By Lynne Miller
San Diego City Hosted a meeting at Point Loma/Hervey Library. The room was packed. Compliments to Dalton Consultation, the company presenting their plans to the community. I have attended a few meetings in the past 5 years, and this presentation was well designed and presented. Fielding the 30+ questions concluded the meeting.
I agree that the ‘cliffs are falling into the sea’ and plans to slow the erosion are delinquent. Past plans may have increased the erosion, it depends on who is compiling and presenting information and why.
Compliments to everyone who attended, including the presenter and the city official who was MC at the event. There was a wealth of information and it appeared that the private consultation company and the city official listened to us.
Will that listening transform into action? Will the serious suggestions and concerns voiced by an educated audience improve the design plans and ultimately work to slow erosion?
Sadly, my experience with local government suggests public concerns will NOT impact the project plans, any more than the new seawalls will slow the erosion of the cliffs. Here are my concerns.
To my knowledge, this is the first meeting that the City and the contractor initiated with the public. We were informed that 60% of the project design was complete. We were informed that planning began in 2018, and expanded in 2022.
I may have heard or interpreted what I heard incorrectly. Is it possible that 60% of the project planning is complete today, and that the public has had no input until this meeting? My own answer, “Well sure, it is common behavior from City Planning and City Council.”
Apparently in 2023 the (CRMP) Coastal Resiliency Master Plan began. While the transportation department –who is in charge of this project– has discussed their plans with the CRMP, the projects are separate, and the Sunset Cliffs Seawall Improvement Project will move forward.
Here is their timeline:
- Design Completion-summer, 2027;
- Beginning Construction-winter, 2027.
- Projected completion time-about 18 months.
We also learned that the Sunset Cliffs Seawall Improvement Project is not fully funded. It is funded through the planning phase only. The projected cost to complete the project is 32 million dollars.
I have been told that if the plans are approved then the City will find the money to build and see the project to completion. Again, my observation of government promises sees Friar’s Road in construction with access closure for how many years, 7,8? I have lost count. That is my concern. Saying there will be money does not make it true. My apologies if I have this number wrong, but I think to date the Sea Wall Project has spent $6,000,000. I also think about that High Speed Rail project that seems to be a very expensive, incomplete project. Promising to complete projects, promising to allocate funds, has the flavor of snake oil remedies from the Wild West.
This is how I understand the plan. First it is independent from Coastal Resiliency Master Plan, and will precede the Master Plan. The Seawall Project will stage their equipment in one of the current parking lots. During construction Sunset Cliffs will remain two lanes as it is now. There will be two walls built. One is a tie-back wall, which will be an invisible wall because it will be underground. Many piling will be inserted into the cliff at an angle and will be 50’ deep. Each piling will be tethered to maintain its position. The second wall will be a secant wall that aesthetically matches the cliffs themselves in color and texture. It is projected that these two walls will do the job of slowing erosion for 50 years.
After the Seawall Project is complete, then or maybe simultaneously, CRMP moves forward with the master plan, which may include removal of the parking lots. As it turns out some of those stakes inserted in the tie-back wall are under the parking lots. I am not an engineer but I know that chisels and hammers are used to slice off pieces of material during demolition. To me it feels like those inserted stakes will serve as chisels to undermine the integrity of the cliffs. I was told that is not an issue. However, in my vision of possible disaster, the tie-back wall is in place, jack hammers come in to dig up the asphalt, and in the process assert pressure on the 50 foot piping and chisel pieces of cliff, slice by slice.
Readers please comment and tell me this is not a concern. Convince me.
Why is it so hard for people to work together towards a common goal? Perhaps the goals are not the same, and that begins the problem. The Sea Wall Project has a goal– to stop the undercuts (which can be as deep as 12 feet), thereby preserving the cliff area and Sunset Cliffs Blvd. They have looked at many possible solutions, from doing nothing, to pumping foam in the undercuts, and believe they have designed the best plans to stop the undercuts.
CRMP must have some of the same concerns and goals. It is more difficult to collaborate, compromise, and hear different ideas. But that is how the birth of new, more effective actions begin.
I would ask the City to change their style of planning. These two projects are working on the same land, and CRMP has input from the community that needs to be shared. Put some local geologists who live in the area on these project committees. Don’t complete a plan (almost) before discussing it with the local residents.
We all want to save the cliffs. I hope we all know that mother nature may have other plans!
If all ideas are welcome during the brainstorming stage of planning, then I have a proposal. Get some sandstone from the Chocolate Mountains east of San Diego. Maybe some that’s already been busted up by Navy fighter jets. Dump it close to the edge with trucks, and then push it over the edge with bulldozers and fire hoses. Try to avoid the expense of cranes. Sandstone is what nature wants in this location, not the usual alien rocks made of granite. No, I don’t have a cost estimate, and I don’t know how long it will last. I have observed sandstone revetment in nature, I recommend walking around Luscomb’s Point in Sunset Cliffs at a minus tide. You will see sandstone boulders protected by red algae and other marine organisms. This helps to slow the erosion. We should try to mimic nature, not fight it with granitic rocks, concrete, and (gasp!) polyurethane foam. Also keep in mind that erosion is the bottom of the food chain. It’s minerals suspended in the water that nourishes that red algae you see at a minus tide.
Thank you for a very informative article. The city says that this plan will “slow” erosion for fifty years. So what’s the point? Are they trying to deny that the ocean is rising? This is a plan to preserve the status quo. But the world is changing before our eyes. What is the plan for the fifty years after? We have to stop trying to hold back the rising tide. The only viable plan for the future is managed retreat. That’s right, let the street fall into the ocean. The houses across the street will be cliff front properties, but that won’t last forever either. We have known about climate change since the 1950’s. If you try to deny that it exists, or think we can control it, you are making a big mistake. We are, right now putting more carbon into the atmosphere than we ever have before. The ocean will continue to rise and ignoring it will not help. And if you don’t like my plan, consider this, at least it won’t cost the 32 million dollars that we don’t have.
Two separate and completely different plans from two differerent Departments of the City of San Diego for the exact same property? Makes the “why?” or “What’s going on?” appropriate questions. The city has only one answer: Cement. thank you, Larry, for acknowledging semi-nature made solutions.
Like all wonderful city meetings, they leave you with lots of food for thought (in addition to snacks). DId anybody get an answer to these questions. 1. Why was a slice of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park left ignored? (Northern boundary of the park, adjacent to a private property with a failing sea wall. 2. If the project is 60% designed, who made the plans? Where are they? Love to see them.
Yes, you might think that all of the water would just come swooshing into the unprotected cliff right next to it. I am not an engineer, it is just what happens every time. With a boundary between a hard surface and a soft surface, the soft surface loses.