years old, I was that little boy. And I woke up in the morning and said, What can I destroy today? Came from a family, ten children. My mother got a lifeguard job. We all got ushered to the pool. And I asked her one day, I said, Mom, did you get that lifeguard job so that you could. Watch over us closely. She didn't give me a straight answer, but that was answer enough. One day I saw the divers diving off the diving board and I gravitated toward that diving board, and the head guard stopped me and said. You need to be able to swim. I said, okay. So I took swimming lessons. The next summer, I tugged on a shirt and said, I'm ready. He says. Did you take intermediate swimming? I said, No. He says, Go take it. So I did. So about eight years old, third summer, I approached the lifeguard and he says, If you can swim the deep end, you can go off the diving board. To this day, I remember the first jump off the board. 26 years later and diving, reaching international status. Somewhere during that time. I woke up every morning. Passion. Passionately pursuing excellence. If you make this decision to go forward, you will change lives, countless lives, and make them productive. Leaving behind an economic benefit that's not quantifiable. In closing, I'd like to ask you to and I'll even volunteer to spearhead a committee or whatever is needed. But I'd like us to take a look at the revenue generating potential of a building like this. And I'm not just talking, naming, naming rights to a building that are glittering lights, like in Las Vegas. But at the granular level. At the granular level. You can sell seats with naming plates on them. Concession stands with people's names. Branded. To whet your whistle just a little bit. I'd like you to notice that. FedEx field. The Washington Redskins scans $7.6 million annually. Contract goes to 2023. Ford Field, Detroit Lions $1 million annually, Mr. Bailey. The list goes on. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Billy Day. I want to thank you all for everything you've done. This can be a huge project and it's truly appreciated in the diamond swimming community. I had the pleasure of diving with Dr. Sammy Lee over here, and I also had the pleasure of diving with Glen McCormick. Dr. Sammy Lee was a phenomenal coach and Lynn McCormick was a phenomenal coach as well. And he started the legacy at Long Beach, as far as I'm concerned. He was a remarkable human being. He was a very much a father image to anybody that crossed his path. He had a passion for the sport. And because of this reason, I truly believe down the road after the pool is built, that the diving world should be named in his honor. He had several Olympians that he coached. He was responsible for many scholarships that for like myself, that came along for the opportunity that he created. People were able to attain. And he was just a wonderful man and a phenomenal coach. And I truly believe that it would be a travesty not to name the diving well in his honor. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Day. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Shai Cordell. I live in the fourth district. Patrick O'Donnell, thank you very much for those kind words earlier. Suzy Price, Patrick O'Donnell. Thank you very much. And Councilmember DeLong. When he was here, you guys have worked so hard to get this thing up and going. Patrick West Thank you, George. Thank you very much. You guys have done a wonderful job. And also the committee, you guys have done an incredible job of putting a beautiful complex out there. During the last couple of weeks. I've met a couple of the residents in the area. We had some nice conversations about how we can lower the noise and and all that for the upcoming complex out there. But I really hope that we can also do something about the noise for the residents who live right across the street , because I do know that that new outdoor pool is literally going to be right across the street instead of another hundred and 50 feet down the road. But it looks it looks wonderful. The kids, we don't have them here tonight. It was a school night, 7:00 meeting. It's it's too hard to get them here. So but thank you very much. And also Councilmember Al Austin, you said if that pool is able to move over to your area, call me. Thank you. Isn't it still 7:00? Hello. Roberts Haven from Argon. What I want to mention your opening statements. You mentioned that you want your goals were to service all the residents. And from the comments, it doesn't sound like the water. Polo residents are being served. If you're going to stop the practices outdoors at 7 p.m., I understand you're doing a lot of mitigation with sound so far, the whistles and the lighting. It seems like they're not quite working. There are future plans, but they're not available yet. Your other opening statement mentioned the. To make harmony with the residents. So again, the sound, the big solution here that seems if you change the indoor pool to the 25 meters, go from the 25 yards to 25 meters. It sounded like a $1.9 million difference. This project's going to go over budget and definitely it's not going to stay here. That's what, one 2%, less than 2% of the total cost. And you can have the water pull indoors. All of your residents will be served. Long Beach is known for its Parks and Recreation. If you're not. Servicing. The water polo, you're not servicing all these people. As a father, my eight year old daughter, she just started playing water polo. So definitely want to make sure that the pool is available for her. My son. My youngest son, he's four, Rex. He's an avid swimmer. He's got Down syndrome. He's the one that Rex Fest is named after. That's Rex Fest Foundation. And we just want to make sure that this will be available. Also in addition, I manage an apartment on Argon and during the Olympics. Brenda Villa. I talked to her earlier today and she said that I could mention her and she was actually living in our one of our apartments at the time. That she was practicing. She already had the bronze and the silver medal, and she was practicing here in Long Beach when and living here when she got the gold medal and she said, go ahead and free flexi this. Feel free to mention my name. It would be a shame. To not make the Olympic sized water polo pool so much water polo history and Long Beach. I'm sure you as water polo would. Love to host events there and bring spectators and tourists. So thank you very much. And I encourage you to reopen the planning and try to make the an indoor pool large enough for. The water pool. