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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee - 11/10/2022 w 1201 Leopard Street City of Corpus Christi Corpus Christi,TX 78401 cctexas.com Meeting Minutes - Final Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee Thursday, November 10,2022 5:30 PM Council Chambers,City Hall. 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: 6- Chair Terry A. Palmer,Jyoti Patel, Larisa A. Ford, Ruben Macias, Scott Lawson, and Philip Blackmar Excused: 3- Vice Chair Meredith Darden, Philippe Tissot, and Harrison A. McNeil C. Public Comment There was no one from the public in attendance. There was no Webex connection. D. Approval of Minutes and Action on Absences The minutes from the October 6, 2022 meeting were distributed for review, Larisa made a motion to accept the minutes, Ruben seconded, unaminously approved. E. Committee Reports 1. 22-1775 PRAC Report - Howard Schauer Howard was not in attendance because there was no online (Webex) video conference. 2. 22-1776 ISAC Report Terry was at the ISAC meeting and so was Darren. Darren spoke of beach activities which he will cover in his report. Terry did report on the discussion regarding the TIRZ2, Terry's understanding is that it is approved but still needs to go to council, they would like to extend it for 20 years. The County is wanting to extend it to include Packery Channel Park and Padre Balli Park. The PUD (Public Utility District)will be wholly contained in the TIRZ. The ongoing Packery City of Corpus Christi Page 1 Printed on 121212022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final November 10,2022 Committee Channel maintenance/monitoring program was added for 1.5 million a year, or 34.6 million for 20 years. The other added items were a culvert under Whitecap and improve the Encantada Avenue bridge into the canal system. 3. 22-1777 BMAC Report - Cliff Schlabach Cliff was not in attendance. F. Staff Reports It's winter time and Beach Operations is working on various projects. One is redoing the cabanas at the Overlook (along Packery Channel). The existing benches will be removed and BBQs and picnic tables will be installed. The cabanas and the stripping in the parking lot will be redone. The new equipment storage building on Commodores Drive is almost finished. The barge grounded on the South Packery Channel jetty is still there and the permit to remove it is not yet approved by the Texas General Land Office. The contractor repairing the Packery Channel jetties can't place rocks along Packery Channel because the channel is too shallow. The City Engineering department needs to approve pumping sand out of the Packery Channel for any channel deepening to occur. Darren is still waiting for the US Army Corp of Engineers permit to move sand along the beach. He also reported that there are new positions (employment) and new heavy equipment coming. Darren also spoke about beach vendors and how they work on the Gulf beaches. Corpus Christi Gulf beaches are divided up into zones, which vendors can apply to occupy. If a vendor is randomly selected from the list of applicants for a zone, they pay a monthly fee to be able to occupy the zone. The vendors must maintain payment to keep the permit. Vending is contracted by season, of which there are two per year. Vendors are limited in the space that they can occupy, but still can't restrict the use of beach by the general public. One vendor along the sea wall has been putting up pop-up shelters and blocking an area off during the summertime, which gives the perception of restricted usage to some members of the public. However, the public may use any part of this beach as long as it is not physically occupied by private citizens. The beach nourishment on North Beach has been started. It is a small project so shouldn't take many days to complete. G. Unfinished Business 4. 22-1576 Plans for Gulf Beach and Packery Channel monitoring/beach management by City Staff The subcommittee (Darden, McNeil, Blackmar, Tissot) is still working on the wording of a recommendation for monitoring of Packery Channel. The subcommittee met on Tuesday (November 8) and are making progress. This item will be discussed at the December 2022 meeting. 5. 22-1575 WBAC By-laws City of Corpus Christi Page 2 Printed on 121212022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final November 10,2022 Committee Terry worked on the wording and emailed the updated version to all the committee members. Scott noted that there was a duplication in Section D. Subcommittees. With that change Larisa made a motion to accept the By-Laws as presented, Jyoti seconded, unaminously approved. According to the City Secretary's office, these By-laws must be approved by the City Secretary and the City Attorney. 6. 22-1774 Replacing the word "Watershore" with "Water Shore" in Watershore and Beach Advisory Committee This was voted on and passed last month but the committee did not know what to do after that. Martha checked with the City Secretary and was told that name changes needs to be discussed with the department's legal advisors and the City Secretary. It will also require two readings before City Council. H. New Business for Discussion and Possible Action 7. 