SAN DIEGO – The San Diego City Council will vote Sept. 9 on a plan proposing to save Sunset Cliffs and the coastline from sea-level rise and ongoing erosion.
The council’s vote will be on a Coastal Resilience Master Plan proposing removing parking now on Sunset Cliff’s edge. Changes would include re-configuring Sunset Cliffs Boulevard from a two-lane, north-south major collector road to a single southbound lane.
The plan also includes creating a protected walkway for pedestrians and cyclists.
The Peninsula Community Planning Board sent a letter on Aug. 21 to District 2 Councilmember Jennifer Campbell and her council colleagues, weighing in on the master plan and its proposed ambitious changes.
“PCPB supports the city’s proactive efforts to address climate change and the potential impacts of sea-level rise,” reads PCPB’s letter.
“We recognize the significance of the CRMP and efforts to protect upland infrastructure from sea-level rise. The Planning Department is recommending that three projects located at Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, and Sunset Cliffs move forward for design consideration and incorporation into the City’s Capital Improvement Program.
“However, PCPB strongly opposes the Sunset Cliffs proposed natural-based solution or bluff retreat that proposes to reconfigure Sunset Cliffs Boulevard from a two-lane, north-south major collector road to a single southbound lane,” the letter went on, saying that redirecting traffic through local residential streets is “not a viable solution for the community.”
It concluded by advocating for a balanced approach combining nature-based solutions with traditional coastal engineering methods, which the group said could complement the shoreline protection infrastructure built in the 1970s and 1980s.
“We respectfully request that the city initiate a new CIP project that integrates both nature-based solutions and engineered infrastructure to protect public rights-of-way, stabilize the cliffs, and preserve the two-lane configuration of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard,” the letter said.
PCPB’s letter added that despite multiple requests for a community stakeholder meeting and engagement with the Point Loma community, their requests had been ignored or denied.
Given the potential far-reaching effects of the proposed changes in the city’s Coastal Resilience Master Plan, Times of San Diego reached out to residents to ask whether or not they considered the CRMP Sunset Cliffs Boulevard realignment proposal to be a good idea. Here’s what they had to say:
“A Coastal Resilience Plan sounds like a good idea,” said Fred Kosmo, immediate past president of the PCPB board. “We care about the coast and certainly Sunset Cliffs Natural Park.
“However, I am concerned that the city is refusing to take the concerns of residents into account. We have invited the city multiple times to present the plan and answer questions at a PCPB meeting. The city has repeatedly refused to present the plan and is avoiding local input. That is very troubling.”
Jerry Lohla of Point Loma had a different take. “Yes, it’s a good idea,” he said of CRMP. “The only issue is when to do the one-way work. It’s not a question of continuing cliff erosion necessitating this. It’s only a question of ‘when.’”
Fellow Point Loma resident Don Sevrens had a more satirical view in noting, “[The city] is throwing quite a bit of jargon at us.
“Can anyone spell Coastal Resilience Master Plan?” Sevrens asked. “The City Council may consider, and even adopt, a plan that would turn Sunset Cliffs Boulevard into a one-way thoroughfare and funnel traffic in the other direction on quiet Cordova Street, a nuisance for residents and a surprise to inlanders.”
Point Loma residents Norman Walker of Point Loma Heights Central and Richard Burger of Loma Portal Northwest Plumosa doubted the science behind the city’s CRMP.
“Sea level rise is not happening,” said Walker. (It is.) “And if it was, we could handle the effects in real time. It’s just to make us think we should be driving electric cars, which, overall, are not better for the environment. There is no such thing as ‘sustainable,’ but the nuts really love that phrase.”
“I have lived in San Diego 70-plus years,” said Burger. “I was a beach lifeguard in college and have been a water sports enthusiast and sailor since the 1950s. I can say, with certainty, that there has been no significant sea-level rise. Erosion does exist due to rain and mostly wave action.”
Fletcher Miller of Ocean Beach begged to differ.
“NASA and NOAA have been measuring sea-level rise with satellites for decades, and before that, tidal gauges showed the rise,” Miller said. “In fact, the rate of rise is increasing. Anyone who has lived here for a few decades and paid attention to SSC knows the cliffs are retreating.”
“It is not a good idea because this will not solve the coastal erosion problem on the upper cliffs, which is mostly caused by stormwater runoff,” said Andrew Hollingworth of Fleetridge East.
“If the city doesn’t make this change, Mother Nature will,” said Carol Richter of Sunset Cliffs. “I’m not certain how, but limiting the number of visitors would also be helpful.”
Hence then, the article about residents skeptical of city plan to shift parking make sunset cliffs blvd one lane was published today ( ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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