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    Currents >> Current Actions >> Shoreline Management Strategy Current Events | Current Actions | Beach Cleanups | Chapter Meetings

Army Corps Shoreline Projects Have Been Proposed Along The Entire Coastline Of Solana Beach and Encinitas.


Please call Encinitas and Solana Beach Council members and continue to share your thoughts on this issue. Our objective is to get the Solana Beach Council to adopt Alternative 1: Sand Only as policy. Alternative 2: Notchfills with Sand Replenishment, jeopardizes the Local Coastal Plan and does not give the most funding to beach projects including sand replenishment.

In Solana Beach,

TOM CAMPBELL - MAYOR
LESA HEEBNER - COUNCIL MEMBER
JOE KELLEJIAN - COUNCIL MEMBER
DAVE ROBERTS - COUNCIL MEMBER

To contact members of the City Council, call the Council Executive Assistant, Maria Escobedo at (858) 720-2430.

In Encinitas,

Mayor Dan Dalager
(760) 633-2624
ddalager at ci.encinitas.ca.us

Deputy Mayor Christy Guerin
(760) 633-2620
cguerin at ci.encinitas.ca.us

Council Member Maggie Houlihan
(760) 633-2621
mhoulihan at ci.encinitas.ca.us

Council Member Jerome Stocks
(760) 633-2622
jstocks at ci.encinitas.ca.us

Council Member James Bond
(760) 633-2623
jbond at ci.encinitas.ca.us

You may also email "bill at surfridersd.org" or "jmjaffee at adelphia.net" for more information.

Fletcher Cove and surfer What's At Stake?

The Army Corps of Engineers has completed a study that proposes to armor the entire Solana Beach and Encinitas shoreline excluding Swami's and Table Tops at taxpayer expense. They are also proposing the placement of dredged sand on the entire coastline.

The potentially affected surf breaks and beaches in the area are too numerous to name but include: Swami's, D St and Moonlight Beach, Beacon's, San Elijo Campgrounds and State Beach ... and many more.

This project's prime purpose is the protection of blufftop structures. Recreation benefits caused by sand dredging and filling associated with the project are only an incidental benefit. This is not a recreational beach replenishment project.

The preferred alternative selected in the project is notch fills and sand replenishment (dredging and filling of beaches). Notch fills are nothing more than lower bluff seawalls. Their prime purpose is to protect private property. This project is a subsidy for private property protection with public tax dollars. The notchfill alternative should not be the preferred alternative. Private property owners should pay their own costs for seawalls and notch fills and should not be part of a tax subsidized project.

The notch fills (seawalls) will be located on public beaches and lands. The Army Corps study does no accounting for the use of this public property for a private use in its economic justification for the project. California law requires that the public be compensated for use of this land. We must demand that the use of public lands for seawalls to protect private property be added to the economic costs of the projects. The study does not provide sufficient data to show what the shoreline will look with added sand out to the reefs. We must demand more analysis of the sand profiles be shown over surf breaks and reefs. We must demand that the sand added be of adequate volume to offset the impacts of seawalls or notch fills, but not so much that it destroys surf breaks or reefs.

Please show up if you can and/or contact James Jaffee (jmjaffee at adelphia.net) or the San Diego Chapter for more info.

The results of a study funded by California Sea Grant have been released. You can read the press release here.

The preferred alternative selected in the project is notch fills and sand replenishment (dredging and filling of beaches). Notch fills are nothing more than lower bluff seawalls.  Their prime purpose is to protect private property.  This project is a subsidy for private property protection with public tax dollars. The notchfill alternative should not be the preferred alternative.  Private property owners should pay their own costs for seawalls and notch fills and should not be part of a tax subsidized project.

The notch fills (seawalls) will be located on public beaches and lands. The Army Corps study does no accounting for the use of this public property for a private use in its economic justification for the project.  California law requires that the public be compensated for use of this land. We must demand that the use of public lands for seawalls to protect private property be added to the economic costs of the projects.

The study does not provide sufficient data to show what the shoreline will look with added sand out to the reefs.  We must demand more analysis of the sand profiles be shown over surf breaks and reefs.  We must demand that the sand added be of adequate volume to offset the impacts of seawalls or notch fills, but not so much that it destroys surf breaks or reefs.



Use the following documents and links to find out about upcoming events and learn about the history and science of this imporant issue:

From Jim Jaffee, longtime Surfrider member and activist:

This project's prime purpose is the protection of blufftop structures. Recreation benefits caused by sand dredging and filling associated with the project are only an incidental benefit. This is not a recreational beach replenishment project.

In Solana Beach your right of beach access was given away when development permits for beachfront and blufftop development were granted...or was it? That was what I thought until I became active in Surfrider and learned about the right of the public to access the beach to the high tide line. Blufftop residents are building seawalls and other shoreline development over your beach.

When a seawall is built it projects onto the beach, onto your access, onto your property. If that was not bad enough, over time, sea level is rising and the bluff line is trying to move to the east to widen the beach. Seawalls will fix the back of the beach and choke mother ocean's energy into swash of backwash that stops the formation of the beach. Eventually it is seawall and ocean, with no beach.

The local chapter has been fighting to protect your beach access for the last 9 years and local residents have been concerned for the last 30 years or more. We need your voice to be heard by the Solana Beach City Council. They are finally trying to correct this problem by developing a comprehensive plan. We need you to let council know:

  1. Seawalls should not be permanently placed on public property. Seawalls placed on public beach must be removed at the design life of the seawall or 75 years, whichever is less.
  2. There should be rent and comparable mitigation for this private use and taking of public property.
  3. The City policy must recognize adverse impacts of seawalls to aesthetics, surf breaks and shoreline access.
  4. The City should adopt a strict policy to restrict development near the beach. A setback line for no new development and no redevelopment should be adopted to prevent the continued proliferation of seawalls.
  5. The City should pass a comprehensive local coastal plan.

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