Tensions ease in Pierpont

After a weekend in which Ventura County residents flocked to local beaches to escape record-breaking heat there were signs cooler heads were prevailing in efforts to address mountain concerns about the city’s beaches.

The Ventura City Council voted 8-1 at its April 14 meeting to adopt a new strategy for the Beach Management Plan — the newly acquired name given by the council to the controversial Sand Management Plan. The strategy could make it easier for Pierpont residents and the city to work together to clear long standing problems revolving around beach access and grooming, the impact of growing sand dunes on nearby homes, and changing interpretations of the coastal ecosystem.

“We are the persons most effected and damaged by the encroachment of sand,” Rosemary Icardo, the chair of the Ventura Citizens for a Safer Beach, told the Reporter. She also spoke at the council meeting. “The city failed to routinely maintain the area known as Shore Drive over the past 10 years. As stated [at the] council meeting this lack of maintenance has caused escalated problems and expense.”

Icardo’s group represents a number of beachfront homeowners who claim poor planning by the city a decade ago laid the foundations for the current situation. Many of those homeowners believe the city didn’t properly respond to their complaints about property damage and possible injuries from the dunes and some are involved in pending litigation against the city.

“We are encouraged that the city is now willing to work with the Pierpont Community Council and stakeholders,” she said.

The vote was largely symbolic as the city has little authority over its shoreline and the council wasn’t deciding on whether to adopt the management plan.

Most of the sand between Pierpont homes and the ocean is part of the San Buenaventura State Beach and managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Both the parks department and the city must abide by California Coastal Commission rules with any action they take to manage the beach.

Since the city stopped grooming the beach nine years ago dunes have formed as winds and tides deposited sand near the homes on top of a narrow strip of land owned by the city. As the dunes grew, a fragile ecosystem began to take hold — as did new annoyances for property owners, such as kids climbing onto rooftops, glass and other hazards left from bonfires and foundations damaged by encroaching sand.

As previously detailed in the Reporter (See “Sand concerns pile up,” 2/28/08) Pierpont residents want the city to remove the dunes and continue to clear sand covering staircases leading to the beach from a number of small lanes in the neighborhood, a desire that puts them at odds with biologists from the state agencies who insist the dunes shelter crucial habitats.

“It was inferred [at the council meeting] that there is a strong probability that had the maintenance been done, the California Coastal Commission would not be restricting and making demands on the city and Pierpont,” Icardo said. “A short-term fiscal decision a decade ago has resulted in this nightmare. The cost of ongoing maintenance would be minimal had the routine work done.”

Now that routine work can’t happen unless the city gets a green light from the parks department to access the beach. Both entities, in turn, need an OK from the coastal commission.

“The coastal commission is the one that regulates the beach, they have power over us,” said Danita Rodriguez, acting district superintendent for the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

Warned by city staff of the perils of standing up to the commission, the Ventura City Council took pains to clarify that its move wouldn’t solve the impasse. The measure would, however, show the council’s support for new cooperation between the city and beachside residents after city staff met March 28 with the Pierpont Community Council.

Pierpont resident Lisa Stern was among a number of residents who welcomed the Council’s action.

“This is a critical time in the future of Pierpont beaches, and decisions made by the council will have long-term lasting effects for years to come,” she said. “I am cautiously optimistic that the homeowners, city and Coastal [Commission] can come to an agreeable compromise to the current problems which will ensure a safer beach for all of us. I look forward to an action plan which we can all agree upon.”

The council decision directs city staff to help residents work with the coastal commission to process short-term permits for sand removal while a long-term beach management plan is adopted and to convince those agencies to move the Pierpont beach to what’s known as Level 1 beach cleaning status, meaning it will have the highest priority for grooming for a state beach — a move that could free up more state resources and mean more regular cleaning. It also aligns the city with the Pierpont Community Council to take a non-adversarial approach to dealing with the coastal commission on the Beach Management Plan.

Councilmember Neal Andrews, the lone opponent to the measure on the board, questioned whether after adopting the measure a financial commitment would have to be made, despite assurances one wasn’t being made by the vote.

“I believe there is indeed a commitment being made here and that’s the problem,” he said.

New revenue will likely have to be generated to pay for any new measures in Pierpont. One source of that money formed the basis for one of two alterations to the beach strategy adopted at the meeting. The council also asked the staff to return with a recommendation for using transit occupancy taxes raised from vacation rentals in Pierpont to help fund beach management.

A final addition made at the meeting was to work to ensure there are adequate places for disabled persons to access the beach.