Committee recommends bronze bench donation program for golf course; sends package to council

The San Clemente City Golf Course Committee voted unanimously to recommend a donor-funded amenity program that would place benches, trash cans and a limited number of drinking stations around the municipal golf course.

Committee members recommended option B — a bench with a back in a bronze finish — to match the city’s existing care program, and asked staff to include a matching trash can and a donor plaque no larger than four inches. The committee approved the recommendation and directed staff to prepare a package for San Clemente City Council consideration.

Samantha, a city parks staff member, said the program is modeled on the city’s existing care program in parks and trails and is intended to offset initial purchase and long-term maintenance costs. “For reference for the care program, we currently charge $5,000 a bench for the care program, and people have completely accepted that,” Samantha said during the discussion. She described the $5,000 donation as covering the bench plus roughly 10 years of maintenance held in a dedicated fund.

Staff presented several bench styles and materials. Option B combines metal framing with composite slats (the same material used in nearby Tulaga Park), and staff recommended a bronze powder-coated finish to withstand sea air. Staff said an all-metal option and several backless designs were also available; backless benches are longer and typically cost more per unit than the bench-with-back designs. Committee members expressed preferences for composite slats to avoid hot metal in summer and to allow single-slat repairs.

On locations, staff and the house subcommittee proposed placing about 40 benches around the course plus five benches at the driving range (roughly 45 total). Staff described placement decisions as driven by places where players wait — for example, near tees where carts are infrequent and at high-wait holes such as No. 13 — and said concrete pads would be poured to secure benches. “We would end up pouring a concrete pad,” a staff member said, noting that the initial installation cost includes foundation work.

The committee also discussed water stations and ball-washers. Staff recommended restoring existing plumbing locations (where previous fountains stood) rather than installing new piping; modern bottle-refill stations run about $5,500–$6,000 each, staff said. Several committee members recommended removing most ball washers because they are frequently filled with stagnant water and not widely used; shoe-scrubbers were described as a possible lower-priority replacement.

Staff clarified funding flow: donations would be placed in a restricted maintenance fund (similar to the park care program) to pay for periodic upkeep such as repowder-coating or graffiti removal. Samantha said that if a $5,000 donation exceeds procurement cost (staff noted some bench options cost roughly $2,000), the remainder would stay in the maintenance fund and roll over year to year.

The committee asked staff to retain flexibility for minor location tweaks, to work with donors if bench placements change later (donor moves would be handled at no cost to the donor), and to allow the house subcommittee to finalize granular design or plaque-line decisions if the full committee preferred delegation. Staff indicated the Beach, Parks and Recreation Department would manage the program and that Debbie (parks staff) would likely administer donor requests.

By general voice vote the committee approved the recommendation to send the package to council: bronze finish, option B bench with back, matching trash can, and a plaque no bigger than four inches; locations as proposed by the subcommittee with minor adjustments as needed. Staff will prepare Council materials and, if approved by Council, begin advertising the donation opportunity to the public.

Next steps: staff will finalize procurement details, confirm exact quantities and per-unit pricing for the selected design, prepare the Council submittal, and include the maintenance fund language that ensures donated funds are used only for the benches’ upkeep.