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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee - 08/04/2022 w 1201 Leopard Street City of Corpus Christi Corpus Christi,TX 78401 cctexas.com Meeting Minutes - Final Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee Thursday,August 4,2022 5:30 PlAeach Operations Conference Room,8185 Highway 361, Corpus Christi The City of Corpus Christi promotes participation regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability or political belief. Reasonable accommodation is provided upon request and in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. For assistance or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact (361) 826-3300 at least 48 hours in advance. Upon request, this information can be available in larger print and/or in electronic format. A. Call To Order B. Roll Call Present: 4- Chair Terry A. Palmer, Larisa A. Ford, Philippe Tissot,and Harrison A. McNeil Excused: 2- Vice Chair Meredith Darden, and Scott Lawson Absent: 2- Jyoti Patel, and Ruben Macias C. Public Comment Philip Blackmar was in attendance but did not want to speak. Cliff Schlabach wanted to comment that he was pleased to read that the budget has money for"real bathrooms and showers" and he will wait for Darren to report on it. D. Approval of Minutes and Action on Absences 1. 22-1097 Approval of Minutes The minutes from the June 2, 2022 meeting were distributed for review. Harrison made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, Larisa seconded, unanimously approved. E. Committee Reports 2. 22-1098 PRAC Report - Howard Schauer Howard was not in attendance but Terry did talk to Alisa (the chair of PRAC) on the phone. She did speak about the erosion issue at the shoreline parks, and she spoke about access to the bay for kite surfers and windsurfers. She spoke about the survey put out by the Flour Bluff Citizens Council and Larisa asked the WBAC committee members City of Corpus Christi Page 1 Printed on 9/3/2022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final August 4,2022 Committee to please take it. 3. 22-1099 ISAC Report Terry was not able to attend the meeting but he did speak with ISAC chair Jay Gardner and there was not much discussed that dealt with WBAC issues. 4. 22-1100 BMAC Report - Cliff Schlabach Cliff reported that they have had lots of application and they are working through them. One application dealt with a lot that has 2 sand dunes one it. The applicants will have to move one of the dunes and place it exactly as it was, in the area were there is a low spot. He talked about the applicants wanting to use concrete, lots of concrete and the committee had gotten them to switch to pavers, which will be much better, especially in the rain. Cliff told the committee how it is strange to have to vote in front of the applicants. He told the committee about how robust the developing is at La Concha because the area was there before the erosion response plan was developed so the lots are able to be seaward of the 350' setback line, which puts them closer to the beach. F. Staff Reports 5. 22-1101 Staff Liaison Report Darren reported on the sand conditions, it's blowing and Beach Ops is working on it everyday. Harrison asked about the sand movement and Darren explained that he is only allowed to push the sand to the toe of the dunes. Beach Ops has been moving it to the tide line in hopes of building the beach but sometimes the tide takes it and just moves it down beach. Darren reported on the life guarding numbers; preventables, as well as all the numbers, have improved. The new programs are working, Darren is proud of them! Darren did say that because of the performance of the beach activities he was able to add more positions, with the bigger budgets. One of the new position he is most proud of is a Safety Outreach Coordinator. This person will go out into the public, they will do training, give safety talks, go to the school for recruiting and will be certified so that if they are need for life guarding, they would be available. North Beach will be getting life guards during the summer just like McGee does now. The City is also investigating having vendors on North Beach that will rent beach amenities. They are also looking at doing other upgrades there. Darren also reported that they will be putting a restroom in on Zahn Road! Darren also reported that he got the go ahead to spend some of the SHOT fund, so the beach will be getting new equipments, including a couple of graders. He also has some money put aside for beach nourishment. The nourishment at North Beach should happen after Labor day. G. Unfinished Business City of Corpus Christi Page 2 Printed on 9/3/2022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final August 4,2022 Committee 6. Plans for Gulf Beach and Packery Channel monitoring/beach management by City staff Terry relayed some items from a conversation he had with Jeff Edmonds, the