Greetings Save Oceanside Sand Team,
I hope this finds you all doing well, staying warm and enjoying life in our great city of Oceanside! I write this having just finished a walk along our beaches from Buccaneer to the South Jetty at the harbor (mostly walking on Pacific Street and The Strand). A great Saturday morning for certain with countless surfers, runners, walkers and others out enjoying our ocean, beach and shoreline! Winter has certainly arrived with a cold spell hitting us a few weeks ago, along with a major surf swell and a king tide to boot! While our infrastructure survived relatively unscathed, our beaches showed significant cobble and sediment movement out and along the coast.
See the difference below at the Cassidy Street Beach (Tower 15) access in these photos taken exactly one month apart…
This event illustrates the urgency of an innovative solution to be approved, permitted and installed, to restore our beaches and retain sand, restoring and protecting our coastal habitat! After over 80 years of sand nourishment events with no beaches to show for it, it is time to change. Oceanside is doing just that with an innovative approach of sand nourishment and sand retention. Retention saves replenishment!
RE:BEACH Jury unanimously selects ICM as the recommended design
The RE:BEACH Jury/Advisory Panel has now considered each RE:BEACH competition project and selected a recommended design.The RE:BEACH Jury expressed their unanimous support of International Coastal Management’s “Living Speed Bumps” concept. The “Living Speed Bumps” concept includes the construction of two small headlands that will aim to stabilize sand on the back beach, with an offshore artificial reef aimed at slowing down nearshore erosive forces. ICM, based in Australia’s Gold Coast, has decades of experience implementing “speed bumps” on their own coastline, bringing forward a new concept for Oceanside’s coast, and with a proven track record of success on the East Coast of Australia. Learn more here from the City of Oceanside about this selection and next steps.
City Council Public Workshop – vote to approve recommended design
What’s next? City staff will present the ICM recommended design for review and approval at the upcoming City Council Public Workshop.
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Council Chambers (300 North Coast Hwy, Oceanside).
Watch the City website for the staff report being made available online the week before the workshop.
What can you expect at the City Council Public Workshop? There will be a brief/presentation delivered by a team of: Jayme Timberlake – Our Oceanside Coastal Zone Administrator, Aaron Slayer – Principal Engineer ICM, and Brian Leslee – Principal Engineer GHD.
Location/placement of the solution? A lot of the community is very concerned regarding the location of the recommended design first as a pilot project on our shoreline. While location will not be decided at this workshop, the criteria and process of determining specific location will be covered in the brief/presentation.
Want to support the solution? Come out in person and show your support for the recommended design and our RE:BEACH Team! Look for an upcoming SOS “call to action” email with links to email our City Council directly and show your support.
Hope to see you all there, sporting your SOS T-shirts and looking forward to hearing some great supporting testimony by our team!
Sincerely,
Bob Ashton
President/CEO, Save Oceanside Sand
(808) 429-1770
rcakalaheo@gmail.com
