Re-printed from Malibu Times
Input sought on Broad Beach project
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| Workers install a rock revetment along Broad Beach last year after a storm eroded more sand from the beach. A project to restore the sand would cover the revetment. The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. |
Two public meetings took place this week to gather input on the proposed restoration of Broad Beach, which has eroded significantly
during the past decade.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Two public scoping meetings were scheduled to take place Tuesday at Malibu City Hall to gather public input on a Draft Environmental Impact Report, for the proposed restoration of Broad Beach. (The meetings took place before The Malibu Times went to print, but will be reported on its Web site. www.malibutimes.com Wednesday this week.)
The project would widen and replenish the heavily eroded beach using sand dredged from offshore and onshore sources, build and restore sand dunes, and bury an existing rock revetment. It will be privately funded by the Trancas Property Owner's Association, a group representing most of the 109 homeowners who live on the beach between Lechuza Point and Trancas Creek.
Ken Ehrlich, legal counsel for the Trancas Property Owner's Association, told The Malibu Times that construction was expected to begin in late 2012, and would last between four and six weeks. Ehrlich said the project would be funded entirely with private money, and is expected to cost approximately $10 million, with the permitting process costing an addition $2 million to $3 million. Ehrlich said that no rock would be added to the existing rock revetment.
Broad Beach has experienced ongoing erosion for many years due to a combination of recurring weather patterns and rising sea levels. It has also been the subject of contention regarding public beach access, when homeowners several years ago hired contractors to bulldoze the beach, creating sand berms in front of the multimillion-dollar homes that line Broad Beach. Later, after a storm struck causing ocean water to flood the yards of some of the beachfront homes, homeowners then had a rock wall revetment built, which some critics say caused further erosion to the beach.
Since then, homeowners have been working to find a way to restore lost sand to the area, and to protect their homes against incoming tidewater.
According to the DEIR, the restoration of the beach would involve several steps. Sand would be dredged from both offshore and onshore sites and deposited on the beach to widen it. Sand would also be added between the dune system and the shoreline. The existing rock revetment built last spring would be covered over with sand. Additionally, a “reservoir of sand” would be built and dune habitat would be restored with native plant species.
The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. The beach would be expanded to a width of 100 feet and the dunes raised.
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz and director of the university's Institute of Marine Sciences, in a previous interview with The Malibu Times explained that beaches tend to lose sand and narrow during warmer phases of weather, which California has been experiencing since 1978. Griggs said Broad Beach started narrowing in the late 1970s, became exceedingly noticeable during the past five to seven years and has worsened significantly during the last two years or so.
The rapid exacerbation of the erosion in 2009 caused the city to issue emergency permits that allowed beachfront residents to place sandbags in front of their homes upward of the mean high tide line. Last year, the homeowners installed an at-grade revetment, or barricade, made of boulders of different sizes, at an estimated cost of $15 million to $20 million.
That project later incited a public uproar when the two gates that grant public beach access to Broad Beach remained closed for months after the revetment was completed in April 2010. While homeowners had access to the beach, local visitors were forced to make a two-mile detour to Zuma Beach.
When asked if the beach would be open to the public during construction, Ehrlich replied, “My understanding is the sand will be laid down in sectors, and that the sectors [of the beach] not being worked on will be open.”
Ehrlich said he anticipated the restoration project to be less intrusive than the installation of the revetment last year, since most of the sand will be shipped in from the ocean. He said it had not been determined whether the Zuma Beach parking lot would be used as a staging area for earth movers and other heavy equipment.
Long known as an enclave of the rich and famous, Broad Beach homeowners have fought several very public battles with the California Coastal Commission over access to the public beach.
In 2005, Broad Beach homeowners hired bulldozers to pile mounds of sand in front their multimillion-dollar homes. The Coastal Commission ordered them to remove “No Trespassing, Private Property” signs and stop using all-terrain vehicles for security patrols.
