SJB officials blame visitor absence on lack of public restrooms
in city center
When city officials in San Juan Bautista started looking at the
reasons the tourist buses stopped coming to the city, a lack of
potty stops proved to be one of the problems, according to
research.
SJB officials blame visitor absence on lack of public restrooms in city center
When city officials in San Juan Bautista started looking at the reasons the tourist buses stopped coming to the city, a lack of potty stops proved to be one of the problems, according to research.
A study was conducted by a previous city manager, current city manager Jan McClintock said. The city manager talked to one tour bus company whose staff said one of the reasons the company no longer does tours in San Juan is because the city does not have adequate facilities.
Now, almost a decade later city officials are still trying to figure out a way to offer a cost-effective solution to public restrooms so that businesses might find some of their coffers refilled.
“It’s become some what of a compounding problem,” McClintock said. “A lot of the independent businesses cannot stay open without people, but people will not come unless the businesses are open.”
Keeping businesses open requires as much tourism as possible and expanded tourism requires the proper amenities, including public restrooms, McClintock said.
Because many of the buildings in San Juan date back more than 60 years, much of the architecture would not accommodate renovations that would be necessary in order to modernize facilities.
“Many merchants are threatened with lawsuits if they let some people use their bathrooms, because the bathrooms are not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, so they can’t let people use the restrooms,” McClintock said. “One of the businesses that allowed people to use the restrooms had to close its doors because someone threatened to sue them. It creates a complicated situation.”
Patricia Bains has owned Mrs. B’s Z-store for almost a decade. She understands just how complicated the situation is, she said.
“It’s a serious problem,” Bains said. “More bathrooms would ease the pressure on merchants to provide restroom service. It would put them in a better standing with their customers. When we have to refuse people who ask to use the restroom, we risk that person not shopping here again.”
The problem is that San Juan Bautista doesn’t have the extra money it would take to install public restrooms. McClintock estimated that it would cost upwards of $300,000 to install a restroom with two men’s stalls and two women’s stalls.
“Public restrooms are expensive to build,” McClintock said. “Because they take a lot of abuse. They almost have to be bulletproof. Either you build them like a tank, or you have to rebuild them within a year.”
The other half of the problem is that the city does not have an adequate location for such a structure.
They have looked for a location they could purchase downtown, or to lease long-term, but both of these options would be very expensive, McClintock said.
Currently the only public restrooms in the downtown area are located at Abbey Park, but that is nearly three blocks from the downtown area. The other problem with the Abbey Park restrooms is that they are not ADA compliant.
One of the possible solutions the city has looked at is partnering with Mission San Juan Bautista since the Mission staff wanted to add a restroom to their facilities. The idea was that if the two organizations worked together on the project the city could help the Mission through the planning process, provide free water and sewer to the public restrooms, negate the connection and development impact fees and provide janitorial services for the project, McClintock said.
The water and sewer costs alone are estimated to exceed $300 per month. The development impact fees would be between $25,000 to $50,000, depending on whether increased development impact fees are approved.
Discussions are ongoing between church staff and city officials.
There are also plans for another solution to the problem, but McClintock would not discuss details until the project has been presented to the San Juan City Council.
Port-A-Potties have been the temporary solution to the problem during busy festivals, but when festivals aren’t happening there needs to be a solution to keep people coming during regular Saturdays and during business weeks, said Margot Tankersley, owner of Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor.
“Public restrooms would definitely help the town,” Tankersley said. “Tourists are often upset that we don’t have restrooms available. We have a sign telling people to use the bathrooms at the state park, but they’re only open until 5 p.m. I know there are questions about how to build them and where to put them, but someone needs to find some answers quick.”
One of the options Tankersley thought of was a pay-per-use restroom. The city could install them and operate them, but then businesses could give patrons tokens they could use for the restrooms, she said.
