The Oceanside City Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to request more than $21 million in state grant funding for the sand replenishment in its much publicized Re:Beach restoration project.
Money is available from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways’ Public Beach Restoration Program created in 1999. The city would be required to supply a 15% match equaling $3.75 million.
The $21.25 million state grant would cover most of the costs to dredge an expected 900,000 cubic yards of sand from offshore deposits, an amount more than twice the volume removed from the Oceanside Harbor entrance each spring and placed on the city’s widest beaches north of the pier.
The Re:Beach sand will be pumped onto several badly eroded blocks south of the pier in a pilot project that could later be extended all the way to Oceanside’s border with Carlsbad.
Other aspects of the pilot project include building two headlands called “living speed bumps” and an offshore artificial reef to help retain the replenished sand. Total costs are expected to be more than $50 million and so far remain entirely unfunded.
The project has been underway for several years and is in final design and environmental compliance phases. Approvals will be needed from numerous local, state and federal agencies such as the California Coastal Commission.
While virtually everybody supported the application, members of the Save Oceanside Sand residents group said the Re:Beach project could take as long as a decade to complete and that the city needs to beef up its shrinking beaches before then.
City officials assured the group that other avenues are being explored. One is a third regional sand replenishment led by the San Diego Association of Governments. The previous one in 2012 placed about 1.5 million cubic yards on county beaches at a cost of $26 million.
“We are working with SANDAG on that more near-term solution,” said Jayme Timberlake, the city’s coastal zone administrator.
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