In the spring of 2025, we will witness firsthand the potential impact of sea level rise, offering a preview of what limited beach space could look like in the future.
Ventura Highway Bridge from the 101 at the State Beaches exit will be closed for two years by CALTRANS in the Spring of 2025 for construction to address the bridge’s structural integrity. Respect the Rincon Parkway, our chapter beach cleanup and coastal resilience program along the Rincon Parkway, will re-evaluate our program operations during the bridge closure.
12.14.24 – King Tides help illustrate the potential sea level impact on our local shoreline at the Rincon Parkway Day Use section by 2030.
The Local Impacts of Sea Level Rise
In response to the impacts of sea level rise, the Surfrider Foundation is working proactively to promote conservation and responsible coastal management.
Surfrider seeks policies and solutions to sea level rise that avoid creation of coastal hazards like “hardened surfaces” such as seawalls and revetments, which cause further erosion and adversely impact recreational access, wildlife stranding areas, and economic activity. As waves collide with hard structures, the energy refracts and prevents sand from settling as it normally would under unarmored coastal dynamics.
Beaches are dynamic in nature and change on multiple scales. Changes to the coastline through erosion and heavy winter storms are therefore difficult to predict with certainty and cannot be predicted by visual observations.Surfrider holds that coastal erosion can be averted with sustainable nature-based solutions that establish beach setbacks using current and historical erosional trends to restore the natural sediment transport processes in coastal watersheds.
Historical trends, however, may not tell the whole story locally. When local communities need to plan proactive timelines for preserving eroding coastlines, beaches prove to be dynamic and change on multiple scales so that trending data may be difficult to apply.
In contrast, global computer models can compile very complex features of ocean change data. These powerful data models can provide vital understanding of how local communities can adapt and plan for future coastal erosion, high tide flooding, and seawater incursion into freshwater drinking and agricultural irrigation sources. For example, sea level rise prediction tools like NOAA’s Sea Level View Finder, NASA’s sea level projection tool or CSUCI ‘s sea level three part report on our local beaches forecast that one foot of sea level rise will occur by 2030 in Ventura County.
Again, this forecast is notwithstanding the rate of Thwaites Glacier melt due to the immense amount of water it contains. The Thwaites Glacier melt may increase sea level rise by two feet depending on the rate of warming oceans and potentially above ten feet if this Antarctic glacier completely collapses.
This parking lot at Channel Islands Harbor may be inaccessible by 2030 due to sea level rise flooding. This image - illustrating potential sea level rise flooding - is taken from NOAA Sea Level View Finder for Ventura County.
Surfrider Foundation recognizes that each beach must be evaluated in the context of its own setting where sea level rise has accelerated coastal erosion and high tide flooding.
Ventura County’s coastline is very dynamic, highly armored by riprap, and in part, uniquely serves as both a transportation and recreation corridor for the Pacific Coast Hwy 1 and the Union Pacific Railroad. Our County is also vulnerable to increased coastal erosion increases during large winter west swells hitting our narrow beaches and armored coastline.
Ventura County Surfrider’s first local response to climate change, warming oceans and erosion began in 1995 with identifying the need for the Surfer’s Point managed retreat shoreline project. Phase One, completed in 2011, removed a popular coastal bike path that was collapsing into the ocean and reintroduced dunes and native vegetation to the beach to combat erosion. The shoreline retreat was resilient during the onslaught of our 2023 atmospheric river storms. Phase Two of Surfer’s Point began in December 2024 to further enable the shoreline to retreat from future erosion with the setback of the existing parking lot and bike path.
Photo credit: Bill Hickman. 11.15.24 – King Tide at Surfer’s Point highlights high wave action energy against hardened coastline increasing erosion.
Other stretches of our coastline, however, are not suitable for retreating from eroding cliffs due to the proximity of Hwy 1, the Union Pacific Railroad train, trestle, and hillsides. Ventura County Surfrider has responded to the lack of the retreat option along the Rincon Parkway and southern County beaches by advocating for the original intent of the Coastal Act which prohibits the redevelopment of the coastline to armor against sea level rise.