Written comments regarding the DEIR must be submitted to Crystal Spurr, Staff Environmental Scientist at the California State Lands Commission, by May 16. The address for comments is 100 Howe Avenue, Suite 100-South. Sacramento, CA 95825.
during the past decade.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Two public scoping meetings were scheduled to take place Tuesday at Malibu City Hall to gather public input on a Draft Environmental Impact Report, for the proposed restoration of Broad Beach. (The meetings took place before The Malibu Times went to print, but will be reported on its Web site. www.malibutimes.com Wednesday this week.)
The project would widen and replenish the heavily eroded beach using sand dredged from offshore and onshore sources, build and restore sand dunes, and bury an existing rock revetment. It will be privately funded by the Trancas Property Owner's Association, a group representing most of the 109 homeowners who live on the beach between Lechuza Point and Trancas Creek.
Ken Ehrlich, legal counsel for the Trancas Property Owner's Association, told The Malibu Times that construction was expected to begin in late 2012, and would last between four and six weeks. Ehrlich said the project would be funded entirely with private money, and is expected to cost approximately $10 million, with the permitting process costing an addition $2 million to $3 million. Ehrlich said that no rock would be added to the existing rock revetment.
Broad Beach has experienced ongoing erosion for many years due to a combination of recurring weather patterns and rising sea levels. It has also been the subject of contention regarding public beach access, when homeowners several years ago hired contractors to bulldoze the beach, creating sand berms in front of the multimillion-dollar homes that line Broad Beach. Later, after a storm struck causing ocean water to flood the yards of some of the beachfront homes, homeowners then had a rock wall revetment built, which some critics say caused further erosion to the beach.
Since then, homeowners have been working to find a way to restore lost sand to the area, and to protect their homes against incoming tidewater.
According to the DEIR, the restoration of the beach would involve several steps. Sand would be dredged from both offshore and onshore sites and deposited on the beach to widen it. Sand would also be added between the dune system and the shoreline. The existing rock revetment built last spring would be covered over with sand. Additionally, a “reservoir of sand” would be built and dune habitat would be restored with native plant species.
The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. The beach would be expanded to a width of 100 feet and the dunes raised.
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz and director of the university's Institute of Marine Sciences, in a previous interview with The Malibu Times explained that beaches tend to lose sand and narrow during warmer phases of weather, which California has been experiencing since 1978. Griggs said Broad Beach started narrowing in the late 1970s, became exceedingly noticeable during the past five to seven years and has worsened significantly during the last two years or so.
The rapid exacerbation of the erosion in 2009 caused the city to issue emergency permits that allowed beachfront residents to place sandbags in front of their homes upward of the mean high tide line. Last year, the homeowners installed an at-grade revetment, or barricade, made of boulders of different sizes, at an estimated cost of $15 million to $20 million.
That project later incited a public uproar when the two gates that grant public beach access to Broad Beach remained closed for months after the revetment was completed in April 2010. While homeowners had access to the beach, local visitors were forced to make a two-mile detour to Zuma Beach.
When asked if the beach would be open to the public during construction, Ehrlich replied, “My understanding is the sand will be laid down in sectors, and that the sectors [of the beach] not being worked on will be open.”
Ehrlich said he anticipated the restoration project to be less intrusive than the installation of the revetment last year, since most of the sand will be shipped in from the ocean. He said it had not been determined whether the Zuma Beach parking lot would be used as a staging area for earth movers and other heavy equipment.
Long known as an enclave of the rich and famous, Broad Beach homeowners have fought several very public battles with the California Coastal Commission over access to the public beach.
In 2005, Broad Beach homeowners hired bulldozers to pile mounds of sand in front their multimillion-dollar homes. The Coastal Commission ordered them to remove “No Trespassing, Private Property” signs and stop using all-terrain vehicles for security patrols.
Written comments regarding the DEIR must be submitted to Crystal Spurr, Staff Environmental Scientist at the California State Lands Commission, by May 16. The address for comments is 100 Howe Avenue, Suite 100-South. Sacramento, CA 95825.
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