Proposed surf park in California desert is rejected by La Quinta City Council
In the last 10 months the Town of La Quinta has been hit with at least 10 proposals for new uses or expansion of established businesses or uses in La Quinta, a town that is considered one of the friendliest in the United States.
The last two came in August, one to expand the existing park, the other to allow a new surf club to construct a 10-foot-high surf box on a public beach. The surfboard box was supposed to include a surf school, a surf shop, an equipment rental business, a restaurant, live entertainment, a video arcade, a bike shop, an arcade games, and two parking areas.
A surf park was one of the two proposals that would have gone in, but the California Coastal Commission rejected it. The other proposal, to allow a new surf park was not rejected, but the Commission determined in August that the town could not legally allow the project without paying a 10-year permit, and that it wasn’t eligible for the money it would have received from the permit.
While one proposal was not rejected, another, by a group of artists called Surfscape, was rejected because of concerns about noise and construction.
The project proposal by Surfscape would have placed an eight-foot-high glass and metal box on a public beach on one side of the parking lot, with the surfboard park on the other. Surfscape would have had three levels of the box, with one on each side, and a third on the top.
The proposed surfboard box would have been on a surfboard, and the surfboard park would have included surfboards, surfboard boxes, surf carts, surfboards with surfboard boxes attached, and a surf school, surf shop, equipment rental, live entertainment, video arcade, bike shop, arcade games, and parking.
Construction on the Surfscape proposal would have begun in October and would have taken five months to complete, according to a proposal dated in May.
A proposal for an expansion of the La Quinta Town Beach Park was sent to the Coastal Commission in August. It was to add a new restroom, changing rooms, restroom facilities, and a parking area.