“Solana Beach is trying to make a bluff plan…”

As the last city on the San Diego coast to enact a Local Coastal Program to fit into to the greater plan of development and preservation maintained by the California Coastal Commission, years of dispute in Solana Beach regarding seawalls and beach preservation might be coming to an agreement.  But at what cost?

“Failure is NOT an option”

The fragile sandstone bluffs that line the coast of North County continue to vex the city as well as landowners that watch their property collapse and wash away as mother nature continues to claim what is her own.

Seawalls have long been looked to as a solution, with mixed results.  They stop the natural replenishment of sand to our beaches, and when they fail, they do so in a spectacular and often hazardous manner.

A few years back, the Surfrider Foundation sued the city of Solana Beach for approving seawalls without proper environmental study.  The problem with solving the dilemma of collapsing bluffs is the balance of the short term solution against long term success and improvements.  Now Solana is trying to look to the future with a controversial proposal of fees levied on landowners constructing seawalls and an expiration date on seawalls that are permitted.

“The year 2081 should be far enough into the future to have found a solution to the ongoing problem of coastal erosion, but will it really see better odds of success?”

For now, Solana Beach has been working with the Surfrider Foundation in hopes to aid the passage of their Local Coastal Program with the Coastal Commission.  Even to the extent of paying up to $100,000 to win Surfrider’s support. Certainly the support of the association will aid the passage of the program, but citizens question the impartial review of this independent group with the exchange of funds, apparently for “attorney’s fees”.  Does the Surfrider’s stamp of approval come with the Program caveat that seawalls will be removed by 2081?  This begs the concern; “Is all this a temporary solution at best?”

The added funds that seawall fees will contribute to preservation and restoration programs certainly help make the plan more attractive.  The city of Solana Beach is unique, also, in their position of interest in acquiring disputed properties as they come on to the market, in the interest of halting continued development on unstable ground.

The details of the plan proposed by the city will be reviewed by the Coastal Commission in November, and we’ll eagerly await more details on the scope and shape of our coast to come.

For further information, see the following Union-Tribune articles…

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20081009-9999-lz1mc9coastal.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20081005-9999-lz1mc5surf.html