Recognizing the need for planning for sea level rise, Ventura County began planning in 2019 for sea level rise with the VC Resilient Coastal Adaptation Project and assessed vulnerabilities along our Ventura County coastline. The Coastal Adaptation Plan focused on the narrow beaches in the northern and southern parts of our County that hug Hwy 1 and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks but also provide access to beach homes, county, and State Parks.
In 2023, California legislators passed SB 272, mandating that all cities in California develop a sea level rise plan. In response, Ventura County planners updated their plan in 2024. This past spring, County planners drafted a proposed amendment to the 2019 VC Resilient Project’s Coastal Area Plan. They also held workshops to gather input from the public and stakeholders.
The County’s Amendment attempts are very commendable, especially considering the immense complexity of applying sea level rise models to varying coastline conditions, property ownership, and multiple private and public jurisdictions. Cities like San Francisco, for example, only recently announced their sea level plan. In a comment letter to Ventura County planners regarding proposed changes to the Amendment, California Surfrider’s Senior Policy Analyst, Mandy Sackett, emphasized that “it is vital to avoid shoreline armoring as the primary response to coastal hazards.”
In alignment with the concepts of the very successful Surfer’s Point nature-based solution, Surfrider supports policies that consider non-structural adaptation measures and managed retreat projects. Surfrider also works in conjunction with CALTRANS and Union Pacific Railroad engineers and planners to require Coastal Hazards Reports that include non-structural solutions for shoreline regulatory applications.
Although the County’s plan includes adaptation strategies, such as “protect and retreat,” Surfrider, in Sackett’s comment letter, criticized the County’s approach to accommoding further development of the coastline in response to sea level rise. The County’s definition of existing development allows for substantial redevelopment, which is inconsistent with the Coastal Act as it is written.
The County’s amended plan allows for redevelopment along Rincon Point, La Conchita, Mussel Shoals, Seacliff, Faria Beach, Solimar, and the Rincon Parkway. However, the County’s definition fails to justify the policy it supports. Instead, it creates a loophole that could jeopardize the coast by enabling new development within an “Existing Community” to be eligible for shoreline armoring.
6.10.2024 Ventura County Sea Level Rise Zoom Workshop - California Surfrider commends the County for trying to develop a neighborhood-scale adaptation concept which allows local neighborhoods to determine how they will adapt to sea level rise and protecting their homes through options such as elevating structures or placing houses on “stilts.”
Surfrider strongly recommends that the County remove the "Existing Community" provision, as it is currently interpreted under the Coastal Act. Specifically, we suggest removing this provision based on the pre-1977 definition of "development" in the Coastal Act, which would ensure that the original intent of the law is upheld. This adjustment is recommended to better align with coastal protection goals and clarify the definition of development in relation to existing communities.
Paul Rogers in his December 13, 2024 article for the Mercury News reports that the California Supreme Court ruled that the California Coastal Commission can limit the construction of seawalls for thousands of property owners based on recent seacliff erosion below townhouses at Half Moon Bay.
The recent decision of the California Appeals Court agrees with this opinion that common sense application of the Coastal Act by the California Coastal Commission is still the standard for not allowing long-term coastal degradation to occur by constructing seawalls.
Our coastlines are managed as a public trust, and preserving our beaches is crucial not only for protecting critical marine species and ecosystems but also as an important economic driver. Access to these beaches offers recreation for the County, benefiting both the local economy and the environment. Marine mammal habitat extends to our beaches from the Channel Islands. Marine mammals and migrating cetaceans need our beaches to strand when they are sick, injured or impaired by warming oceans, debris, and pollutants from agricultural and urban stormwater runoff.
What Can We (You) Do?
Ventura County Surfrider seeks to hold our state elected officials and city and County planners accountable for holding to the pre-Coastal Act (1977) definition of development and not allowing other loopholes in the proposed draft of the amended plan which would allow the construction of seawalls in beach neighborhoods.
Surfrider and our coastal community also need to work cooperatively to keep an eye on the new and illegal construction of beach and roadside coastal armament or other coastal hazards that state and local government mismanagement might allow.
Ultimately, a realistic view of the impacts of sea level on our Rincon Parkway shorelines requires advocating for regular scientific re-assessment by government agencies and local universities with a degree of mourning for what access we may lose as well.