San Francisco Chapter Surfrider Foundation

In a stunning victory for the Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Guy-Schall set aside Solana Beach's approval of a shoreline armoring project. The decision, rendered on March 25, 2003, set aside the mitigated negative declaration, and ordered all project actions void, "until full compliance with [the California Environmental Quality Act] is achieved, including certification of an [environmental impact report] that fully analyzes impacts, and mitigation measures, in accordance with this Ruling."

The project, located on the public beach below 523 and 525 Pacific Avenue, in Solana Beach, California, consisted of 160 ft. of shoreline armoring, including a notch fill, two seacave plugs and rehabilitation of six other seacave plugs. Surfrider and Cal.Beach Advocates asserted that the project would cause the narrowing and eventual loss of the beach in front of the project. Furthermore, project opponents pointed out that over 1200 ft. of shoreline armoring had been approved north of Fletcher Cove (in the vicinity of the project) without any cumulative impacts analysis. Finally, the petitioners noted that the Coastal Commission Sand Mitigation Fee is too small to fully mitigate impacts to the beach.

Although Surfrider and Cal.Beach Advocates presented substantial oral and written testimony from a number of experts, the City claimed that only the Project Engineer, Walt Crampton, who has been armoring the coast for 25 years, was qualified to discuss the impacts of shoreline armoring. The court expressly discounted the City's argument, noting "Applicable CEQA case authority does not support [the City's] position regarding deference to its determinations of expert witness credibility."

The court, in rendering its decision, specifically noted that "Dr. Ben Benoumof, an expert with a Ph.D in Coastal Geology [stated] 'when a protective structure, whether it be a seawall, whether it be a plug, whether it be a revetment, is placed in front of the bluff, preventing that long term erosion, as sea level rises, the beach narrows. This is an extremely simple concept.'"

The court further noted that long time Surfrider and Cal. Beach Activist, Jim Jaffee, was an expert, "an engineer with 16 years of experience." The court held that Jim Jaffee's paper, presented at the CSBPA and Cal.Coast Conference, amounted to substantial that the Coastal Commission's Sand Mitigation Fee under-mitigates for beach loss.

Jaffee's paper calculated that the Coastal Commission's Fee could cause the under-mitigation of 35 ft. of beach and 385,000 cubic yards of sand in Solana Beach.

The San Diego Chapter recognizes the immense contribution in both time and resources of all the people who wrote letters, reviewed staff reports and attended hearings on behalf of the public, including, but not limited to Jim Jaffee, Ben Benumof, Scott Williams, Sheelagh Williams, Bob Batallio and countless others. Special Thanks to Sarah Khorazanee, Laura Greytalk and Jeff Hohlbein (who had the un-enviable task of transcribing video taped hearing testimony). The attorneys who worked on behalf of Surfrider included Marco Gonzalez, Todd T. Cardiff, Rory Wicks, Christopher Johnson, and Michelle Kremer.