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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee - 12/02/2021 WATERSHORE AND BEACH ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Regular Called Meeting Thursday, December 2, 2021, 5:30 pm Beach Operations’ Conference Room Beach Operations, 8185 Highway 361, Corpus Christi, TX 78418 WEBEX – Meeting Number: 2488 981 7496 | Password: 28uXYhWp4Ma Join by phone: 1-408-418-9388 Members Present Members Absent Staff Present Terry Palmer Meredith Darden Larisa Ford Daniel Mazoch Jyoti Patel Philippe Tissot Scott Lawson Harrison McNeil Mukesh Subedee Darren Gurley Martha Lawhon I. CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 5:32 pm. ll. ROLL CALL The roll was called, and a quorum was present III. EXCUSED ABSENCES: Harrison McNeil & Mukesh Subedee Meredith made a motion to excuse Harrison and Mukesh and Larisa seconded, unanimously approved. Motion passed. IV. ADOPTION OF MINUTES Minutes from the November 4, 2021, meeting were distributed for review. Meredith made a motion to accept the minutes, Daniel seconded, unanimously approved. Motion passed. V. HEAR FROM THE PUBLIC There were 2 people in attendance, one wanted to let the group know that he has been asked about the large pile of sand on the north side of the jetty. Darren told the group that he would discuss that later in the meeting. Vl. BUSINESS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1 New Business a. Plan for Gulf beach and Packery Channel monitoring/beach management by City staff No update yet, Darren did have Deidre do a small beach survey for him, paid for by Beach Operations but he is not sure where the city is with this, except that they are working on it, and it is now with engineering. Larisa suggested that WBAC could ask engineering where they are at with this. Meredith, as the vice chair will email Andrea and ask for an update. b. Update on the Shoreline parks projects (Park Masterplan) by City staff Kevin Johnson, Assistant Director, Parks and Recreation worked with Deidre to come up with a plan for what the best options are; she is looking at grants and they are looking at a CIP project to help with the erosion concern. Darren assured the group that this is being worked on. Diedre added that Kevin really wants to start getting the capital money together to start planning for the long-range plan of tackling erosion and preservation. Deidre did meet with Andrea and brought her up to speed with what has been happening. Deidre did mention that Kevin would like a WBAC member or members to speak on this behalf, when the time comes. c. Boardwalks being built The new developments are being checked to make sure that they are not built pass the dune line. d. Revisit Goals & e. 2021 Annual Report Terry talked about 2021 goals and what WBAC has done with regards to those 2021 goals. 2 C:\Users\NormaD2\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\C1K8JZ51\December.doc.docx Darren noted that no work was done on the Beach Maintenance Plan because he has not gotten the permit. Terry will take our discussion today regarding the goals and present a final report to the committee in January, before they are due. There was not as much community engagement do to Covid and meeting by Webex. Some members thought that we should announce WBAC meeting on social media. As far as the Packery Channel is concern, WBAC is on top of all those issues. Darren had some concrete ideas regarding the attractiveness of the channel. WBAC was involved in getting the lifeguards raises, gates on the jetty and signage; additional/and or new ones. The relationship with Visit Corpus Christi was strengthened. Harrison would like WBAC to figure out some way to alert the visitors to the beach conditions. WBAC didn’t do much about reviewing the plans for city-owned facilities mainly because there aren’t very many on the beach. The beach permit program is being worked on by the City in co- operation with Port Aransas and Nueces County; there is not much for WBAC to do. 2. Old Business VlI. PARK AND RECREATION ACTION COMMITTEE – Howard Schauer Howard was in attendance, and he asked that he be given a copy of our 2022 goals so that he can share them with PRAC. Howard did let the group know that he has spoken about the erosion problem and will keep on it. VIlI. ISAC Report Darren attended and presented mostly WBAC issues. Terry did report that there was talk of the sidewalks being slippery and Darren will work on a solution. Much of the other discussion didn’t relate to watershore. IX. BMAC Report – Cliff Schlabach There was an interesting case about a developer that wanted to replace a boardwalk to the beach. They wanted to widen the boardwalk to 8’ so that it would accommodate a golf cart, but they made the path like a switchback and the height was not high enough for good clearance. This was hotly discussed by the committee and when it did come to a vote, it passed but not unanimously. Cliff was not happy with the vote and contacted the GLO. The GLO said they didn’t have any regulation regarding the width of boardwalks. Cliff is not happy with the results of this permit and will continue to work on the issue. “Stay tuned”. Deidre did add that since she and Cliff had been on this committee, all the permits were already in place, the wheels were in motion. Deidre is concerned with the precedent that might be set, she is recommending that the management plan be revised and BMAC be giving the tools so that they could restrict certain changes with the proper information. X. STAFF LIAISON REPORT Darren reported that beach operations has painted all the restrooms at Windward. Darren spoke about the large sand pile that is stockpiled on JP Luby (mostly delivered by Hurricane Hannah) and that his plans is, once the USACoE permit is approved, to move that sand from the north side to the south side, in front of the seawall. The USACoE permit is currently at the local USACoE office and needs to be approved to the Galveston office to be approved, which is estimated at being February at the earliest. Deidre wanted everyone to know how much work has gone into getting to this point, kudos to Darren. The 2022 permits have been ordered and should be here around Christmas. Lifeguarding is still continuing throughout the winter. XI. IDENTIFY ITEMS TO BE PLACED ON NEXT AGENDA 1. Kevin Johnson & Deidre Williams 2. Goals 3. Hydrofoil surfing XlI. ADJOURNMENT As there was no further business the meeting adjourned at 6:54 pm.