Cabrillo Beach Youth Center

On December 1, the Port of Los Angeles served Greater Los Angeles Scouting with a “Notice to Terminate” the Council’s ground lease of its one-of-a-kind beach-front Cabrillo Beach Youth Center (“CYC”) on Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. The Port’s Notice terminates the Council’s lease effective December 31, 2025, and requires the Council to vacate the premises no later than December 31, 2025. Thirty-eight years after constructing the Cabrillo Beach Youth Center at a cost of $3.6 million, and after serving hundreds of thousands of youth at CYC over these years, Greater Los Angeles Scouting is being evicted.

The Port has told the Council that it is “repurposing” CYC for use as a “training center” for international sailing teams in the 2028 Olympics. A newly-formed nonprofit organization, “Pathway to Podium LLC,” with involvement by the L.A. and Cabrillo Beach Yacht Clubs, will operate the new training facility under an interim, short-term lease until sometime after the conclusion of the 2028 Olympics.

During this interim “training center” period, the Council hopes to be able to use portions of the site to continue to serve youth with its broad programs and activities, but that is presently unknown. The Council also hopes to reactivate CYC after the 2028 Olympics but that also is presently unknown, as the Port states it plans to then offer the site to various organizations, presently unknown, in requests for proposals.

Since 1946, 80 years ago, Greater Los Angeles Scouting has provided training and waterfront activities to youth at Cabrillo Beach, initially operating out of tents and military WWII Quonset huts and trailers under a lease with Fort MacArthur. In 1982, at the initiative of Greater LA Scouting leadership, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley (a member of the Council’s Board), City officials, civic and business leaders and others, Greater LA Scouting entered into a 30-year lease of the Cabrillo Beach site from the Port, for the “purposes” of “construction, operation, maintenance and management of a nonexclusive youth camp facility” by Greater LA Scouting. Greater LA Scouting raised over $3.6 million to construct the CYC complex, dedicated in 1987 by Mayor Bradley, with lead contributions by Steven Spielberg and the Amateur Athletic Foundation (now LA84)(with funds from the 1984 Olympics), and additional major contributions by Ahmanson Foundation, Lon V. Smith Foundation, Los Angeles Times, Toyota Motor corporation, Union Pacific Foundation, Weinberg Foundation, and others.

As constructed by Greater Los Angeles Scouting, CYC’s facilities encompass 12.3 acres, with waterfront access, and Olympic-size swimming pool, campgrounds, boat house, and a 25,000-square-foot Spielberg Center, which houses a dining room, meeting rooms, craft center, amphitheater, and staff quarters.

Over the years, CYC has served hundreds of thousands of youth. During just the last program year, while still recovering from the pandemic’s impact on operations, CYC served over 17,000 diverse youth through a variety of campouts, training and activities, and over 35 schools, churches, youth and community organizations, and government agencies, in addition to Scouts. Government agencies served included the Port of Los Angeles Police, Los Angeles City Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments, U.S. Coast Guard, and numerous City and County lifeguard units. CYC has served these youth of the community – boys and girls, Scouts and non-Scouts – and the numerous organizations and entities at no cost to the City or Port of Los Angeles. The Port’s termination of the lease and eviction of Greater Los Angeles Scouting is an immeasurable loss to youth, the community and Scouting.