Imagine the folks at PETA pledging grant money to a barbecue restaurant. That's how some residents of Treasure Island view a beach trail proposal presented to city commissioners last week.
The city's administration, eager to spend a $380,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant received after a 1993 oil spill, wants to renovate and extend Treasure Island's existing trail an extra three-quarters of a mile through beach areas anchored by sand dunes and turtle nests. The concrete trail, 24 feet wide at some points, would also run behind some residents' waterfront homes, which hasn't made City Hall any friends. Neither has the nearly $2.8 million price tag — seven times the amount of the original grant.
And that's the updated plan. The original one, in which architect Phil Graham envisioned a Venice Beach-style boardwalk, would have cost even more — $500,600 more — and would have paved over 3,800 more feet from 119th Avenue to 127th Avenue But last week city officials proposed deferring the north trail section due to extensive erosion on that section of beach. The homes of Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Paul Schiano and land magnate Sid Rice lie on that stretch of sand.
For Lara Valverde, the outspoken organizer behind Citizens For a Natural Treasure Island Beach, any extension of the trail is, well, unnatural.
"The logic doesn't seem to flow at all," she says. "The only reason the effort is on the city's agenda is to go after $380,000 of funding. Something that could've been positive is turning into something that can be negative to the environment."
As of Oct. 4, the majority of City Commissioners seemed hesitant to earmark such an expensive project, but those opposed to the trail aren't out of the water yet — the final decision will be made at the Oct. 17 commission meeting.
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2006.