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hey, I want to learn more about RECs Fest. Some info about what you say. Good evening. Council members, mayor, city staff. I'm Hank Wise and just so pleased to be here tonight to be at the threshold of this big, big moment. I grew up in Long Beach. Went to Long Beach schools. Born and raised in Long Beach. And as my parents were to Belmont Plaza was a part of my youth and part of my teen years, went on to Stanford University and then came back and went to Cal State Long Beach to get a master's degree in recreational leisure studies because 49 years and anyway, just just want to just want to mention just that I am overjoyed at the what we have here in front of us. This is amazing. Nothing short of completely amazing the amount of joy and learning and progression. And, you know, for adults, for kids, for just the whole public is is just it's it's wide open. It's just so wide open right now. And, you know, I like the idea of the I really like the idea of the bus service, you know, the pool bus. That's just that's awesome. You know, United States swimming. I'm a member of the United States swimming as a swim coach myself, member of USM as United States masters, swimming as a swim coach. And, you know, United States swimming is making a big push for make a splash. And you might want to look into that and make a splash is something wide open to teach swimming to all communities and wide open. So you might want to take a look at make a splash and everything that that's a part of the plaza is known formally nationwide as the Belmont. Just one word. When we talk about rock stars, we usually use one name, Cher, you know Bono, right? Okay. I mean Madonna. Right. So it's kind of like Belmont continues, you know, and it not only continues in the way it has in the past, it continues with five. And then there's that little room, that little Jacuzzi in the corner. So there's five bodies of water, plus a tasty little Jacuzzi. Isn't that just too much? No. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's just so great. And I. I totally hear the residents and, you know, city staff at Belmont is continually on top of us as the coaches out there and, you know, just please keep it down. And they're talking to us, and we're we're we're doing we're making those necessary shifts in our coaching. Anyway, there's the yellow light. I just want to say how grateful I am. Thank you so much and have a great night. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. City Councilor, Staff I'm Jessica Payne. I'm the president of the McCormack Divers Boosters Club. I've been involved with Belmont Plaza Pool since 2000, when my son walked through the locker room to join the recreational diving program. He saw the ten meter tower and said, I want to jump off of that. And now he, at 20 years old, is a diver at USC with Diane who was here earlier, fight on diving, got him into college diving. He's been diving with two different Olympic coaches because of Debbie McCormick. What I wanted to say is, thank you so much for doing this for Long Beach. Regardless of how you vote tonight. This is a huge gift to the aquatics community and we're all going to love it. Thank you so much, Patrick O'Donnell, for listening to us. You and Gary DeLong got this spearheaded. Thank you, Susie, for picking it up and running with the banner. Because around the world, as you said earlier, people know Belmont, people know Long Beach in the aquatics community. You say that you dove in Long Beach. They said, I went to Belmont once. They said, I know Debbie McCormick, they know people. The aquatics community is such a tight community and they will come. It's a gift to us. And if we don't add the extras, it will be what people fear it will be for a small community because it will lock out all of those people from outside. If we do it right and we build it with the right amount of seating, with the right diving wheel and the moveable floor, we will bring in that extra money, that $3 million in operational funds. When we rent out the pool for our events, we pay some of those operational fees besides bringing the tax dollars and everything into the city. So it helps to bring it into the community. It will help kids to be able to take that bus and to be able to swim there for a dollar. If you let us if you build it right and you let us bring in these events, we will help build a community. And for the next 50 years, when people here, Long Beach, they will still think of Belmont and they will love it as much as we do. So thank you so much. Thank you. And I'm going to actually close the speakers list unless there's anyone else that's going to get in line for the speakers list. Anybody else seeing none. Then the gentleman in the end is to be the last speaker. Please. Hello. Hi. Thank you, Mayor. Suzy Price, Tom Madoka and the rest of the advisory committee. It's been really fun working with everyone. My name is Raquel Barlow, and I grew up swimming at the Belmont Pool. I started there. I think Mommy and me classes. And then I graduated into diving. I played a little water polo. I hate labels. I would say I'm much more than just the diver. My mom was a world champion surfer. I'm an avid surfer also. But I'll say. Right here, right now, Belmont Pool is where everything started for me. And, you know, I think I'm from the third district, but I'm not sure I am. I heard I am. Okay. Okay. But, you know, hey, this pool, it's just like diving. Okay? That diving. Well, right there, it's not just the diving. Well, it's got everything in there for water polo players practice swimming, synchronized swimming. Who knows? Whatever. There's tons of stuff you can use. Water aerobics. It's an extra body of water. I'm really happy with this project. The architects did a really good job, and I think this is something beautiful that we can be proud of. And I'll tell you right now. I've had a lot of awesome opportunities happen to me and without without the ability to have all these coaches and amazing coaches teach me throughout my life . Like, you know, Klaus Barth and I worked for Hank for five years at the Long Beach Yacht Club, and I feel really privileged to have these mentors and coach coaches and teachers in this facility that's world class facility is only going to bring better teachers and better mentors to our city and build build this community. And I'm just I can't tell you how excited I am for this project, and I just want to say thank you. And I think this is going to be really awesome. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I would make it short and sweet. I just want to say thank the council for all your help, especially patent. Suzy worked with you guys. Thank the advisory committee here. They've done a wonderful job. Thank the parks and RECs department. Especially Lori and Todd and their group. They've done a fantastic job while they've maintained that facility. While we've been there, whether we've been there for practices or whether we've been there for high school games, I mean, we had our first high. School games there about a little over a month ago and it went off without. A hitch. And everyone that showed up there. Were just they were just in awe of that facility and just can't wait until we build a crown. Jewel. But everyone. Walked out of there with smiles on their face, going, God, you guys get to play water. Polo. Here. I mean, in all honesty, I mean, people that came up from Coronado just this last weekend. I mean, we had people from all over. So something for you all to be proud. Of and just wanted to say thank you very. Much for. All of your help and all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you. Name for the record. Pete Zuanic. Thank you. Commissioner. Good evening. My name is Bill five. I'm in the third district. I know I'm there. I want to say that I know there's a lot of planning that's going into this and there's still a lot more planning to go. This is not the end of it. I'm definitely on the indoor pool being 50 meters long by 25 meters wide. That keeps the city of Long Beach on the world stage. Whether it's regionals, nationals or world competitions, that's going to bring the revenue into the city, utilizing the pool, restaurants, hotels, everything. It keeps it going for swimming, diving, water polo. We can maybe get the girls in and do synchronized swimming, introduce water, aqua yoga aquatics into the group. Haven't done that before. There's other cities doing that. I believe that some of the comments made about the busses going to the pool, I think that's a great idea. But I don't want to see Martin Luther King pull neglected. I don't want to see sort of auto pool neglected because they serve their uses in the communities where they're at. I'd also like to see Mr. O'Donnell. Mr. Garcia, if you guys can reach out to Ms.. Connelly at Cal State Long Beach and see what they can do to up the level of the facilities at Cal State Long Beach to make the city a powerhouse in water polo, a powerhouse in diving, and a powerhouse in swimming. I think we need to bring the entire city, including Cal State, Long Beach and Long Beach City College, into this mix. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. And let me just tell you, we did reach out not too long ago and there was a change in the president's there was a change in attitude at the school. And they're much more accommodating with regard to the water polo and swimming uses over there. And they've opened up their pool more hours. So there is there is seeing more use by the community rather than just the college folks. It's not sitting dormant like it was for for a couple of years there. It'd be nice if they could bring back the diving that they had at the smaller pool at Cal State. Long Beach. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I want to thank everyone for the comments that they made tonight. And I want to I want to just take a moment to really. And I know she's talking, but I wanted to make sure that he I wanted to respond to some of the comments. I want to thank our aquatics community for coming together and understanding that there had to be some compromises that were made in order to make this project move forward and make it something that we could really say was in the best interests of everyone. As you heard tonight. And really the comments you heard tonight are just a fraction of the emails that I get every single day about the pool every single day. And as a result of that, I think the staff can attest that, you know, I have spent countless hours researching the size of pools around this nation, the size of pools that would be required for competitions and really making a decision that was in the best interest of everybody. And despite what what Ellie and Susan have to say, I've responded, you know, met with them several times, responded to emails trying to really do my best. And despite what they've said, one of the primary reasons that the sizing of the pool is what it is now as being recommended is because anything else would increase the footprint, and anything else that would increase the footprint would reduce the number of greenspace areas that we have available for the residents. And that was a major factor that we took into account in terms of determining what we were going to do. And as a result, before I walked into this room tonight, I called the USA representative for diving, swimming, water polo. I contacted pools around this nation. I sized up exactly how much they are everywhere. And I can tell you that we are one of the only facilities in the United States that's going to have one of each size pool, and that is phenomenal. We are going to be able to host almost every competition more than most other facilities can, and we will be able to practice in every single pool. Is it ideal for everyone now? Everyone is having to compromise a little bit in order to make this happen. And that's what happens when you're a city. That's what happens when you're a community. Everybody gives a little bit. And so I want to thank the aquatics community for uniting here tonight and understanding that this is a $100 million project and it's a big deal to the residents of this community. And if we can come together and collaborate in a positive way, we can make it a very successful project for all of us going forward and to all those kids. I mean, if you're a parent and you drive your kid to South County so that they can compete in club activities at these amazing facilities all over South County, and you think, why don't we have that in Long Beach? Every decision we make in this city should be about what's best for our kids and for their kids and for generations to come. And this is a step in doing that. So. Thank you. Believe there is a there's emotion on the floor and public comments included. I don't see any more council discussion. Again, thank you all for being here. Let's go to a vote. Motion carries nine votes. Okay. We're going to go ahead. And at the request of Councilmember Andrews, take item 19 real briefly.