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By Adam
Kaye
North County Times
September 15, 2007
NORTH COUNTY -- A regional agency that wants to replenish
local beaches with sand is preparing to ask eight coastal
cities to split the $500,000 cost of planning the project,
officials said Friday.
The agency, the San Diego Association of Governments, has said
it plans to dredge the sand from offshore deposits and pump it
onto the county's shoreline in 2009.
The project would resemble a $17.5 million effort in 2001 that
brought 2.1 million cubic yards of sand to 12 beaches from
Oceanside to Imperial Beach and was the first of its kind on
the West Coast.
Shelby Tucker, a planner with the regional agency, said Friday
that the group wants local cities to split the cost of the
planning effort based on the length of their beaches. The
association's board of directors is scheduled to consider that
proposal Sept. 28.
If the idea flies, San Diego, with 17.3 miles of coastline,
would pay $199,000. The breakdown for the other cities would
be Carlsbad, 6.5 miles of beach, $74,500; Coronado, 3.1 miles,
$34,500; Del Mar, 3 miles, $34,500; Encinitas, 5.8 miles,
$66,500; Imperial Beach, 2.7 miles, $31,000; Oceanside, 3.6
miles, $41,500; Solana Beach, 1.5 miles, $17,500.
Although it hasn't been served with a formal request for the
money, the Encinitas City Council is scheduled to vote
Wednesday on making its contribution.
Paying for the planning would just be the first step. Tucker
said regional and local officials haven't decided how to split
the local bill for the project itself, which is estimated to
cost $25 million and would receive 75 percent to 85 percent of
its funding from a state grant.
In planning the sand-replenishment project, much of the design
work from the previous job can be reused for the upcoming one,
Tucker said.
"Our goal is to take the successful project that occurred
in 2001 and emulate it," she said.
That means most of the same beaches that got sand in 2001
would get a similar-sized helping in 2009.
Where that sand will come from will be the focus of planners
in upcoming months, said Kathy Weldon, administrator of
Encinitas' coastal program.
She said researchers would bore samples from the ocean floor
and use sophisticated equipment to determine the depths of
undersea sand deposits.
Officials from some coastal cities said Friday that they are
prepared for a beach-building program to move forward.
Don Hadley, Oceanside's harbor master, said he has money in
his budget to contribute toward planning costs.
"We have the money and are ready and willing to go,"
he said.
A city of Carlsbad engineer, Steve Jantz, said that city could
tap money from a so-called "agricultural conversion
fund" paid by developers of agricultural property to pay
for sand replenishment.
Encinitas and Solana Beach both set aside money from hotel
taxes to pay for beach-building. Also in Solana Beach,
property owners who build sea walls must pay into a special
fund to purchase beach sand.
Paying to plan a future beach-building project is
"something that I, and I believe the full council, is
fully supportive of," said Deputy Mayor Joe Kellejian.
Also enthusiastic about a sand-replenishment project is
Encinitas Mayor James Bond.
"I think this is appropriate spending," he said.
Todd Cardiff, an attorney with the Encinitas-based Coast Law
Group and a member of the Surfrider Foundation's local
advisory board, said project planners must ensure sand
replenishment does not alter or harm the reefs that form waves
for surfing.
"In general, we do support sand replenishment and
beach-building," Cardiff said, "but it has to be
done in a way that takes into account potential impacts to
surfing."
Staff writer Marga Kellogg contributed to this story. Contact
staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com
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