After a year of stakeholder outreach and community feedback, San Diego’s Draft Coastal Resilience Master Plan will be presented to city decisionmakers during the next couple months, culminating with the City Council. The plan outlines proposals to protect San Diego’s most popular beaches from sea level rise, and is part of the broader Climate Resilient SD initiative.
Sea level rise threatens San Diego’s beaches, culture, economy, and coastal infrastructure. Just one foot of sea level rise (expected by 2050) can reduce beach width by over 50 feet, potentially devastating narrow beaches like Tourmaline and OB Pier. With 3-6 feet of sea level rise (SLR) and increased coastal storms predicted by 2100, the time to plan is NOW.
Currently, Ocean Beach is most likely to be selected as the pilot project. The plan is to bring the site to a 15% design, which will allow the City to apply for additional state funding. Because the grant funding for this project supports additional design work, the City Council will select two more of the five sites to prioritize beyond OB. City staff has recommended Mission Beach and Sunset Cliffs. While we'd rather not play favorites, our chapter is supportive of staff's recommendation because the project concepts for Tourmaline and La Jolla Shores should be improved before moving forward into design.
Most of the concepts involve engineering vegetated sand dunes along the back beach, and potentially reconfiguring adjacent areas to create buffer zones where beaches can migrate inland as sea levels rise. Surfrider supports these concepts, but we’re recommending more ambitious proposals for several of the sites (mainly Tourmaline & La Jolla, but OB too). You can see our comments on each concept in the tabs below. We recommend first reviewing the project concepts in the Draft Coastal Resilience Master Plan (pages 21-48). Each is explained in detail, with various illustrations and schematics to help with visualization.