Rendering of the upcoming building for the allcove Beach Cities youth mental health center. The Beach Cities Health District’s board of directors voted unanimously at its July 24, 2024 meeting to place a $30 million bond measure on the Nov. 5 general election ballot that would pay for a standalone building for the allcove Beach Cities youth mental health center, and outdoor open community space. (Rendering courtesy BCHD)
The Beach Cities Health District will ask voters in three coastal cities in the November General Election to pay for its new youth mental health center and an open wellness space for the entire community.
BCHD’s board of directors voted unanimously at its meeting this week to put a $30 million bond measure on the November general election ballot that would pay for the agency’s planned building to house allcove Beach Cities, a mental health center for youth ages 12 to 25, and two acres of public, outdoor green space nearby.
The Health and Wellness Bond, if approved by voters, would collect a combined $1.7 million annually in property taxes from folks in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach for 30 years.
The bond would levy a tax of $3 per $100,000 assessed property value, money that would go toward BCHD to repay the bond. If an owner’s property is worth $1 million, for example, they’d pay $30 a year.
Allcove Beach Cities currently operates on the fourth floor of BCHD’s main campus, 514 Prospect Ave., in Redondo Beach. But officials at the physical and mental health agency want the youth gathering space to have its own standalone, 9,000 square-foot, two-story center, which the bond would pay for.
The current BCHD building, which is more than 60 years old and was originally the South Bay Hospital, no longer meets seismic safety standards, BCHD CEO Tom Bakaly has said. It would ultimately be demolished to create an open green space for programs and public leisure.
The allcove and open space project is part of phase one of the agency’s planned Healthy Living Campus. The other, bigger portion of the first phase, Bakaly has said, is a planned senior assisted living and memory care facility; that facility comprises the majority of phase one’s $225 million price tag.
The assisted living and memory care portion, though, is still in the investigation phase because of the climate of commercial financial markets, Bakaly has said, and may not go forward.
The only other time BCHD, which was formed in 1955, has proposed a bond measure was in 1956 to build the South Bay Hospital, Cristan Mueller, chief health operations and communications officer for the agency, said previously. The $1.5 million bond at that time covered around half of the total $3.5 million project, she added; state and federal funding covered the rest.
The $30 million bond would be spent on the following estimated costs, per Bakaly’s presentation to the board this week:
- $8 million to tear down the current building.
- $7 million to develop the open space that’d replace it.
- $9 million for allcove; and
- $6 million for planning, parking, grading and other construction.
The potential bond money would also cover solar electricity and larger meeting spaces at allcove, Bakaly has said.
There would also be a financial oversight committee for the bond.
BCHD has already received nearly $7 million in state and federal grants to build the new allcove center, Bakaly has said. The bond funding, he added, would allow the agency to build upon that base modular structure, connect the site to the main campus and develop the open outdoor space.
Construction on allcove’s permanent home is hoped to begin in the fall, Bakaly has said, with a target completion date late 2025.
Demolition of the current main campus building would likely start in late 2026. After that 18-month tear down process, he added, the open space would be developed, for a total timeline of up to five years.
Although the tax would only affect those in the three beach cities, allcove is open to youth from all over the South Bay.
BCHD wants to make allcove bigger and more impactful, Bakaly has said, because the agency has seen a higher intensity and urgency of care that community members need.
“We’re doing more suicide risk assessments than anticipated, more safety plans and (seeing) more early psychosis than anticipated,” Bakaly has said. “We want to serve people better and meet the needs.”
The entire Heathy Living Campus, though, is a step-by-step approach, Bakaly said. The agency will start looking at pursuing the second and final phase — which would include a pool, parking structure and community wellness pavilion for $325 million — once the first phase has been squared away, Bakaly said.
If the assisted living and memory care portion of phase one doesn’t happen, though, then BCHD probably wouldn’t pursue phase two either, Bakaly said. Still, the old building will come down whether or not the bond measure passes, he added.
Phase one of the campus, however, could be affected by a decision Redondo Beach might soon make about how much ground space can be built on in the city. The city’s planning commission on Aug. 1 will consider reducing the floor area ratio for development, or how much can be built on public property.
That could severely impact plans for both allcove and phase two, said Bakaly in a recent interview.
“Phase I would not be allowed,” Bakaly said, “as it would be over the square footage. And then, phase II, that would not be allowed.”
But, said Bakaly, he’s not sure about how the city putting a cap on square footage for public institutional use would work or even if it’s legal given BCHD is already governed by its conditional use permit.
That potential change to the Redondo Beach General Plan, an official policy that guides development in the city, if approved by the planning commission, would then have to be OK’d by the City Council to go into effect.
Lisa Jacobs contributed to this report