OB and Sunset Cliffs projects set to move forward in San Diego coastal resilience plan

Three locations in the Point Loma-Ocean Beach area are set for projects in the city of San Diego’s new Coastal Resilience Master Plan to protect beaches and coastlines.

The City Council voted Sept. 9 to adopt the plan. It is intended to help the city brace for the impacts of climate change, such as sea-level rise, and include nature-based solutions such as elevated sand dunes, restored coastal habitats and realigned parks and infrastructure.

Concept projects at four locations, including three in the Point Loma-OB area, will move forward in the city’s capital improvement program for initial engineering over the next year, funded by federal and state grants, according to the city:

• Ocean Beach Dog Beach and OB oceanfront: Restore dune habitat near Smiley Lagoon and build a new path for pedestrians and cyclists fronted by elevated, vegetated dunes. The path would provide connection between the San Diego River Bikeway and the Ocean Beach Pier.

• Sunset Cliffs: Trail enhancements, new native vegetation, drainage improvements and removal of the paved parking lots from the cliff, plus reconfiguration of a section of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, creating a new separated pedestrian path and making the street a single one-way southbound lane roughly between Guizot and Ladera streets, along with possibly charging drivers to park.

• Tourmaline Surfing Park in Pacific Beach: Bury the existing shoreline protection feature to provide a core layer and top it with sand and native plants.

The plan prioritizes a total of six pilot sites based on feasibility, resilience needs and environmental benefits, according to the city. In addition to the ones at Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs and Tourmaline Surfing Park, others are in La Jolla Shores and Mission Beach.

The projects were proposed last year. A community workshop focused on the sites at Sunset Cliffs and Ocean Beach was held in June 2024.

Scott McCaskill, a board member of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation, told the City Council that the plan for Sunset Cliffs “does not seem well-thought-out at all. We have received nearly universal condemnation to the idea of installing any paid parking at the cliffs or OB.”

Javier Saunders of the Peninsula Community Planning Board also criticized the plan, which he said would push drivers off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard onto less-trafficked streets.

“Redirecting traffic through local residential streets will lead to increased traffic safety concerns,” he said.

Saunders also said nature-based solutions alone can’t fight sea-level rise effectively at Sunset Cliffs, praising the Army Corps of Engineers for protecting them with more old-fashioned solutions in the 1970s.

“While natural-based solutions may provide some environmental benefit, they are inadequate on their own to protect public infrastructure and not a viable long-term solution to protect Sunset Cliffs,” Saunders said.

Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell, who represents the Ocean Beach/Sunset Cliffs area, emphasized that the projects in the plan are “conceptual ideas. We are in the trying-to-figure-it-out phase.”

City officials called the projects “high-level” concept designs that could change significantly after the next steps, which include technical and feasibility studies, cost estimates and additional environmental analysis and community engagement, including workshops in each community where projects are proposed.

To review the plan, visit sandiego.gov/climate-resilient-sd/projects/coastal-resilience-master-plan.