Some years ago, after what was left of Marion Davies’ estate at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, had been red-tagged, wrapped in chain link fencing and left to molder in the sun, one of Santa Monica’s savviest residents. Jeff Bixon, said, “All they have to do is open it up, We know what to do with it.”

Thanks to a $21 million-plus grant from the Annenberg Foundation, it is new being remade. Though it won’t open until early 2009, the City will hold a community workshop Saturday to discuss “operational and program plans” for what is now called the Annenberg Community Beach Club.

City staff will open the workshop with “site details and operating parameters,” after which workshop participants will, as the City put it, “be given the opportunity to envision their perfect day at the Annenberg Community Beach Club.”

According to the City, “Public input will be incorporated into the operational and program plan for the site, and additional opportunities for input will be scheduled prior to the projected opening in early 2009.”

The Saturday workshop will be held Ib the multi-purpose room in the Main Santa Monica Public Library on from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, The library is located at 601 Santa Monica Blvd.

The remade club will include space for meetings and events, a restored swimming pool, a new pool house with locker rooms, picnic areas and gardens, a beach café, a concessions stand, volleyball nets and beach tennis courts.

There is no question that residents will have lots to say about what to do with the restored beach club. The only question is whether the City will do what residents tell it to do.

For more information, or to receive e-mail updates on the project, please visit 415pch.smgov.net , or e-mail 415pch@smgov.net.