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San Clemente city leaders are scrambling for ways to fund sand replenishment projects and restore the city’s dwindling beaches.
It comes after city voters narrowly rejected a sales tax increase that would’ve funded sand replenishment efforts.
San Clemente city officials are now turning toward the state to help provide enough cash to widen the beaches and reverse some of the effects of coastal erosion over the past several decades.
At the same time, a group of residents is pushing forward a citizen-led initiative to get a sales tax increase proposal back on the ballot to fund sand — this time with a lower threshold required to pass because it’s resident-led.
“We’re basically looking in all directions for funding because the beach restoration program doesn’t have a dedicated source of funding right now,” Leslea Meyerhoff, coastal administrator for the city, said in an interview.
“We’ve said that in order to implement this vision that the community and council want to see happen — we need money. That is going to be the biggest constraint to implementation.”
Meyerhoff said coastal engineers have identified a need for five to seven million cubic yards of sand to be added over the next 50 years.
Adding that much sand will cost the city approximately $5 to $8 million per year, Meyerhoff said.
[Read: San Clemente Needs More Money For Sand]
Will The State Step In To Help?
During the city council meeting on March 4, council members unanimously approved four grant applications that would help fund four coastal projects, including sand replenishment.
The city is seeking funding from the state Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways, and the California Coastal Commission.
The first grant application would push forward the city’s partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is expected to bring two million cubic yards of sand to the city over the next five decades.
The second grant application would help fund maintenance for the city’s nearly 100-year-old pier. Meyerhoff said the city spends about $1 million annually on regular maintenance for the pier.
The third grant application would help fund a pilot sand retention project for the city to study the best ways to keep sand on the beach after it’s placed there.
The fourth grant application would help fund a beach attendance and fiscal impact study to help the city find out how many people are visiting the beach and how much money visitors spend on beach-related activities.
“Going to the beach is free — maybe you pay a little bit for parking, you pay for a restaurant if you’re having a meal or if you’re renting a boogie board, staying overnight,” Meyerhoff said. “We’re trying to capture all those variables and understand the economic impact that the beach has on a beach town.”
All four grant applications are seeking about $9 million combined. If awarded, the city would need to match approximately $4 million.
“The city has to be creative,” Meyerhoff said. “The mandate right now is to apply for every grant available. We haven’t seen any county grants that would help at this point, so we’re looking at state grants, we’re looking at federal grants.”
[Read: Bringing Sand Back to San Clemente’s Beaches]
Locals Push Forward Citizen-Led Ballot Initiative
Even if San Clemente is awarded grants, the city has no long-term source of funding specifically for sand.
In November, a sales tax ballot measure that would have earmarked millions of dollars in funding for sand replenishment projects narrowly failed.
The ballot measure outlined a new 0.5% sales tax increase that staff estimated would have generated approximately $6 million annually.
The measure secured approximately 64% “yes” votes, but it wasn’t enough to pass because a specific sales tax — like for sand replenishment — requires a supermajority vote, or at least 66.7% of the vote.
[Read: San Clemente’s Sales Tax Increase is Likely to Fail, Jeopardizing Sand Replacement]
Now, a group of residents is working to get the half-cent sales tax increase back on the ballot for a future election. Since it would be created by the residents and not the city itself, it would only need a simple majority to pass — at least 50% “yes” votes.
Joe Wilson, a board member with Save Our Beach San Clemente, is working alongside Cameron Cosgrove — a San Clemente planning commissioner who helped run the previous campaign — to get the new measure on an upcoming ballot.
He said they are currently planning to gather the 4,600 valid signatures needed to get the measure on a future ballot.
“There was deep disappointment from the majority of people that [the previous measure] didn’t pass,” said Wilson, a surfer who’s lived in the San Clemente and Dana Point area for the past 40 years, “and there’s relief that we’re doing it again with some small revisions to the same concept that will make it even more appealing to more people.”
The new measure outlines strict usage for the funds generated from the sales tax increase.
If approved, at least 70% of all funds generated by the increase would be earmarked for sand replenishment only. The remaining 30% will still be required to be spent on coastal projects, but not only sand.
“To be able to go down on the sand, whether you have kids and you can make sand castles, play on the beach, volleyball, you pick it — those beaches are very special to this town,” Wilson said.
“But economically, if you lose the beaches in this town, it really is definitely going to have an impact on property values if it’s not a beach town anymore.”
Other Sand Projects & Funding Efforts
The county’s transportation agency has a slightly different method of battling coastal erosion in this same area.
The Orange County Transportation Authority is looking to protect the Pacific Surfliner rail line that runs alongside the San Clemente coast and has closed multiple times in the last five years.
While transportation officials have some plans to add sand, the agency is also considering adding more boulders along the train tracks to armor the coast – an effort that environmental groups say could worsen erosion.
[Read: OC Officials Consider Boulders Along Coastal Train, San Clemente Protests]
Meyerhoff said widening the beach with the sand is the best solution to restore public beach access while also protecting the tracks.
“For the last 150 years, the railroad has been on the beach in San Clemente,” Meyerhoff said. “We’re trying to get back to that scenario where there’s sandy beaches to protect the railroad as well as provide all the other benefits to the community.”
Wilson and the Save Our Beaches organization have been advocating against adding any more boulders and rocks, known as riprap, along the shoreline.
“We’re really working hard to maximize the amount of sand they put out on the beach to protect their tracks and minimize — or not put any more — rock along the revetment,” Wilson said.
“If we replenish the beaches and maintain it, we don’t have to worry about the tracks. And, we get to keep all the recreation and economic benefits.”
[Read: Environmental Groups Say Saving Train Tracks Harms San Clemente’s Beaches]
The city is also expected to receive sand as part of a regional beach project led by the San Diego Association of Governments.
Meyerhoff said that project is expected to bring the city about one million cubic yards of sand in a few different locations sometime in the next five years.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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