By Paul Sisson
North County Times
October 13, 2005
SAN
DIEGO ---- The state's Coastal Commission ruled Wednesday that
Solana Beach bluff-top homeowners must compensate the public
for "lost recreational value" before they build a
new sea wall on the public beach below.
Wednesday's vote marks only the second time the commission,
which regulates development and protects public access along
the state's 1,100-mile coastline, has ever required private
property owners to compensate the public for lost recreational
opportunities because of the construction of a sea wall.
On
a separate beach issue Wednesday, scientists from UC San Diego
announced at a press conference at Fletcher Cove in Solana
Beach that more beach sand than originally thought may come
from crumbling sea cliffs.
In its public meeting in downtown San Diego, the Coastal
Commission voted unanimously to approve a new 120-foot-long,
35-foot-tall sea wall to protect the 36-unit Las Brisas
condominium complex located just south of Fletcher Cove in
Solana Beach.
According to commission reports, the sea wall will consume a
12-foot-deep, 120-foot-long strip of public beach along the
base of the bluff.
Based on a recommendation by economist Phillip King, the
commission required the Las Brisas homeowners to pay $249,000
to compensate the public for the lost strip of beach that
would be covered by the new sea wall.
In addition, the commission said those homeowners must also
pay a $22,000 "sand mitigation fee" intended to
compensate the public for sand that would have fallen onto the
beach if the sea wall weren't built.
Bob Trettin, an attorney hired by Las Brisas residents, took
exception to the calculation of the mitigation fee for lost
public beach space, saying that King miscalculated the size of
the beach that would be needed for the sea wall. He also said
he believed the economist's calculation that 40,000 people use
the beach a year was too high.
Although the commission's decision was unanimous, there was
some discussion over King's methods for coming up with the
number of people using the beach. King said that, among other
things, he based his figures on conversations with lifeguards
and on the number of cars in the parking lots.
"I think (King's) analysis has been as accurate as you
can be for something like this," said Commissioner Sara
Wan.
Commissioner Dave Potter said, on the other hand, that he was
not convinced that King's methods for estimating beach-users
was accurate.
"I'm not convinced that cars in the parking lot equate to
people on the beach," Potter said.
In the end, though, the commission said it believed King's
estimate of the beach's economic benefit was adequate enough
to vote on the sea wall Wednesday instead of delaying the vote
for more information.
Meanwhile, scientists with the Jacobs School of Engineering at
UCSD gathered at Fletcher Cove to discuss the results of a new
research paper on the effects of coastal erosion.
The study, written by graduate student Adam Young and
engineering professor Scott Ashford, estimates that 68 percent
of the sand on North County beaches comes from the collapse of
coastal sea cliffs like those in Solana Beach.
The findings are contrary to findings from previous coastal
erosion studies, which have found sea-cliff collapses and
other forms of erosion to be relatively minor sources of beach
sand.
Other studies, such as one published by the Journal of Coastal
Research in 2003, have found, for example, that sand carried
from inland erosion by rivers and streams to be more
significant.
Young said in a telephone interview Monday that his study used
high-precision lasers to measure the cliff face.
"It's much more precise than anything that has been done
before," Young said.
The graduate student said he used a computer program to
compare two laser scans of coastal bluffs from Dana Point
south to La Jolla. A scan conducted in 2004 was compared to
one in 1998, giving researchers a picture of exactly how much
sand has left the bluff face in a 6-year span.
The study estimated that 80,000 cubic yards of sand came from
sea cliffs. An estimate in the 2003 study found that sea
cliffs contributed only about 45,900 cubic yards. Ashford
noted that the study years had relatively little rainfall and
added that amounts could change in wet years.
"At least during dry years it is pretty clear that a much
larger fraction of sand is coming from the bluffs,"
Ashford said.
Young and Ashford said they plan to continue monitoring the
bluffs for at least two more years, and perhaps much longer.
Young said his paper does not address what effect sea walls
and other bluff protection devices have on determining how
much sand reaches public beaches.
"I plan to do some more work with the data to take a look
at that issue," Young said.
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