City Plan for Sand Maintenance in Pierpont
December 23rd, 2007
Letter to the city by Murray Robertson, Beach Committee Chairman:
Dear Pierpont Community Residents,
The City of Ventura has developed a Sand Maintenance Plan for the Pierpont Beach. The Pierpont Community Council strongly urges that you read it because it is going to potentially affect what portions of the beachfront that you will be able to use. It could restrict where your children will be able to play. It could eliminate the ability to walk your dogs on the 40 feet of beachfront adjacent to the Pierpont Community. It could impact your views and ultimately the long term value of your property. Additionally, it will place a great financial burden on the beach front owners.
This document can be viewed at:
http://www.cityofventura.net/
Note that the proposed Plan places all but a small portion of the costs of managing the sand, dunes and beach between San Pedro ST and Greenock LN on the 48 beachfront property owners of Pierpont.
This proposed Sand Management Plan basically states that beachfront homeowners that have damage from sand that is flowing from City property onto their properties will be able to move that sand away from their property at their own expense. Not only will they have to pay to move this sand, but also they will have to create dunes in front of their property with this sand, plant these dunes with approved beach vegetation and insure that it is watered and grows.
All this has occurred because the City and State Parks has for years neglected to maintain their respective portions of the beach and have allowed the sand on their property to encroach on the beachfront owners’ properties.
It seems totally wrong to us that our beachfront homeowners would be required to pay for moving sand around on City property, let alone pay for and implement a dune system. Additionally, the Plan has no proactive provisions to have sand moved away from “soon to be damaged” properties.
Pierpont Beach is owned by the City of Ventura and California State Parks. We believe it is the City and State’s responsibility to maintain it and not the beachfront homeowners.
The end game of this Plan is a dune system that is cordoned off from the rest of the beach with ropes and sand fences. Essentially, this could result in our children no longer being able to play in this area, residents no longer being able to stroll along the dunes and our dog owners no longer being able to take their dogs for a walk on this portion of the City beach.
Is this really what you want for Pierpont? It certainly is not what the Pierpont Community Council requested in our July 18th letter to Mayor Morehouse.
Note that on July 3rd of this year, representatives from the Pierpont Community Council led a Beach Walk, which included representatives of the City, State Parks, and the Coastal Commission. The purpose of this Walk was to visually demonstrate all the problems that have been caused by the City and State Parks neglecting to maintain Pierpont Beach.
On July 18th a letter was sent to Mayor Morehouse asking for an inter-organizational task force to be convened to address the following beach related Pierpont objectives:
1. Seek immediate relief from dangerous situations caused by the sand encroaching onto the public access stairs at the end of each lane.
2. Create a “buffer zone” between the dunes and the beachfront properties & ends of the lanes in order to prevent the sand from encroaching onto these properties, the stairs, the lanes and into the storm drains.
3. Create and implement an ongoing beach/dune maintenance program that has provisions for a beach free of debris - one that can be walked on without fear of injury.
4. And lastly, seek relief from the beach erosion occurring at the end of several lanes at the Marina end of our beach.
Rick Raives, the City Engineer, was assigned to develop a Sand Management Plan based on our request to the Mayor. On several occasions we reiterated our request for an interorganizational task force consisting of the City, California State Parks, the Coastal Commission and representatives from the Pierpont Community Council. Our requests were ignored. Additionally, on several occasions we asked to be included in the planning process; again we were ignored.
Now we are being presented a Plan that does not really meet any of the above objectives; and in addition, places the burden for the reconstruction and the future maintenance of the beach squarely on the shoulders of the 48 beachfront property owners. This is a Plan that could ultimately take away the use of a large portion of our beaches from our residents. And it’s a Plan that could potentially impact your views and property values.
To this end, we want to insure that you fully understand what the City getting all of us into with this Plan. It is very important that you go to the City website and read this document. Once again it is:
http://www.cityofventura.net/
In the near future, the City will be making a public presentation on their Sand Management Plan. They will be sending out notices to everyone in the Pierpont Community. Understanding what they are proposing and being able to tell them your concerns/issues is imperative.
Murray Robertson
Pierpont Community Council
Acting Beach Committee Chairman
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
8 Comments Add your own
1. koert | December 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 am
Isn\’t the vertical component the most important determinant in where sand finally comes to rest? Large dunes closer to the water would seem to give the blowing sand a better ski-jump, with a landing in front of, instead of on, the beachfront properties.
As shown, the plan seems to give the blowing sand a ramp that gets it airborne at just the right time to send it over the walls and onto the homes. I like the idea of growing protected dunes, but shouldn\’t the first set of dunes be as close to the water as possible? Periodic maintenance would still be required to move sand away from the houses, but at least we wouldn\’t be directly feeding the spots we\’re trying to keep clear.
2. Bill | December 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
Well, here we go! I just finished reading the report. This is what happens when taxpayers demand results from bureaucrats who, by nature, will cautiously tip-toe around a realistic solution to a given problem.
The inherent flaw I observe with this plan is very basic: It represents a comprehensive attempt to restore &/or preserve a beach that was man-made. Look at some of the very early photographs of Pierpont Beach. Dunes? Natural vegetation? I wish these early photos were of better quality, as they don’t clearly show examples of the ‘Legless Lizard’ or the ‘Globose dune beetle.’ (In my 30+ years of using the beach on an almost daily basis, I can’t say that I’ve ever actually seen either of these - I hope they’re not buried under the blowing sand drifts and crying out for help!)
