The discussion topic netted few answers about official policy on emergency seawall construction when erosion threatens cliffside homes.

What can be done about cliffside erosion? Surfrider has ideas, although the ideas met with resistance from some La Jolla Community Planning Association members when it comes to erosion threats to existing homes.

Erosion is “not a natural disaster, it is a people disaster,” said Tom Cook, executive committee chair of the San Diego chapter of Surfider Foundation, which seeks to protect the ocean and beaches through activism and policy influence.

Shorelines are dynamic, Cook told LJCPA at its June 5 meeting. When humans try to stop erosion, they “have to deal with some major consequences.”

Showing images of erosion events, such as large storms and “king” tide waves in La Jolla since 1949, Cook said “erosion has been a problem as long as there’s been a beach,” and that mitigation efforts include “hard” methods like building jetties and seawalls and “soft” methods like beach nourishment, during which sand is dredged from the ocean and added back to the beach.

Beach nourishment is very successful when undertaken correctly, Cook said, noting SANDAG and other local groups have formed a regional Shoreline Management workshop that is asking for two to three millions cubic yards of sand to replenish local beaches. 

“It’s very expensive, very difficult, but something that we all get behind,” Cook said, “because … the beach is pretty important for San Diego.”

Surfrider primarily advocates for a mitigation called “managed retreat,” or “moving infrastructure and property off of the coast out of harm’s way,” Cook said. “The longer you wait, the more expensive this is going to be.”

La Jolla erosion hotspot: La Jolla Shores

To tackle erosion and sea level rise locally, the city of San Diego has developed its Coastal Resilience Master Plan, proposing renovations to La Jolla Shores and Kellogg Park that add a seatwall (different from a seawall) with earthen dikes, or berms, for flood protections during storm events.

Surfrider “may feel that it’s not going far enough,” Cook said, as the plan to keep the existing boardwalk and seawall in place is “ antithetical to the idea of moving things back.”

A berm would also reduce the usable area at Kellogg Park, CPA member Kathleen Neill said, which would restrict beach access for the millions of people who visit The Shores annually.

La Jolla erosion hotspot: Calumet Avenue bluffs

5316 Calumet Ave, La Jolla
Zillow

For the houses built bluffside on Calumet Avenue in Bird Rock, erosion is addressed through the construction of seawalls to protect individual homes, Cook said.

Surfrider is “not really fans of seawalls,” he said, as they only protect a small portion of the coastline and specifically coastal property and people’s homes.

“We feel for someone losing property, but a lot of times, the seawalls are in place in areas where the problem has been known for a while and the property has changed hands,” Cook added.

“The science is there, and we would like to remind the folks making the decisions that seawalls do cause problems on their own.”

Construction so close to the bluff’s edge prompts further erosion, Cook said, but seawalls interrupt the natural flow of sand off the bluff to form the coastline: “You’re left with a walled-off coast.”

Beach nourishment below Calumet isn’t an option, he said. “There’s no beach to nourish.” 

Cook called out four properties on Calumet and adjacent Sea Ridge Drive that have had regular or emergency coastal development permits since 2005 to build seawalls.

One home at 5322 Calumet Ave in particular has had multiple permits since 2010 for bluff stabilization and is currently awaiting approval for an emergency permit for a shortcrete wall and other measures to repair the bluff.

Cook said that permit is now under California Coastal Commission review; the city did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.

“Seawalls are pretty much the only option to have,” Cook conceded. “But … the seawalls are not going to last forever. So it’s time to maybe have a discussion on limiting construction there.”

As the houses have stood there for decades and there are no more undeveloped lots in the area, several LJCPA members asked Cook to clarify Surfrider’s position on the emergency permits for seawalls to save existing houses.

Surfrider’s answer, Cook said, “is to not continue to build there. It’s to start pushing the setback” further back from the cliffs.

“Everything you just said would make sense if this was a new project,” LJCPA trustee Greg Jackson said. That’s not the situation on the ground.”

When Jackson pressed Cook for an answer to emergency permits for seawalls, Cook reiterated that ““the comprehensive solution is through planning.”

“What do you do when a house is already there and it’s going to be destroyed by sea level rise?” trustee Ray Weiss asked.

“You have to dismantle it,” Cook said. “There’s no easy option here.”

The Coastal Commission is already aware of these issues, however, and has made strides to adapt setbacks and other requirements “so when these houses come up for us to look at, they do have more prescriptive guidelines,” said President Lisa Kriedeman.

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