Three design groups competing for Oceanside’s sand replenishment and retention undertaking will make their ultimate pitch to the group Dec. 13, with hopes the town will select one of many proposals in January.
Contributors within the metropolis’s Re:Beach competition will current their concepts refined with recommendations collected from the general public at two earlier group conferences. Almost 250 individuals participated in the latest workshop Oct. 17.
A jury of native leaders and regional consultants will select a most popular design after the December assembly, and the Oceanside Metropolis Council will make the ultimate resolution. Completion of the undertaking would require approval from native, regional, state and federal companies. Additionally wanted is funding for development, which might value $50 million or extra.
In the meantime, mayors and staffers from seven coastal cities in Orange and San Diego counties have begun assembly to assessment the Oceanside sand undertaking and others which might be underway or deliberate within the area.
Oceanside hosted the primary so-called C7 assembly Oct. 26 with representatives of Dana Level, San Clemente,
Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Seashore and Del Mar, mentioned Jayme Timberlake, Oceanside’s coastal zone administrator on Thursday.
“The general intention of the assembly was to see if there was any overlap with initiatives which might be slated to start within the subsequent few years, and to see what sorts of funding hurdles we could also be collectively experiencing whereas attempting to convey forth these bigger coastal initiatives,” Timberlake mentioned.
No date was set for the subsequent assembly, she mentioned, but it surely most likely shall be after the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers begins its Coastal Storm Injury Discount Mission to widen seashores in Encinitas and Solana Seashore later this fall. The federal undertaking has been in growth for greater than 20 years and can take sand dredged offshore close to San Clemente periodically over the subsequent 50 years.
One other chance is a 3rd regional replenishment undertaking by the San Diego Affiliation of Governments, the regional planning company. SANDAG accomplished regional initiatives in 2001 and 2012, taking sand from close by offshore deposits and putting it alongside the coast at websites from Imperial Seashore to Oceanside.
Carlsbad, Oceanside, Encinitas, Solana Seashore and Imperial Seashore metropolis councils agreed this yr to share the $200,000 value for a planning, feasibility and financial evaluation for the brand new undertaking.
Engineering and environmental work for the proposal has not begun and is anticipated to value $3 million, and development has been estimated at roughly $37 million. A lot of the development prices must come from state and federal grants.
The annual clearing of the Oceanside harbor and periodic dredging of San Diego County’s coastal lagoons additionally present sediment for seaside nourishment. However it’s not sufficient.
Eroding seashores and sea-level rise have many coastal cities in search of solutions.
The California Coastal Fee has lengthy supported replenishment efforts, however usually opposed the development of hardened constructions similar to rock revetments and groins to maintain the sand in place. Among the many considerations are that the constructions can impede seaside entry, could contribute to erosion, and may cease the down-current circulate of sand to different seashores.
That place might change because the scenario grows extra dire.
A consultant of the grassroots group Save Oceanside Seashores, President and CEO Bob Ashton, went to the Coastal Fee’s assembly in October to request help for the Oceanside undertaking, which incorporates concepts starting from constructing synthetic reefs to small islands, and located some obvious help.
“We’ll proceed to work with the town and encourage their creativity,” mentioned Kate Huckelbridge, the fee’s govt director. “It’s precisely the strategy that we wish individuals to take, to convey all of the concepts to the desk as we try to determine tips on how to adapt to sea-level rise.”
The Oceanside Metropolis Council voted in August 2021 to spend $1 million on plans and permits for seaside groins and a sand bypass system.
Nevertheless, Carlsbad’s Metropolis Council acquired wind of the plan and handed a decision opposing the jetty-like groins or any hardened construction that would cease sand from flowing south to their seashores. Encinitas, Solana Seashore and Del Mar additionally went on file as opposed.
Since then, Oceanside has continued with the undertaking, whereas downplaying the concept of groins and emphasizing a must work cooperatively with all coastal cities.
Additionally, an growing quantity of information collected by College of California San Diego scientists and others reveals that the dominant southward migration of sand alongside the coast is extra sophisticated than as soon as thought and is affected by many elements aside from laborious constructions on the seaside.
In January of this yr, Oceanside authorized a second section of planning at a price of $2.6 million that included the Re:Seashore contest to search out an modern resolution.
The three groups competing for the Oceanside design contract are: Deltares/MVRDV, which proposed constructing a peninsula off the seaside to help biodiversity and leisure actions whereas serving as a sort of breakwater to carry sand; SCAPE, ESA and the Dredge Analysis Collaborative, which proposed the idea of a sand dune park with a layered seaside at Tyson Avenue; and Worldwide Coast Administration, which proposed a rounded headland with a sand bar and a synthetic reef.
The groups on the October workshop introduced “well-defined sand retention ideas” primarily based on greater than 335 feedback beforehand supplied by the group, Timberlake mentioned.
“The designers are in search of to create widened seashores that additionally afford the group further advantages, similar to improved entry to the ocean or restored pure habitat,” she mentioned.
Contest jury member Charles Lester, director of the Ocean and Coastal Coverage Middle on the College of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Middle, mentioned in a current information launch that the chosen undertaking will assist defend the coast for future generations.
“Adapting to sea degree rise alongside our coast shall be an enormous problem in coming many years, however Oceanside’s design competitors is clearly taking it critically by inviting the general public to actively interact with some high-powered and inventive technical groups interested by Oceanside’s future shoreline,” Lester mentioned.
Advisory panel member Jeremy Smith, a coastal engineer on the Coastal Fee, mentioned all of the designs introduced have been thought-provoking and warrant cautious consideration.