22-0781 A Presentation: Using Artificial Intelligence for Predicting Environmental Changes by Philippe Tissot Not presented, maybe next month. 8. 22-1574 Flour Bluff Citizens Council Survey Results Larisa presented the preliminary results of a survey of Flour Bluff. The survey was conducted at Padrefest, online, and in the written form. People were asked about the use of some of the recreational areas in Flour Bluff(e.g., Oso Preserve Trailhead, Laguna Madre, Parker Park). Most of the respondents lived in Flour Bluff and reported that they use these areas at least once a week, sometimes daily. The Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve, the Laguna Madre and Parker Park were used the most. Users were walking and hiking, fishing, biking and wildlife watching. People wanted to be active, connect with nature, friends and family and just be able to relax. Some of the activities most wanted were more sports and wind sport activities, fishing access, and more paved hike and bike trails. The recent City elections approved planning for the Oso Bridge design and load testing. 9. 22-1769 Establishing limits when lifeguards should no longer be required to rescue Terry spoke with a guard from South Padre and the guard said that they close the beach to driving during large surf/high tides. Darren says that he would like to close the beach closed when the surf is extremely dangerous but is unable to do so. Darren would like to make it so that the beach is closed to all (vehicles and pedestrians) and if a visitor goes onto the beach, they are doing so at their own risk. Philip asked Darren if he would enforce the closure and the answer is no, you can't legally keep everyone out. WBAC discussed putting signs up to say "Dangerous surf, swim at you own risk", or something to indicate that no lifeguards would be on duty, rather than "Beach closed" when the beach was extremely dangerous. There was discussion about using 2 flags which would City of Corpus Christi Page 3 Printed on 121212022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final November 10,2022 Committee mean that the surf is extremely dangerous and there are no lifeguards on duty. Darren said he would look into more options and see what they do at Galveston. This item will stay on the agenda for next month. 10. 22-1770 Extending the no wake zone in Packery Channel - Scott Cross Terry reached out to ask Scott Cross if he could present about Nueces County's proposal to extend the no-wake zone in Packery Channel to cover the shoreline of Packery Channel Park. Scott Cross initially responded by email but then stopped corresponding. Darren relayed that when he last heard talk of this, the questions from the City was "who is paying for the new no-wake signs?". The City offered to extend the no-wake zone if the County paid for the signage, including pole installation. 11. 22-1771 Coordinating an Erosion Plan Committee Terry emailed a draft resolution for WBAC to consider. The resolution aims to support the parks department's efforts for erosion control along the Corpus Christi-managed shorelines. Terry has been talking with the chairs from ISAC, PRAC and the Marina about this resolution; the erosion of the City's shorelines. Kevin Johnson has plans to address erosion at some of the City park shorelines on Ocean Drive and at South Bay Park. Terry, and the other committee chairs (not present at WBAC meeting) thought that it would be advantageous for the city to have long term plans, which would also help the City receive GLO funding for future erosion control. Terry stated that all of the aforementioned committees have talked about shoreline erosion and involving all committees would be supportive of the city's current plans and actions. The committee chairs had sent a draft resolution to the city legal department and they formatted the resolution as a draft. The chairs thought that all of this is in support of what Kevin Johnson is currently working on. There was discussion regarding the resolution and what the actual goal is, for the resolution. Kevin Johnson responded with his viewpoints. Kevin wanted to relay his thoughts that he does appreciate WBAC's assistance/advice but believes implementing a plan would stall what he is immediately planning for South Bay Park and Ocean Drive parks. Kevin would like a formal working group. Kevin would like the erosion plan to cover the City with the exception of the four parks that he is already working on. WBAC did not want to stall Kevin's immediate erosion-control plans. This will be discussed further at next month's meeting. Kevin would like to do a presentation next month for WRAC. 12. 22-1772 Lower Texas Coast Beneficial Use of Dredge Material Planning by Harrison McNeil Harrison was not in attendance. I. Future Agenda Items Kevin's erosion presentation/Shoreline erosion plan City of Corpus Christi Page 4 Printed on 121212022 Watershore and Beach Advisory Meeting Minutes -Final November 10,2022 Committee Elections of officers Packery Channel monitoring Limits when lifeguards shouldn't be required to save people WBAC Bylaws and name change Beneficial use of dredge spoil J. Adjournment As there was no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:17 PM. 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 5 Printed on 121212022