Director of Engineering Service for the city. Jeff seems happy with doing the beach monitoring 2 or 3 times a year, Darren will probably do one or two on his own. Jeff talked about not doing the channel monitoring until the channel work was completed, maybe next year. Jeff said the he would send Terry a copy of the professional assessment which calls for annual surveys, not surveys done 3 times a year. He thinks that surveying the channel three times a year is not the best use of pubic money. Jeff did suggest that the beach employees could go out and check the depth in the channel,just like Darren has told the committee previously. Philippe wanted to point out that WBAC may want to make a recommendation to the City regarding this after reading and discussing the technical note from Mott McDonald about the Packery Channel Monitoring Program Review. Philippe has questions about how the seasonal changes are taken into account and depending on the report thinks it could be important to share the committee's view with City but it will depend on the report. H. New Business for Discussion and Possible Action 7. 22-1384 Discarded Popup Beach Shelter An ISAC member mentioned to Terry that abandoned popup shelters appeared to be a problem on city and county beaches and asked whether the pop-up beach shelters should be banned from the beach. Darren explained that it is part of beach life. Beach Operations picks them up everyday and some people will drag them to the trash cans for pickup. There was some discussion about the Shibumi (a new type of sun shade) that people are starting to use but they are still very expensive. 8. 22-1003 Jeff Turner Dr. Jeff Turner, a professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi gave a presentation on "Making sense of bacterial pollution hotspots across coastal Texas". Dr. Turner arrived in the area in 2014 and there had been lots of questions regarding bacteria pollution and now there is some interesting data to share. This information and funding came from various sources. He spoke about indicators and how they are to be interpreted. He next spoke of the hotspots in the various surrounding counties. He spoke of the Bayside versus the Gulfside collection station, and the correlation with time, population and sea level. Dr. Turner mentioned that most bacterial problems are in the bay-side beaches (which WBAC members agreed were not actually beaches) rather than the Gulf beaches. He also mentioned that newer bacterial monitoring technologies showed that human-related bacteria were more abundant in dry periods than wet periods, however, traditional methods used by the State show that there are high bacteria concentrations immediately after rain events. Dr. Turner and his lab are continuing to work on bacteria tracking and loading; but his opinion is that there is too much bacteria entering Corpus Christi Bay from human sources. City of Corpus Christi Page 3 Printed on 9/3/2022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final August 4,2022 Committee 9. 22-1002 Bay Beaches Erosion Planning Terry reported that after much delay on this subject, last month there was a meeting with the TXGLO in which, the City submitted a proposal to add to the Texas Master Plan about building living shorelines alongside the Bay-side parks on Ocean Drive. The proposal was led by the City's Kevin Johnson after working with Deidre Williams (TAMUCC). Terry had handouts for the group. Basically this is a rough strategic plan to combat some of the erosion along Ocean Drive.. Terry would like the committee to read it over and if needed there could be more discussion next month. Harrison believes that out committee really needs to make some recommendation on this issue. 10. 22-1105 Proposed Bond 2022 Program Briefing This was to be on the July agenda. Darren did report that there was not much dealing with watershore. Larisa added that there was a proposal on the "Hike and bike trail" in Oso Bay. 11. 22-1102 Sign Update from Meredith Meredith was not in attendance and this update is not no longer needed, the signs are up. 12. 22-0781 A Presentation: Using Artificial Intelligence for Predicting Environmental Changes by Philippe Tissot Philippe will present this next month. I. Future Agenda Items Channel Monitoring Bay Beaches Erosion Planning Philippe's Presentation J. Adjournment As there was no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:13 p.m. This meeting may be held via videoconference call pursuant to Texas Government Code § 551.127. If this meeting is held via videoconference call or other remote method of meeting, then a member of this governmental body presiding over this meeting will be physically present at the location of this meeting unless this meeting is held pursuant to Texas Government Code § 551.125 due to an emergency or other public necessity pursuant to Texas Government Code § 551.045. City of Corpus Christi Page 4 Printed on 9/3/2022