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Erosion scramble: Pacifica apartment building closes, county continues repairs to Mirada Road
January 26, 2016, 05:00 AM By Samantha Weigel Daily
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2016-01-26/erosion-scramble-pacifica-apartment-building-closes-county-continues-repairs-to-mirada-road/1776425157375.html
Dozens of coastside residents were evacuated Monday as their Pacifica apartments were declared uninhabitable after pounding El Niño-fueled swells continued to dangerously erode the cliffs below.
Officials with San Mateo County and Half Moon Bay have also been on high alert working to protect Mirada Road through short- and long-term plans aimed at combating erosion and keeping residents in their homes.
On Monday, residents of a 20-unit apartment building were forced to leave their homes overlooking the ocean after Pacifica officials yellow-tagged the property at 310 Esplanade Ave., according to a city press release.
The closure follows the city declaring a state of emergency in response to severe erosion of the cliffs, a dramatic failure of a sea wall along Beach Boulevard and storms damaging the Pacifica Pier. Two other neighboring apartment buildings at 320 and 330 Esplanade Ave. were also declared uninhabitable in 2010 and must be demolished, according to the release.
The cliffs and beach below belong to a private property owner that appears to be in bankruptcy meaning the city may have to decide what should be done, said Police Chief Dan Steidle.
Another private property owner near the 900 block of Palmetto Avenue, which has also sustained significant erosion, has recently installed new riprap or boulders along the beach, Steidle said.
The city itself has worked to use boulders as a temporary fix near the failed seawall at Beach Boulevard and declaring a state of the emergency is the first step toward seeking state and federal funds, Steidle said.
As to the cliff’s eroding along Esplanade Avenue, city officials plan on letting nature take its course.
“Cavities in the bluff are forming to the south, west and north of the building and these critically over-steepened slopes are anticipated to fall back to more stable profiles in the next several days,” Chief Building Official Mike Cully said in the release.
County repairs continue
Further south, erosion at another portion of the coast has been halted after crews with San Mateo County and Half Moon Bay stacked new protective boulders along the beach at Mirada Road.
A large portion of the nearly 75-foot stretch of road just south of Medio Avenue in unincorporated San Mateo County crumbled into the ocean earlier this month. Erosion has long been a problem at the site, but this winter brought extreme conditions that have residents hoping will prompt officials to investigate longer term solutions.
Several longtime residents of the area recalled how dramatically the coastline has changed over the last few decades with former beach-access routes destroyed, vehicular access closed and cliffs eroded.
“This year has definitely been the worst,” said 22-year resident Mike Mitchell, who pointed out the now pedestrian- and bicycle-only bridge was once open to cars. “I hope it could be protected, I’d love it to be there for our sons and our children’s generation.”
Last week, the county was able to secure an emergency coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission to extend the boulders or riprap and stabilize this portion of Mirada Road, said Joe LoCoco, the county’s deputy director of road services.
Now, officials are trying to decide the most appropriate engineering solution and ideally, they’ll be allowed to continue under an emergency permit to allow more timely repairs, LoCoco said. One possibility experts are considering is known as a “soil nail wall.” It involves drilling rows of holes perpendicularly into the cliff’s edge, filling them with long steel bars that could span 50 feet or until they reach stable material, then pouring a blanket of grout along the cliff to reinforce the nails, LoCoco explained.
LoCoco said it would be another week or two of research and planning before they determine if the soil nail wall is appropriate. But ultimately, any work will depend on what the Coastal Commission approves and the county hopes to conduct maintenance on an older, neighboring portion of the riprap as well, LoCoco said.
Decades of erosion
Gail La Mar said this is her third El Niño living off Mirada Road. Hers is one of the few properties on the west side of the street, sitting atop a seemingly precarious cliff, but offering unparalleled views. La Mar recalled neighbor Michael Powers urging the county to extend the boulders years ago, but to no avail.
“He really begged them to put that riprap in that area and they didn’t do it. So, consequentially the road is really eroding,” La Mar said, adding she’d like more proactive repairs. “I just think it’s sad that they didn’t [extend the riprap]. It’s not like they think preventatively, that’s the sad thing.”
Powers’ home, where’s he’s lived for almost 50 years, is basically ground-zero for Mirada Road erosion as his property is directly across from the damaged cliff. A nearly 4-foot-wide stretch fell to the ocean almost two weeks ago and Powers, along with several other tenants, were at risk of losing access to their property.
