{"id":83668,"date":"2025-12-06T03:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83668\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T03:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:09:08","slug":"port-of-la-to-evict-long-running-cabrillo-beach-scout-camp-for-olympic-sailing-facility-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83668\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of LA to evict long-running Cabrillo Beach Scout camp for Olympic sailing facility \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Scout camp and training facility that has operated for decades at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro is being evicted at the end of this month, according to Greater Los Angeles Scouting, the umbrella organization for local troops and Cub Scout packs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Port of Los Angeles is terminating Scouting\u2019s lease at the beachfront complex so that the site can be repurposed as a training center for national and international sailing teams in the 2028 Olympics, the Port said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tim Lebetsamer, who leads a Cub Scout pack in San Pedro, learned of the news on Wednesday night via email. \u201cIt came out of the blue,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For nearly 80 years, Greater Los Angeles Scouting has provided training and programming to hundreds of thousands of youth on Cabrillo Beach, initially operating out of tents and military huts and trailers, the organization said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1982, the Scouts entered into a 30-year lease with the Port to construct and manage a youth camp facility, said Robert Scoular, a member of the board of directors and vice president of Greater LA Scouting. Scoular said the Scouts raised more than $3.6 million, including from filmmaker Steven Spielberg, to construct the Cabrillo Beach Youth Center, which spans over 12 acres and includes<\/a> waterfront access, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, campgrounds, an archery range, a crafts center, an amphitheater and a kitchen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once the lease expired, the Scouts remained on a month-to-month agreement for more than a decade, Phillip Sanfield, a spokesperson for the Port, said. The terms of the lease said that if occupancy ended, the Scouts forfeited ownership to the Port, Scoular said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Losing access to that \u201cleaves a hole,\u201d Lebetsamer said. He oversees a pack of about 30 boys, from kindergarten to fifth grade, and they use the facilities at the Cabrillo Beach Youth Center at least monthly for everything from award ceremonies to potlucks to camping. \u201cIt\u2019s in our backyard,\u201d he said.\u00a0Many more regularly come from across the region \u2014 17,000 youth in just the last year, according to Greater LA Scouting.<\/p>\n

Lebetsamer met with his Cub Scouts on Wednesday \u2014 a standing den meeting \u2014 and hadn\u2019t planned to discuss the news that they might not be able to use the facility. But \u201cthat\u2019s all they want to talk about,\u201d he said of his Scouts.<\/p>\n

The Port is required to establish an operational training facility as part of its venue responsibilities in hosting the Olympic Games, as six sailing events will be staged in the Port\u2019s Outer Harbor, Sanfield said. The Port will invest $5 million through the Public Access Investment Plan for repairs and improvements \u201cthat will revitalize this important waterfront asset\u201d in preparation, Sanfield said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A newly formed nonprofit, Pathway to Podium LLC, with involvement from the Los Angeles and Cabrillo Beach Yacht Clubs, will operate the training facility under a new lease that will continue until sometime after the 2028 Olympics, according to the email sent by Greater LA Scouting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During this interim Olympic training period, Sanfield said the Port is committed to ensuring community groups continue to have access to the waterfront and facility on Cabrillo Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, more than half the youth who use the facility are non-Scouts, including 4-H members, Girl Scouts and students from Mary Star of the Sea High School, Scoular said. He said he hopes that can continue during the interim period and indicated discussions with the Port are ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The main building at the Cabrillo Beach Youth Waterfront Sports Center houses training areas, a Scout store, offices and an amphitheater overlooking the harbor. Google Maps.<\/p>\n

After the Olympics are over, \u201cwe hope to be able to reestablish at that site and move forward using the building that we paid for,\u201d he said. The Port said it will issue a request for proposals to identify a long-term operator for the site after the Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a beautiful, prime, picturesque beachfront and I think it is important that as many groups as possible can access and enjoy it,\u201d Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. A spokesperson for Hahn\u2019s office said the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors was not involved in this decision to end Scouting\u2019s lease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benjie Spolarich, a lifeguard and camp staff member at Cabrillo Beach, said he felt \u201coverlooked\u201d and \u201cbaffled\u201d by this development: If the space is taken over by the Port, he is out of a job. He said he is skeptical Scouts and the community will be able to share the space during the Olympic training period because, during past sailing events, the Port \u201ctook over the whole camp, and we only had a small portion left,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lebetsamer had planned to take his Cub Scout pack to the Pinewood Derby, where Scouts build and race unpowered miniature cars in \u201cone of the biggest events in Cub Scouting for the year,\u201d he said. The derby was scheduled for early 2026; now Lebetsamer is worried it won\u2019t take place at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy program is going to continue,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Cabrillo has been a big part of us making it happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Scout camp and training facility that has operated for decades at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-83668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}