The Coastal Commission is scheduled to consider SFPUC's Ocean Beach armoring project at their monthly Commission meeting on November 14, 2024.
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Background on Our Restore Sloat Campaign
Ocean Beach is an ‘erosion hotspot’ where the beach is quickly disappearing due to natural shoreline dynamics and sea level rise. The Surfrider Foundation's San Francisco Chapter has supported a climate adaptation project at South Ocean Beach over ten years because action is needed to protect the beach, coastal access, and clean water as sea levels rise.
There is also major political interest in completing some kind of coastal adaptation project at South Sloat because of the vulnerability of surrounding infrastructure. The Great Highway Extension, the Lake Merced Tunnel underlying the Great Highway Extension, and the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment plant servicing a third of the city’s wastewater treatment needs, are all vulnerable to sea level rise and will get more and more expensive to maintain as flooding and erosion get worse.
A project has long been anticipated for this area, and Surfrider has been advocating that any project be nature-based, so that an iconic mile-long stretch of Ocean beach can continue to be enjoyed by the Bay Area’s 7+ million residents as sea levels rise.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has been working with the Ocean Beach community to vision a project for South Sloat since the Ocean Beach Master Planning process began in 2011.
Our Campaign Stance: The Project Needs to Become Nature-Based
In 2021, SFPUC formalized a proposed design as part of its Environmental Impact Report. Surfrider expressed major concerns about the design put forth in this proposal, arguing that its reliance on a mile-long seawall meant that the project could not be considered ‘nature-based,’ and would lead to the erosion of the beach. In other words, we thought the below rendering from the EIR was unrealistic, because it assumes the wall planned to go underneath the beach would remain buried and not be a major source of erosion:
Nevertheless, the EIR was approved by the City in 2022, and SFPUC moved forward with submitting the project for approval by the California Coastal Commission in 2023.
The Coastal Commission’s decision to approve, deny, or amend this proposal represents the final phase of review for the project. In other words, the community's last possible chance to influence the project in the foreseeable future is to influence the decision made at the Coastal Commission meeting, and Surfrider remains highly concerned about the project application that is before the Commission.
The hearing for this item was originally scheduled to be heard by the Commission in June 2024, causing the Commission staff to prepare a report that also expressed deep concern about approval of the project as submitted.
Due to the Commission staff analysis of the project, as well as a plethora of concerns submitted by the public and by representing organizations like Surfrider, NRDC and California Coastal Protection Network; the June hearing was postponed. Meeting items only get agendized two weeks before they are heard, but you can check back in at the Coastal Commission's website for schedule updates. The Coastal Commission is scheduled to consider SFPUC's climate adaptation project at Sloat at their monthly Commission meeting on November 14, 2024.
Removal of the Great Highway Extension: SFPUC is proposing to remove the rubble currently on the beach around Sloat. They also plan to remove the Great Highway Extension, because it is already difficult to maintain in light of erosion caused by sea level rise and the difficulty will only get worse. Once the road South of Sloat is removed, traffic will be rerouted around the zoo, and 60 parking spaces will be added.
Construction of a seawall: A 3,200-foot-long seawall will be placed roughly in the center of where the road currently sits, so that it will protect the underlying vulnerable wastewater infrastructure AKA the Lake Merced Tunnel (which runs parallel along the coast under the road). Recognizing that seawalls exacerbate erosion, SFPUC proposes to keep the wall buried in sand and to vegetate its slope so that it can provide beach habitat as well as coastal recreational space.
Creation of a multi-use path: SFPUC also plans to repave what is currently the inland portion of the Great Highway Extension with a concrete trail for coastal viewing, biking, and walking. More can be read about SFPUC's proposed project and the Coastal Commission's comments on their project in the Coastal Commission staff report on this item.
There are aspects of SFPUC’s proposal that are great for coastal access. For instance, the Great Highway Extension is currently setting an artificial back to the beach, where maintaining the road in place will cause ‘coastal squeeze’ that will result in the loss of the beach. Because leaving the road in place means that we will lose the beach, Surfrider supports the City's plan to remove the road in this part of Ocean Beach.
However, we are highly concerned about SFPUC's proposed seawall and pedestrian path — we fear that placing this large amount of concrete too close to the ocean will almost certainly result in the loss of the beach south of Sloat as sea levels rise.
The mile-long buried wall and concrete pedestrian path will set a back to the beach and will be very difficult to remove as sea levels rise. We also doubt SFPUC’s ability to keep the wall itself buried as sea levels rise — and as the wall becomes exposed, it will be an additional source of erosion in an already burdened area; accelerating the inevitable disappearance of the beach.
The current plan will result in the loss of about a mile of beach at some point likely in the near future. We are advocating for adjustments on this project because we believe that SFPUC can achieve its important goals at South OB — including wastewater infrastructure protection, connection of the California Coastal Trail, coastal viewing opportunities, etc., and still put a more resilient project in place.
Surfrider is asking for a more nature-based project that sets San Francisco on a path towards resilience to sea level rise and ultimately relocation of wastewater infrastructure that is too close to the ocean. The adjustments to SFPUC’s project that we are asking the Coastal Commission to influence are:
Our recommendations are detailed in this June coalition letter to the Coastal Commission. We also strongly support the proposed conditions (see 'Special Conditions' in the Staff Report beginning on page 6) that Coastal Commission staff proposed for the original scheduled hearing for this project in May. Specifically we support conditions to:
Your voice MATTERS! We'll be at the Coastal Commission hearing on this project on November 14, 2024—sign up here to join us virtually or in-person. Never provided public comment before? Not to worry! We'll provide talking points.
At the Coastal Commission hearing, we’ll make sure decisionmakers know that we want a nature-based project that preserves the beach. SIGN OUR ACTION ALERT so we can continue showing just how many people in the community care about this project.