_{A proposed new location for public restrooms and showers — shown in green — is on Starfish Way about half a block from South Beach. | Images courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District}

Three years after receiving a California Coastal Conservancy grant to build public restrooms near South Beach, the Crescent City Harbor District may have to abandon the plan if commissioners can’t agree on a location.

Not building a public restroom was “the other alternative” to a proposal to build the facility on Starfish Way across the street from Redwood RV Park, Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bair, CCHD’s grants manager, said at a special meeting Wednesday. 

But with Commissioner Annie Nehmer arguing that the new location benefits RV park leaseholder Daniel Dahan more than the public, the Board was unable to reach an agreement. 

“As a mother with children and infants that regularly attend the beach, the farther away the restroom is, the less likely I am to use it,” Nehmer said. “You want me to walk half a block down (the street) for the benefit of the lessee rather than for the benefit of the public, which, again, we postponed putting the bathroom in for the benefit of the lessee instead of for the benefit of the public.”

Board Chairman Rick Shepherd deferred the discussion to a future meeting.

Currently, the only restroom facilities near South Beach are porto’ potties on Anchor Way where it intersects with Starfish Way. Bahr’s proposal would place the restroom about half a block north of the intersection on Starfish Way near the Ocean Gold Seafoods processing facility.

CCHD embarked on an endeavor to build public restrooms and showers near South Beach after receiving a $450,000 California Coastal Conservancy grant in 2023.

“I went to Coastal Conservancy staff and had the discussion with them about multiple locations on Starfish Way,” he said. “I went to them first ‘cause they’re the grant funder and they’ve got to approve any site. I didn’t want to waste the Board’s time presenting sites the Coastal Conservancy would not approve.”

When it was first awarded the grant roughly three years ago, CCHD staff proposed three locations on the beach side of Anchor Way, Bahr said. The California Coastal Commission rejected the first two. The Coastal Commission was more inclined to approve the third proposed site, but Bahr said it was roughly 15 feet into the street.

“That was at the end of the last Board’s term,” he said. “At the start of this Board’s term two years ago we had this discussion. You received a lot of public comment from people opposing it being located on the ocean side of the street, so that’s when it was directed to the other side of the street.”

The other side of the street was “basically inside the footprint of Redwood RV Park,” Bahr said. Since the Crescent City Harbor District was negotiating a lease for the RV park, the restroom project was put on hiatus, he said.

“We wanted to work with whoever the leaseholder was on the public restroom accessibility,” Bahr said. “In the past month, after meeting with the leaseholder and understanding how their site is going to be a controlled site that is only available to the tenants of the RV park, that makes the permitted site basically inaccessible for the public.”
Public parking wouldn’t be available either, according to Bahr.

In his staff report, Bahr said CCHD worked with Dahan on finding an alternative site. Dahan is a Southern California-based developer whose limited liability company, Crescent City Beach Village, is redeveloping Redwood Harbor Village and Bayside RV Park to attract visitors to the harbor.

Coastal staff were not impressed with the current proposed location, however, according to Bahr.

“This is not a better site, however they’d rather see a public restroom on that side of the harbor than have no restroom,” he said. “Because that’s really coming down to the other alternative (is) not to site a public restroom.”

According to Bahr, the public restroom would be adjacent to public parking spaces as well as picnic tables and standing barbecue grills for the public. It would also be adjacent to a sauna building Dahan is proposing to build for RV park guests, Bahr told commissioners.
Commissioner Dan Schmidt pointed out that the potential sauna is not on the parcel that Dahan is leasing from CCHD.

Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said the Board of Commissioners would have to approve Dahan’s sauna proposal.

Despite Nehmer arguing that the restroom’s current proposed location would benefit Dahan more than the public, Vice Chair John Evans said it would also increase the commercial viability in the area.

“We’re not putting a public use thing on a lot we may in the future want to lease out for revenue,” he said. “I didn’t like the idea of putting it inside the RV park because that would limit use for the public. It would be less visible in a lease space.”

Evans said he didn’t think walking half a block from the beach was a huge hardship for members of the public.