Council
Tackles Exercise Problem |
By Lookout Staff
November 28 – With the national media watching,
the City Council on Tuesday will see if it can flex its muscle to
discourage fitness aficionados from illegally exercising from dusk
to dawn near multi-million dollar mansions at the northern edge
of the city.
So far, a crackdown by park rangers has failed to stop those exercising on
the leafy median near 4th Street and Adelaide Drive in defiance of a 1970 ordinance
prohibiting the use of medians for anything other than walking or running.
“In spite of many attempts to use proactive methods to secure compliance,”
the median “has attracted increasing numbers of people utilizing the area
for exercise and other activities that are not permitted by the ordinance,”
Lee Swain, the City’s director of Public Works, wrote in a staff report
to council.
The stretch of median “is regularly used for exercising, stretching,
group fitness classes and pick-up gyms,” Swain wrote.
Responding to a chorus of complaints about noise, traffic and litter from neighboring
residents, a park ranger has been stationed in the area in the past six months,
resulting in eight $158 citations and hundreds of warnings others.
But the measures haven’t been enough, Swain said.
“Recently there has been a noticeable increase in organized group exercise
activities including ‘pickup gyms,’” Swain wrote.
“The median has become a gathering spot for groups, paid fitness coaches
and individual exercisers, many of whom create noise, trash and human waste
issues,” Swain wrote.
“Neighborhood impacts include street and sidewalk congestion from group
classes, stationing gym or massage equipment in the median; increased traffic,
litter and noise.”
Staff has worked with neighboring residents to temporarily tackle the problem,
conducted a survey of residents within a 1,000-foot radius to gauge community
concerns and held a community neighborhood meeting, Swain said.
As a result, staff has begun discussing potential options and solutions. They
include stepping up enforcement, revising or reversing the ordinance, implementing
24-hour parking restrictions and closing the stairs used by many of the exercise
buffs.
The council also can consider converting Adelaide Drive to one-way between
Ocean Avenue and 4th Street, closing the 4th Street area to pedestrians only
and making the median a city park.
A second community meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, January 8 to present
any decisions for further action on the part of the City.
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