Help Us Fight "Jack the Riprapper" in Oceanside

The City of Oceanside is defying their Local Coastal Program by wrongfully granting a permit exemption to allow coastal development work to occur at the 1200 block of Pacific Ave.

This work allows coastal property owners to maintain and restore their private beaches and shoreline armoring while the public beach narrows - all without a permit. Shoreline armoring occupies public beach space and hastens its erosion.

By exempting the property owners from Coastal Development Permits (CDP), the City cuts the public out of the decision-making process and forfeits its ability to make sure that the public is compensated for impacts to the coastline. 

Despite this inequity, the City continues to defy the California Coastal Commission’s notice, issued on Friday March 5, 2021, which requested that all work stop onsite.  Furthermore, they also defied a Coastal Commission notice from March 2020 when the exact same violation occurred warning that this type of work required a CDP.

If you would like to remind the City of Oceanside that the beach belongs to the public, we encourage you to email the Oceanside City Council at Council@oceansideca.org and let them know that a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) review is required for the 1200 block of Pacific Ave and any subsequent coastal projects.

Suggested Talking Points: (or click button below for our prewritten template) 

• As a citizen or visitor of Oceanside, it is very important to me that development along the coast receives appropriate coastal development permits.

• In the case of the riprap repair work along Pacific Street in early March 2021, I stand with the California Coastal Commission and the Surfrider Foundation. The City must stop granting exemptions for coastal development activity that clearly impacts the public beach.

• I would like to request that the City address the planning department’s incorrect interpretation of its Sea Level Rise Ordinance as soon as possible, so that we can be assured the appropriate permits will be granted in the future.

EMAIL THE CITY COUNCIL

In Oceanside, CDP's are required for riprap repair and maintenance as outlined in their Local Coastal Program Implementing Ordinances. Below is an excerpt from the Oceanside Local Coastal Program that pertains to the current construction:

Sec. 19A.21. - Repair and maintenance activities that require a permit. 

(a) A coastal development permit shall be required for any methods of repair or maintenance of a seawall, of the following or other shoreline work: 

     (1) Repair or maintenance involving substantial alterations of the foundation of the protective work including pilings and other surface or subsurface structures; 

     (2) The placement, whether temporary or permanent, of riprap, artificial berms of sand or other beach materials, or any other forms of solid materials, on a beach or in coastal waters, streams, wetlands, estuaries and lakes or on a shoreline protective work except for agricultural dikes within enclosed bays or estuaries; 

     (3) The replacement of twenty (20) percent or more of the materials of an existing structure with materials of a different kind; or 

     (4) The presence, whether temporary or permanent, of mechanized construction equipment or construction materials of any sand area or bluff or within twenty (20) feet of coastal waters or streams."

https://vimeo.com/522021472/30ae2a7be5

Cell phone video from Saturday, March 6 at approximately 1:50pm - one day after the Coastal Commission requested that the City stop all work - that shows machinery continuing to move riprap seaward onto the public beach.