The Dana Strands Seawall
Chris
Dixon: Chad, there's been a lot of talk for years about development at
the Dana Point Headlands. It's a pretty interesting area.
Headlands Cliff. Photo © Cliff Wasseman/aku-aku.com
Chad Nelson:
Yeah, if you go up there, you feel like you're in the place that time
forgot. There's been a lot of controversy there over various habitat issues
there with the development. There's an endangered butterfly and the Pacific
Pocket Mouse. The Sierra Club and number of other groups have been working
with the developer to create a plan that has some open space and preserves
habitat and the endangered animals and plants up there.
Mark Cousineau: For Surfrider in San Clemente and Dana Point, this
is our biggest fight right now -- our number one campaign.
This issue
has a lot of history and background. There've been many compromises to
get to the current plan: stormwater, erosion, bugs, bunnies, flora and
fauna, beaches and a lot of other things. The compromise that's been reached
though -- that many environmental groups have signed onto -- but we feel
that plan screws the beach in the process. Particularly Dana Strands,
which is a place near and dear to many hearts. It's got that hike in,
rural, and undeveloped feel. Kind of like Trestles., I know some of the
locals like Timmy Patterson will kill me, but it's still more of a secret
spot.
CD: Let's
talk a bit about the beach at Strands now. Today, what's there is basically
the dilapidated site of a long gone trailer park and a former beach clubhouse,
which is condemned and completely in ruins -- right?
The View
from Above the Old Trailer Park. Photo © Cliff Wasseman/aku-aku.com
Mike Lewis:
There is currently a mobile home park along Strands Beach. But it was
vacated in the mid to late 80s'. Now as you said, the park is dilapidated.
The mobile homes are gone, but the cracked asphalt infrastructure is there.
The beach clubhouse, which is the most prominent structure, is vacant,
but it's condemned and boarded up. I think it's the only place on the
property a person could actually walk into.
CD: What
about the existing revetment, or seawall. I've been to Strands pretty
often, but it's not something that seems really noticeable.
ML: There
already is a revetment along 2200 feet of beach that was installed piecemeal
through the 50s' and 60's. The big El Nino storms of '83 did some damage
to the revetment and earthen slope there, and emergency remediation work
was done on parts of the wall from December of '83 into February of '84.
That was at a time when the park was still there. And that work was approved
by the Coastal Commission.
Everything
else though, the revetment, the mobile home park -- all that stuff is
pre-coastal act.(ed's note: this means pre-coastal commission too) And
that's an important timeline to our case from Surfrider's point of view.
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