The city of Carpinteria has taken a major step forward to protect its dunes, shoreline and beach through the adoption of a management plan aimed at mitigating the potential impact of a projected sea level rise.
City officials consider the Carpinteria City Council’s acceptance of staff’s Dune and Shoreline Management Plan as the first step in an overall, comprehensive plan that will take years to fully develop and implement.
“It’s one part of the city’s responsibility for protection of the shoreline,” Erin Maker, the city’s environmental program manager, told the council on Monday. “It will help mitigate the impact and respond to damage.”
Particularly vulnerable to a rising sea level are the downtown commercial corridor, transportation and utilities infrastructure and the city beach itself, Ms. Maker said. “The beach is an important recreational element to the city, and brings in a lot of tourism to the city.”
The objective of the “living shoreline project” is to protect not just the beach but the low-lying shoreline and historic dune habitats, she said. “It’s a small piece of a larger puzzle.”
She said the city is working with the county and California State Parks Department to fully develop the plan. “It’s very early in the process. This is a guidance document.”
One “very important part” of the project is maintaining access to the beach, she said. “The city beach does not not entirely belong to the city. There are portions of it that are owned by private property. There is the potential for a boardwalk along the back of the dunes system to allow private residents easy access to the public access points to the beach.”
The council voted 5-0 to accept the draft Dune and Shoreline Management Plan, and to direct staff to move forward with acquiring funding for a cost- benefit analysis, while acknowledging it’s just the first step in a much longer process.
“It’s important that we move forward with this,” Councilmember Gregg Carty said. “I understand this, but it’s also important that we remember Mother Nature. Storms are a powerful thing, so this is something we may have to re- do and maybe re-do again. I don’t know if this is a permanent solution, but we may have to battle this for years and years and years to come.”
“One day this will look like a Band-Aid,” Vice Mayor Al Clark added. “It’s going to take a bigger measure. Hopefully that’s a ways off. This will take additional measures, but this is a worthwhile thing now.”
Councilmember Natalia Alarcon asked Ms. Maker about the staff’s projected timeline as the city moves through this process.
Ms. Maker said staff will return to the council after the cost-benefit analysis is completed. After that, she said, the next step would be an environmental review that might take a couple of years.
“The living shoreline project is intended to be a near- to mid-term (response) up to a certain point of sea level rise,” she said.
“There are a lot of other really complex things to work out for additional measures that we expect we have to eventually implement, and those conversations are happening now,” she said. “This is designed to hold us over while these other things are being worked out.”
email: nhartstein@newspress.com