On Monday, Powers said he was somewhat relieved by the new boulders now protecting his property.
“It seems to be rested for the time being. But obviously, they still have a lot to do out there to stabilize it and rebuild the road,” Powers said, noting the coastal trail runs along Mirada. “It’s the third most popular recreational place in the county and it’s a treasure to the county — Mirada Road and Miramar Beach. And for all of those reasons, it deserves protection.”
Helen Rogers, who lives nearby and walks her dog along Mirada Road, said she’s now questioning whether to allow her young son to bike over the pedestrian bridge.
“It just doesn’t look safe,” Rogers said.
Christopher Hedge, who runs a recording studio at Powers’ property, said he was prompted to contact media outlets when he noticed how severely the storm was affecting the cliff.
“It was getting really extreme, pieces were falling off precipitously,” Hedge said. “Twenty-five feet of cliff fell off, about 4 feet deep, then it was sort of like ‘ah, we could lose the road.’ And as soon as we lose the road, it would be a real problem for all of these properties because there’s no other access.”
For these longtime residents who’ve seen the beach disappear and the bluffs erode over the years, many point a finger at the U.S. Army Corps jetty at Pillar Point Harbor.
Built in the late 1950s, the outer jetty has led to the degradation of nearby beaches by trapping sand in the harbor. Without the natural deposit of material, beaches and the coast erode more quickly. While the Army Corps continues its yearslong study to evaluate whether it will help fund a dredging project, the San Mateo County Harbor District has taken the lead urging sand replenishment at Surfer’s Beach — where a collaborative project between the county, Caltrans and Half Moon Bay is currently underway with riprap being laid to help protect Highway 1.
Mitchell, who was walking his dog along Mirada Road Monday morning, noted there’s other bare areas of the coast and questions why the appropriate agency hasn’t installed riprap.
But La Mar and Mitchell noted more than a few rocks are needed to keep the coastline from eroding dramatically.
“It’s disturbing,” Mitchell said. “When they built the [jetty], it changed the wave patterns that began the erosion at the harbor and comes all the way down.”
January 26, 2016, 05:00 AM By Samantha Weigel Daily
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2016-01-26/erosion-scramble-pacifica-apartment-building-closes-county-continues-repairs-to-mirada-road/1776425157375.html
Dozens of coastside residents were evacuated Monday as their Pacifica apartments were declared uninhabitable after pounding El Niño-fueled swells continued to dangerously erode the cliffs below.
Officials with San Mateo County and Half Moon Bay have also been on high alert working to protect Mirada Road through short- and long-term plans aimed at combating erosion and keeping residents in their homes.
On Monday, residents of a 20-unit apartment building were forced to leave their homes overlooking the ocean after Pacifica officials yellow-tagged the property at 310 Esplanade Ave., according to a city press release.
The closure follows the city declaring a state of emergency in response to severe erosion of the cliffs, a dramatic failure of a sea wall along Beach Boulevard and storms damaging the Pacifica Pier. Two other neighboring apartment buildings at 320 and 330 Esplanade Ave. were also declared uninhabitable in 2010 and must be demolished, according to the release.
The cliffs and beach below belong to a private property owner that appears to be in bankruptcy meaning the city may have to decide what should be done, said Police Chief Dan Steidle.
Another private property owner near the 900 block of Palmetto Avenue, which has also sustained significant erosion, has recently installed new riprap or boulders along the beach, Steidle said.
The city itself has worked to use boulders as a temporary fix near the failed seawall at Beach Boulevard and declaring a state of the emergency is the first step toward seeking state and federal funds, Steidle said.
As to the cliff’s eroding along Esplanade Avenue, city officials plan on letting nature take its course.
“Cavities in the bluff are forming to the south, west and north of the building and these critically over-steepened slopes are anticipated to fall back to more stable profiles in the next several days,” Chief Building Official Mike Cully said in the release.
County repairs continue
Further south, erosion at another portion of the coast has been halted after crews with San Mateo County and Half Moon Bay stacked new protective boulders along the beach at Mirada Road.
