St. Armands leaders expand bathroom wish list

It might seem like a boorish topic, but for businesses in the shopping district of St. Armands Circle, there’s been a major unanswered need for years: Where do customers go when they have to use the bathroom?

By 2019, St. Armands leaders hope to have a satisfying answer to that question. The long-standing lack of public restrooms should be addressed with the completion of a parking garage project on the Circle, set for final approval at Monday’s City Commission meeting.

As the city begins to plot the final details of the garage, there’s a late-breaking push to reconsider the plans for a public restroom in the building. Although the large, city-owned structure initially seemed like a logical place to put the facilities, St. Armands Business Improvement District Co-Chairman Marty Rappaport outlined reasons to explore alternative restroom sites.

“That’s one restroom, all the way on the north end of the district,” Rappaport said of the current plans. “Having one restroom on the far side, with the age group of the clients coming in here — that’s quite a walk.”

Rappaport has begun discussing another plan with city staff. Instead of placing a bathroom in the parking garage, the city could place four prefabricated free-standing restrooms along the four medians that lead into the Circle.

Already, St. Armands stakeholders have found a potential model to emulate. The “Portland Loo” is a toilet kiosk produced in the Northwest, designed specifically for placement on sidewalks for public use. The facilities cost the city of San Diego $560,000 to install the public restrooms — but city staff is optimistic a similar product could be built locally at a lower cost.

“All you’d have is a glorified porta-potty, then. An $80,000 porta-potty.” — David Boswell

But logistical questions remain about whether the necessary infrastructure is in place to connect the restrooms to the city’s plumbing network. Rappaport said he isn’t certain if the necessary hookups exist at three out of the four medians, but he indicated that connection wouldn’t necessarily be essential for the restrooms to work.

David Boswell, the city’s purchasing manager, disagreed with that assessment.

“All you’d have is a glorified porta-potty, then,” Boswell said. “An $80,000 porta-potty.”

With the City Commission scheduled to finalize its commitment to a parking garage along North Adams Drive Monday, Rappaport is pushing to move quickly to assess whether the stand-alone bathrooms are a viable alternative.

“We really need that information as soon as possible if we’re going to be making any inroads on this,” Rappaport said. “A lot of the restaurants that have opened up their restrooms for the public have now put codes on them so only customers can use it.”

Boswell believes the city can move forward with its plans for the garage while also evaluating the multi-bathroom plan. As the city seeks a contractor for the garage, it can ask prospective builders to include plans with or without a bathroom, depending on the information staff obtains regarding the bathrooms.

In the meantime, it may be a while before the city knows whether the new restroom plan is realistic for St. Armands Circle.

“It’s not something we can’t do,” Boswell said. “It’s going to be a time-consuming process, though.”