To: San Diego City Council Members and Mayor
From: Coastal Caretakers /Lynne Miller
Item 331: Coastal Resilience Master Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Report. (SEPT 9, 2025)
This Agenda has been on your calendar and cancelled several times. Now it is the last item on the agenda. People who live in the Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs, and Point Loma area have tried unsuccessfully to communicate with the ‘board’ and designers of this plan. Requests to set up a new meeting to answer local concerns have been denied. This behavior is consistent with unbridled building that is justified by the high-density affordable housing philosophy and new laws.
We are asking City Council Members and Staff, and the Mayor, to listen to and respond to the concerns of local neighborhoods and San Diego residents. San Diego citizens have voiced their concerns about mandated changes through meetings, emails, letters, slideshow presentations, bound documents, appeals, and protests. Private organizations around the city are combining forces to challenge the city’s power structure, which has stripped local San Diegans of their rights. The ministerial law is clearly the government’s strategy to exclude people from making decisions about their immediate community. Years of city planning have been systematically destroyed. New laws provide developers with a permitting process that streamlines building and ensures a profit.
I remember playing a board game as a child when an older kid changed the rules of the game so that he could win. That is cheating, and it worked that day because the bully controlled the game. This tactic is not going to work when a whole way of life is under siege. This time the government bullies have formidable opponents.
While our community was busy with ADUs and CC, the Coastal Resilience Master Plan was being created. The process was similar to the ADU and CC creation: Government makes the plans, spends the tax dollars, and does, or does not, pretend to collaborate with local residents. However, in this case, there is a real and immediate issue that needs to be discussed. Erosion is real, and the cliffs at Sunset Cliffs are the poster child of that reality. Therefore, residents, many of whom are good stewards of the Earth, want to participate in the solution. At the two meetings regarding Sunset Cliffs, the locals had data, science, and history to support their recommendations. Those of us who attended know that our voices were heard. Then there was a long silence. Now there is a 91-page document that may or may not have considered local input. We don’t know because the designers of CRMP have disappeared.
CRMP has not been willing to hear us. Our concerns are legitimate. I understand the local and state leaders prefer legislating without transparency and neighborhood collaboration. Here are some of my concerns.
Friar’s Road at the far west has been impassible due to construction for 4 years?, 6?, I have lost count. It is known that Sunset Cliffs Blvd is compromised at a storm drain that deposits water from uphill runoff. It seems paramount that the officials and staff who are making all the decisions for our neighborhood and our natural resource, Sunset Cliffs, investigate this before anything is approved. Why is anyone considering work on Sunset Cliffs Blvd until this is resolved? It makes no sense.
The one-way street on Sunset Cliffs Blvd will impact the flow of traffic, especially if the road construction takes 4 – 6 years to complete. Once completed, traffic will be heavy on connecting streets and parallel streets.
Imagine that this plan is approved, and parking lots, which are large and numerous, are jack-hammered. What will the removal of parking lots using heavy equipment do to the stability of the fragile cliffs? Parking is a big issue at our beaches and at Sunset Cliffs. There is no place to put new parking if the parking lots are destroyed, unless, of course, you reposition them on the cliffs. Again, demolition and rebuilding of the parking is going to impact the stability of the cliffs.
Suggestions to take away roadways to provide walkways and bicycle paths are not practical at all, though the designs are picturesque. The cliffs are a wonderful resource, but they also pose many dangers that are well understood by locals. Rescues of visitors are common, expensive, and any design that encourages cliff access seems filled with liabilities. (We understand that any law suits directed at the City will be paid by tax payers.)
Please do not approve this 91 page CRMP without consideration of all the input from the residents, and from credible environmental resources. More concerns are being sent to you from individuals and organizations. Please read each submission and consider its merit before you approve of this plan and begin destruction and reconstruction.
Sincerely,
Lynne Miller for Coastal Caretakers
This plan will be on the city council agenda tomorrow. There is still time to make a comment. Here was mine:
I am writing in opposition to some proposed features in Agenda Item 331: “Coastal Resilience Master Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Report.”
In the Ocean Beach – Dog Beach section in the proposal, I oppose the beachfront dunes for the majority of the shoreline, for three reasons.
1. The winter dunes block the ocean views, that should not be permanent.
2. The amount of maintenance the dune feature would require. Between the public tramping them down and the relentless onslaught of the ocean and the wind, the dunes would need constant attention.
3. Only a small portion of the coastline to the south, that is near businesses and homes, might need such protection. The dunes fronting Dog Beach south to perhaps Cape May only protect a large parking lot, some lawn area, and a large beach area from Brighton to Cape May.
I also oppose relocating the restrooms. We spent a million dollars to build the things so I’m sure the city’s design took into account sea level rise. The restrooms are fine where they are.