Beach fires were again on the agenda of the June 4 city council meeting, where the council decided to limit fires at South Beach – outside the Coronado Shores apartments – to just propane fires, while allowing personal propane and smokeless fire pits at North and Central Beach and clean wood and charcoal at the public fire pits in North Beach.
This came after the city council voted on April 16 to ban all fires at South Beach after Shores residents came forward to share their experiences of breathing smoke rising so close to the apartment buildings.
South Beach is narrow and only 150 feet away from the Las Palmas Tower at the Coronado Shores.
After banning fires and passing the motion, the city approached the California Coastal Commission to get the motion officially approved.
No Coastal Commission
However, getting approval was going to be difficult, said the city’s Management Analyst Kelli Maples during her staff presentation.
“[The Coastal Commission was] very forthright in saying that any ban on fires on any area of the beach would be difficult, if not impossible, to be approved by the Coastal Commission,” Maples said.
The staff report said that any ban of beach fires would require a Coastal Development Permit that would come approximately eight months after a second hearing from the city council.
And, it wouldn’t be guaranteed approval.
Limiting fuel type
So, the other option presented by city staff was to limit the fuel types at the beach, as opposed to banning all fires. That wouldn’t require Coastal Commission approval or a permit and would go into effect within 30 days of final council adoption of the amended ordinance.
“We have never won with the Coastal Commission,” Council member Mike Donovan said. “I have no confidence that we should depend on anything other than what we already know about the Coastal Commission.”
The beach fire issue was first brought up by Council member John Duncan to see what the city could do about the air pollution caused by the fires on South Beach to the residents of the Shores.
Since banning all fires at South Beach would not be an option, the council voted to limit the fires at South Beach to just propane since the smokeless fire pits still cause smoke and rise up to the apartments at the Shores.
To clarify, smokeless fire pits aren’t completely smokeless.
They are wood-burning fire pits built with technology that essentially sucks back in the smoke, giving it the name of a smokeless fire pit. However, smoke is still produced and still escapes, just at a lesser amount than a regular fire pit.
