*Silverstein is our chapter's policy coordinator and serves on the RE:BEACH design selection jury as a non-voting advisory member. He lives in Oceanside.
On Tuesday, August 29, the City of Oceanside hosted the first of three public workshops for their RE:BEACH design competition to a fully packed City Council chambers.
RE:BEACH is the rebranded name for Phase 2 of Oceanside’s Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project, which launched in February when the City Council supported a multiyear contract with engineering firm GHD to assist with design, environmental review, and permitting for the winning sand retention concept.
GHD previously completed Phase 1 of the project in 2021, which assessed several options to restore Oceanside’s beaches and concluded that sand nourishment, coupled with traditional groin fields, would be the most viable solution. In August 2021, the previous City Council voted 4-1 in support of a pilot groin project.
However, both Surfrider and several downdrift cities (Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and Del Mar) expressed concerns that a groin field would further disrupt the natural north-south flow of sand to southern cities’ beaches, and that a more regional approach was needed to ensure Oceanside’s proposals would not negatively impact beaches downcoast. You can learn more about our previous position HERE.
In response to such criticism, the Phase 2 contract abandoned the groin field and went back to the drawing board. It included a novel concept conceived by an organization called the Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC): an international design competition to spur an innovative sand retention pilot project that, in addition to helping Oceanside’s beaches, would not negatively affect beaches to the south. The competition would afford multiple opportunities for public input, and the winning concept would be ultimately decided by a jury composed of various coastal specialists, local stakeholders, and representatives from affected cities to the south. Learn more at the RE:BEACH website.
I should emphasize this competition is centered around a pilot sand retention strategy, and that Surfrider generally opposes sand retention devices. Our vision for the coast involves restoring the natural processes that create beaches in the first place, natural processes which have been severely compromised by a century of development along our coast and upstream along rivers that historically brought sand to our beaches. To that end, we generally oppose the addition of any additional hard structures along our coast. While they may help one beach, they invariably harm others. Furthermore, they’re derivative of the same coastal engineering paradigm that’s wreaked havoc on our beaches. Case in point: the Oceanside Harbor Complex, which everyone agrees exacerbated the erosion of the city’s beaches by blocking sand flow from the north.
But desperate times call for a collaborative approach, and Oceanside deserves credit for going back to the drawing board after their initial proposal sparked regional controversy. The fact that the City stepped back from a locally-popular groin field proposal in favor of a year-long, collaborative process in search of a better, more nature-based solution is a victory in and of itself.
Below you’ll find a recording of the presentations, a link to the public feedback form, my “hot takes” from the three team presentations, and some thoughts about what comes next.
*public feedback is open through the month of September
What's Next?
Public feedback is open for the next 30 days, and I encourage everyone with interest in this project to watch the presentation recording and provide feedback. I’m hopeful that this competition, and the spirit of collaboration it engenders, will ultimately achieve its goal - a solution that improves Oceanside’s beaches but also benefits the entire North County coast. It’s admittedly a tall order, which is why feedback from everyone (including you) is so important. The next public workshop will be on October 17; details to come.