Pismo Beach City Council has given a restroom renovation a blueprint of what it should look like.
Right now, the restroom has 4 stalls. The new design will have a new sand shower, 8 restroom stalls, and an administration building for lifeguards.
Assistant City Manager Mike James said the space will help the lifeguards take care of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the job.
“It's a way to be able to give them to do a couple [of] things," said James. "One, to have a small office space so they can write their reports they need to do, then also they can change in and out of clothing."
Currently, lifeguards go to the Bello Street or the Shell Beach fire stations to do paperwork or change during their hour-and-a-half break of their shift. With traffic, those can be 20-minute drives back to the beach.
Paul Lee, Battalion Chief for CALFIRE in Pismo Beach, says the close location to the beach is going to greatly cut the commute down and reduce the time beachgoers have to spend waiting for first responders.
“By moving their administration building closer to the beach here on the end of Addie Street, the response times come down significantly,” Lee said. “It also allows more guards to be available since they’re closer and get onto an incident a lot faster.”
The City Council was the most interested in a layout that combines public restrooms with the lifeguard station. James said more restrooms will help get visitors back to the beach faster.
“With the current capacity of the restrooms, a big concern was not being able to have enough usage, if you will,” James said. “So to kind of reduce these long lines that come about from that weekend.”
Eva Taylor, a lifelong surfer in Pismo Beach, told KSBY News that the extra bathrooms and lifeguard headquarters will greatly benefit the community.
“It might take up a few extra parking spots, which is, I guess, becoming more and more of a concern in Pismo [Beach] because it's crowded, but taking care of the community and having first responders right there on the water sounds great to me,” Taylor said.
The renovation project is still in early planning stages, and city leaders have not yet announced when construction will begin.
