San Clemente weighs 1% sales tax to restore eroding beach
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San Clemente, a Southern California city of 62,000, is considering a 1% sales tax measure on the November ballot to fund beach restoration and wildfire protection. Coastal erosion has split the city's North Beach and repeatedly closed a 7-mile rail segment along the second-busiest passenger corridor in the U.S.
Key Facts
- A 1% sales tax measure to fund beach restoration and wildfire protection is on San Clemente's November ballot.
- The 7-mile rail segment through San Clemente has faced repeated closures over the past five years due to encroaching surf and fragile bluffs.
- Scientists forecast more than half of Southern California's beaches could significantly erode by 2100.
- The town of Pacifica south of San Francisco shuttered its cracked concrete pier this year, and seawater flooded homes in Long Beach during a hurricane-driven storm surge.
Coastal Erosion Impact
Coastal erosion has been eating away at the beach in San Clemente, known for nearly a century as a 'Spanish village by the sea.' The rising sea and crashing waves have pushed the shoreline landward, splitting the city's picturesque North Beach. Crumbling seaside bluffs have damaged oceanfront homes and forced the repeated closure of a passenger rail line considered the second busiest in the country. Urban development has slowed the flow of sediment that once nourished the city's beaches, and warmer ocean waters have pushed waves higher and further ashore.
Rail Line Disruptions
Over the past five years, the rail line that has operated along the coast for more than a century has faced repeated closures due to encroaching surf on one side and fragile bluffs on the other. The 7-mile segment is part of a 351-mile passenger rail corridor that links San Diego with Los Angeles County's huge port complex and San Luis Obispo. Transportation officials have shored up the tracks to ensure passenger safety by laying down rock. But as waves slam against the rocks, they sweep more sand offshore and speed up erosion that will eventually threaten the rail line again.
Local Response
Residents of the largely Republican city are considering taxing themselves to raise money for beach restoration. A measure to add a 1% sales tax to fund wildfire protection and sand replenishment in San Clemente is on the November ballot. Cameron Cosgrove, a San Clemente resident who wrote the tax measure, said, 'We've lost our walkable beach.'
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