A large portion of the nearly 75-foot stretch of road just south of Medio Avenue in unincorporated San Mateo County crumbled into the ocean earlier this month. Erosion has long been a problem at the site, but this winter brought extreme conditions that have residents hoping will prompt officials to investigate longer term solutions.
Several longtime residents of the area recalled how dramatically the coastline has changed over the last few decades with former beach-access routes destroyed, vehicular access closed and cliffs eroded.
“This year has definitely been the worst,” said 22-year resident Mike Mitchell, who pointed out the now pedestrian- and bicycle-only bridge was once open to cars. “I hope it could be protected, I’d love it to be there for our sons and our children’s generation.”
Last week, the county was able to secure an emergency coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission to extend the boulders or riprap and stabilize this portion of Mirada Road, said Joe LoCoco, the county’s deputy director of road services.
Now, officials are trying to decide the most appropriate engineering solution and ideally, they’ll be allowed to continue under an emergency permit to allow more timely repairs, LoCoco said. One possibility experts are considering is known as a “soil nail wall.” It involves drilling rows of holes perpendicularly into the cliff’s edge, filling them with long steel bars that could span 50 feet or until they reach stable material, then pouring a blanket of grout along the cliff to reinforce the nails, LoCoco explained.
LoCoco said it would be another week or two of research and planning before they determine if the soil nail wall is appropriate. But ultimately, any work will depend on what the Coastal Commission approves and the county hopes to conduct maintenance on an older, neighboring portion of the riprap as well, LoCoco said.
Decades of erosion
Gail La Mar said this is her third El Niño living off Mirada Road. Hers is one of the few properties on the west side of the street, sitting atop a seemingly precarious cliff, but offering unparalleled views. La Mar recalled neighbor Michael Powers urging the county to extend the boulders years ago, but to no avail.
“He really begged them to put that riprap in that area and they didn’t do it. So, consequentially the road is really eroding,” La Mar said, adding she’d like more proactive repairs. “I just think it’s sad that they didn’t [extend the riprap]. It’s not like they think preventatively, that’s the sad thing.”
Powers’ home, where’s he’s lived for almost 50 years, is basically ground-zero for Mirada Road erosion as his property is directly across from the damaged cliff. A nearly 4-foot-wide stretch fell to the ocean almost two weeks ago and Powers, along with several other tenants, were at risk of losing access to their property.
On Monday, Powers said he was somewhat relieved by the new boulders now protecting his property.
“It seems to be rested for the time being. But obviously, they still have a lot to do out there to stabilize it and rebuild the road,” Powers said, noting the coastal trail runs along Mirada. “It’s the third most popular recreational place in the county and it’s a treasure to the county — Mirada Road and Miramar Beach. And for all of those reasons, it deserves protection.”
Helen Rogers, who lives nearby and walks her dog along Mirada Road, said she’s now questioning whether to allow her young son to bike over the pedestrian bridge.
“It just doesn’t look safe,” Rogers said.
Christopher Hedge, who runs a recording studio at Powers’ property, said he was prompted to contact media outlets when he noticed how severely the storm was affecting the cliff.
“It was getting really extreme, pieces were falling off precipitously,” Hedge said. “Twenty-five feet of cliff fell off, about 4 feet deep, then it was sort of like ‘ah, we could lose the road.’ And as soon as we lose the road, it would be a real problem for all of these properties because there’s no other access.”
For these longtime residents who’ve seen the beach disappear and the bluffs erode over the years, many point a finger at the U.S. Army Corps jetty at Pillar Point Harbor.
Built in the late 1950s, the outer jetty has led to the degradation of nearby beaches by trapping sand in the harbor. Without the natural deposit of material, beaches and the coast erode more quickly. While the Army Corps continues its yearslong study to evaluate whether it will help fund a dredging project, the San Mateo County Harbor District has taken the lead urging sand replenishment at Surfer’s Beach — where a collaborative project between the county, Caltrans and Half Moon Bay is currently underway with riprap being laid to help protect Highway 1.
Mitchell, who was walking his dog along Mirada Road Monday morning, noted there’s other bare areas of the coast and questions why the appropriate agency hasn’t installed riprap.
But La Mar and Mitchell noted more than a few rocks are needed to keep the coastline from eroding dramatically.
“It’s disturbing,” Mitchell said. “When they built the [jetty], it changed the wave patterns that began the erosion at the harbor and comes all the way down.”
