Leaders in San Clemente are keeping a close eye on the shoreline as officials look to get more sand on the beach and residents work to secure long-term funding for sand.
At the same time, county leaders have also formed a multi-agency coalition to address coastal erosion in South County and coordinate efforts to protect the shoreline and train tracks.
Over the past several years, beaches along the San Clemente coast have been sinking into the sea.
Coastal erosion has gotten so bad that waves are often seen crashing against the train tracks and bluffs that run adjacent to the ocean, resulting in cliff failures and five different train closures since 2021.
Officials have spent the past several years grappling with the best way to add more sand to the beaches and make sure it stays there.
[Read: San Clemente’s Long Struggle to Save Its Disappearing Coast]
The process has grown more complicated as city officials are also grappling with lacking funding for sand replenishment and retention projects, which often cost millions of dollars.
[Read: San Clemente Officials Seek Money For Sand Replenishment]
In order to restore beaches to 250 feet wide, San Clemente needs to add about two to nine million cubic yards of sand, according to Leslea Meyerhoff, the city’s coastal administrator.
“We treat the beach like (the) critical public infrastructure that it is. Natural infrastructure,” she said at the city council’s March 17 meeting. “Very much like our parks, and our sewers and roads, the beach requires investment and maintenance on an ongoing basis.”
During that meeting, council members discussed a slew of items regarding the coast and the state of San Clemente’s beaches.
Council members reviewed and voted to extend the city’s shoreline monitoring program that documents changes in beach width, sand volume and beach conditions.
So far, that monitoring program has found that while some beaches have seen gains in sand — largely due to previous nourishment projects — other areas show dramatic losses, with some beaches slimming down to the narrowest the city has ever seen.
Councilmembers voted to extend that monitoring project for another three years, which is expected to cost about $200,000.
City leaders also reviewed preliminary results from their offshore sand investigation efforts.
[Read: San Clemente Prepares to Launch Dredging Project to Find Offshore Sand Source]
Typically, sand is dumped onto the coast using primarily trucks or trains.
Coastal Frontiers Corporation — a city-hired consultant — is evaluating a series of offshore sand sites across Orange County’s coastline, looking for a location with beach-quality sand as close to San Clemente as possible to reduce cost.
Greg Hearon, an engineer with Coastal Frontiers, gave an update during last month’s city council meeting. While the consultant surveyed a slew of options, the most promising sand locations were offshore of San Onofre State Beach, the Santa Ana River and another offshore location known as Surfside-Sunset north of Huntington Beach.
Moving forward, representatives from Coastal Frontiers Corporation said they will continue to explore promising locations with the goal to secure sand sites closer to the city.
Nonetheless, San Clemente residents like Mike Kay are concerned about cost for an offshore sand source.
“It looks like there might be a potential promising site,” he said at the meeting. “Maybe a million [cubic yards], maybe more, but it doesn’t look like the five million [cubic yards] that we need is offshore.”
Kay asked council members to stick to traditional methods of bringing in sand.
“I wish we were looking better at the economic realities — the cheapest way to move sand,” he said. “There’s rail, there’s trucking, there’s offshore, but the rail side of it, in my opinion, needs to be looked at next. In my opinion, that’s the cheapest, quickest, easiest, normalest way to do it — that we already do here in Orange County — and I’m frustrated that we aren’t putting attention to that.”
Councilmembers also approved two grant applications for coastal projects.
The first application would help fund 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 would fund design and engineering work for some kind of offshore structure to work alongside sand placement to keep the sand on the beaches longer.
Offshore structures, known as breakwaters, can increase effectiveness of sand placement by 50%, Meyerhoff said.
Breakwaters are coastal structures, usually made of rock or concrete, built offshore to protect a shoreline from waves and storm surges.
City leaders have been studying potential breakwater structures at the most critical points of San Clemente’s shoreline affected by erosion to protect the sand from wave energy.
The grant application would help the city get started on design elements but wouldn’t lock leaders into a specific kind of structure.
Councilmembers were split on this specific grant application, with Mayor Rick Loeffler and Councilmember Zhen Wu expressing concern that it’s not worth the cost to look into this kind of project — which overall could cost the city tens of millions of dollars — when the priority should be getting sand on critically-eroded beaches.
“This project has a huge pricetag… anytime soon I don’t see the city having the resources to engage in such a project,” Wu said at the meeting. “I’m reluctant to spend money on something that I don’t see a reasonable chance to get implemented.”
[Read: What’s the Best Way to Save San Clemente’s Disappearing Beaches?]
Sales Tax Increase For Sand Placement Heads to Ballot
While officials worry about costs, a citizen-led sales tax ballot initiative is expected to land on an upcoming ballot after gathering enough signatures to be certified by the OC Registrar of Voters.
The initiative proposes a 1% local sales tax increase, which would be 1 cent for every dollar spent in San Clemente.
If approved by voters, half the funds would go towards beach restoration and the other half would be allocated to wildfire prevention efforts. It comes after the city tried to pass a similar increase, but that initiative narrowly failed in the November 2024 election.
[Read: San Clemente’s Sales Tax Increase is Likely to Fail, Jeopardizing Sand Replacement]
Cameron Cosgrove, a San Clemente planning commissioner and resident who wrote the new ballot initiative, said the Registrar of Voters confirmed that the petition has enough valid signatures in a text message to Voice of OC.
He said next the city council will decide when to place the measure on a ballot.
“As for timing, November would be a logical and likely option given the election cycle, but ultimately that decision rests with the City Council,” Cosgrove wrote.
“From our perspective, the important milestone is that this is now a qualified citizen-led initiative that will go to voters for a decision. We’ll be focused on helping residents understand what the measure does and why it matters as we move into the next phase.”
Council members are expected to discuss placement of the ballot initiative during their next meeting on April 21.
South County Beach Coalition Aims to Fix Erosion
Officials and leaders across the county are also stepping up to address the critical issue of erosion in South OC, especially San Clemente.
Last month, the OC Board of Supervisors approved a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the South Orange County Beach Coalition as an official decision-making body to coordinate efforts to add sand to the coastline and reduce the effects of erosion.
“For decades, South Orange County beaches faced erosion without a reliable sand nourishment plan,” Supervisor Katrina Foley wrote in a statement sent to Voice of OC.
“This multi-agency partnership strengthens our region’s ability to pursue funding from the State for climate initiatives, cuts red tape, accelerates sand placement, and advances a long-term sand maintenance plan that protects our beaches, coastal infrastructure, and rail assets. This approved MOU demonstrates strong County leadership and strengthens our ability to secure state and federal funding for lasting coastal resilience.”
Beginning in April, the coalition plans to develop a sand maintenance plan, similar to plans for maintaining roads and other infrastructure, to create long-term solutions to protect South OC’s beaches and the train tracks that run along the coast.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
