For the second consecutive year, Pacific Beach Town Council and Pacific Beach Planning Group met jointly recently to determine the community’s priorities for capital improvement projects.
The CIP is the City’s long-range plan for all individual capital improvement projects and funding sources. CIPs are unique construction projects that provide improvements or additions such as land, buildings, and infrastructure.
With about 100 community members voting, the PB public projects getting the highest percentage of overall community votes at the joint civic-group meeting were installing more traffic calming at Beryl and Lamont streets, 13.88%; constructing a North PB lifeguard tower, 11.15%; construction of a main street neighborhood identifier sign, 10.81%; facilitate pedestrian and bicycle access on Garnet Avenue west of Ingraham, 8.53%; construction of a PB joint-use public pool, 7.28%; redevelopment of Grand Avenue medians with landscaping and beautification, 7.05%; and funding more bike racks at beaches, 6.26%.
“The purpose of it (joint CIP meeting) was to hear from the community what they wanted in terms of infrastructure, namely new infrastructure,” said PBTC president Charlie Nieto at PB Planning Group’s October meeting. “Based on the public results, we were able to narrow down the top four or five items that we’re going to be sending to our Councilmember Joe LaCava. He’s the one who’s going to be advocating for us (PB) in the budget season in the (next) spring.”
Nieto noted the top-priority CIP recommendations being forwarded by the PB community were to install more traffic calming solutions at Beryl and Lamont streets, construction of a North PB lifeguard tower, and a crosswalk at Los Altos Way and Soledad Way by Kate Sessions Park.
Concerning when these community CIP recommendations are going to be acted upon, Nieto said: “This is going to be specifically targeted for the upcoming budget (2025-26 finalized in June after City Council deliberations). And LaCava only wants to see a short list of items, and we’ve already sent him the list.”
Concluded Nieto: “We (PB) need to be very focused on what we advocate for. Last year we only got two (CIP) items, which were a roundabout and $100,000 for the lifeguard station.”
WHAT IS A CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT?
A CIP helps enhance the overall quality of life in the City by improving the physical structures, systems, and facilities that provide services to the community. CIP projects are generally large and expensive, and the assets they install, replace or rehabilitate will likely be required for decades of public use. The CIP is a multiple-year forecast of the City’s capital needs. A capital need includes various project types such as airports, bikeways, bridges, storm drainage and flood control facilities, libraries, park and rec centers, police, fire, and lifeguard facilities, street improvements, lights and traffic signals, sidewalk improvements, utilities undergrounding and water and sewer facilities and pipelines.
