Fitness room proposal approved

MTCA passes plan unanimously despite residents’ concerns

January 17, 2009 – A controversial $435,000 plan to build a fitness room on the 20th floor of one residential tower was approved unanimously on Thursday by the Marina Towers Condominium Association board of directors. A new MTCA meeting room will be built in the other tower.

MTCA president Donna Leonard has told unit owners at Marina City the fitness center and meeting room could be built “without assessment increases beyond the ordinary cost of living increases and without a special assessment.”

Residents have concerns about the plan, which would include making the laundry rooms smaller and eliminating restrooms on the 20th floor. Unit owners who attended a January 8 meeting of the Buildings & Grounds Committee say these concerns were expressed to board members and the residential property manager.

(Above) Floor plan for proposed changes to the 20th floor.

Residents critical of plan and process

Former MTCA president Dr. Martin Flynn calls the plan “insane.”

“With only the briefest of investigation and no owner oversight or reflection,” he says, “the board has chosen to commit well over $500,000 on a project that, however well-intended, is dubious on its face.”

He points out there have been “no contractor or architect/engineering presentations or bids, no contingencies for owner disruption, no bathrooms, no plan review, no timeline, and no designated funding from reserves.”

Dr. Martin Flynn (left) is an anesthesiologist who currently lives in Marina del Rey, California. He was on the MTCA board from 2000 to 2002.

Flynn predicts the project will “further dampen owner involvement and interaction, and fundamentally alter the MTCA community for all time.”

Reaction on the resident blog Marina Watch Dog Sound Off was entirely critical of the plan.

“It was unbelievable as usual,” wrote one anonymous blogger. “Despite the objections of close to 30 unit owners and six board members who attended the meeting last week on the fitness room, the board unanimously passed the project as proposed by management without discussion.”

A unit owner in the east tower wrote, “I went to the meeting and was appalled at the tone….board members appeared either annoyed or bored….the proposed exercise room would be mocked by any other condo board.”

According to the condo association, of 257 unit owners who responded to a survey sent out on November 26, 88 percent were in favor of the project and 12 percent were against it.