My solution to the problem is two-fold:
1. Take a copy of the 42 page report, have all of the bureaucrats initial it as read; put various official stamps all over the cover page and file a copy at City Hall. All extra copies could quickly be made into the world’s most expensive note pads (of course, following the appropriate feasbility study.)
2. Get a Cat D-8 and move the sand back to the ocean. Do this every year. Simple, effective and, in keeping with the “Beach Restoration” mentality, represents a solution which has Local Historic Precedence (LHP for the bureaucrats) since it pre-dates the initial, artificial creation of our “natural dunes.”
Should #2 not be possible, then maybe it’s time for Pierpont and Keys residents to consider the possibility of separate incorporation. The tax revenues generated in the beach/keys certainly warrant a higher level of leadership from City Hall.
3. Anonymous | December 23rd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
This plan is overly complex to the point of being unmanageable. Couldn’t 90% of the goals be achieved with a simple policy? 1) Excess sand will periodically be moved from the area near the homes to just above the mean high tide line. 2) Dunes more than thirty feet from private property shall not be altered. 3) Select small new shoreline dunes will be seeded and unobtrusively fenced until they mature, with protected areas no closer than 300 feet apart.
Is this type of plan actually working anywhere else in the world, or is this experiment going to be the dry-land equivalent of the Greenock jetty extension’s whirlpool?
4. Glenn | January 28th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
These are not natural dunes. They were created when the sand was pushed back from the homes the first time. The iceplant and the other plants were mixed in with the sand and kept growing and collecting more sand from the wind. I have been here for thirty six years and those are not natural dunes.
The solution is to periodically push the sand back as needed. The cost would be minimal to the state or city. All this other stuff is not needed and will be high cost and high maintnance. Most older people and small children cannot even get on the beach on Brockton Lane because of buildup.
5. Anonymous | January 28th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Natural or not, the dunes form a sturdier beach than does level manicured sand. Pierpont will never be Waikiki.
We don’t have to go crazy protecting the dunes that develop, but we should also refrain from spending money to remove them.
There are a few people around who want us all to pay for leveling and grooming of the beaches, but most of our neighbors like the rugged nature of our natural beach and only want to move the sand away from the beach front homes. Let’s not repeat the lifeguard situation and get more than we ever bargained for. Nobody I’ve met wants protected dune areas or experimental horticultural zones - they just want the sand moved away from the homes and placed where it will help protect the beach.
Keep Pierpont a neighborhood beach. It’s not Newport and it’s not a wildlife preserve.
6. Bill | January 28th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Reply to Anonymous above (next time, please just make-up a name and use one - it’s much easier to respond to.)
Did you read the study? If enacted, this plan will make last summer’s enforcement program look like kid’s play - 40+ pages of vague, confusing (yet highly enforceable) rules!
Realistically, we have a choice between 2 scenarios:
1. Make the beach user-friendly by keeping it clean, i.e., where people can actually walk bare-footed on the sand without having to deal with our current minefield of “natural debris” and, yes, moving the sand back to the water (I guarantee you, it’ll return soon enough.)
2. Or, let it go wild. I think that many believe that they can have something that resembles a southern Oregon beach. Unfortunately that’s just not in the cards. It’s pretty obvious that our sand, if left unattended, will eventually fill-in Pierpont & the Keys and return the area to the natural marshland it once was. Attempting to create a “kind-of” natural beach will require constant attention and lots of money. Might as well shape some dunes, shoot sand-colored concrete on them and see if MGM or Fox have any extra fake driftwood logs they’d like to sell.
We used to have a clean beach that everyone could enjoy. The beachfront homeowners were happy, people could actually climb the stairs to enjoy beach and we never had to pay 5 city workers to futilly attempt to keep the “dunes” from pouring onto the lanes. For many of us it was a place where various activities and sports could be enjoyed. What we now have is an embarrassment. I realize that for some a beach is something that one enjoys through a picture window. For the remanining 99% who actually use the beach, it’s taken on the appearance of a once-magificant home which was abandoned and is now freefalling into a disgraceful state. This incredible beach is a jewel that very few coastal towns have. Like it or not, we created it, and now it’s our responsibility to take care of it.
7. Victoria | February 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Could we just maintain the cozy Pierpont Beach we all know and love?We pick up trash, walk our dogs and play without Big Brother watching us.Please keep the City out of this, we have been fine without you for the past 50+ years. Pierpont Beach does NOT need the lifeguard towers or the rules,we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves!!!!!!!!!!
8. Carolyn | March 7th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Access to the beach is the first issue. The stairs are so filled with sand that they are dangerous to use. My 80-year old neighbor comes out with his doggie shovel to clean off the few stairs at Bangor lane so his lady friend, who can’t climb them unassisted, can get onto the sand to watch the sunsets. This is not what I call good public relations. Then there is the dirty beach, with plastic junk and fire debris and sharp bits of wood, so that walking barefoot is dangerous, and children run at risk of nasty foot punctures.
This beach is heavily used, and as Ventura County continues to grow (just look at all those developments inland - all taxpayers and potential beach users) and as more people come here to sample the well advertised charms of the area, it will just get busier. We can’t rope off huge swaths of it and keep people on little paths. Those tourists spend serious money in the city, providing jobs for residents, and we don’t want them to be shocked and disgusted when they hit the beach. Let’s take care of this jewel.
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