Staff Told to Fine-Tune Del Mar Seawall Proposal

Del Mar City Council members have inched closer to resolving the stubborn problem of seawalls that encroach on the public beach, directing their staff to fine-tune a proposed ordinance addressing the issue and bring it back for council review next month.

The longstanding dispute pits oceanfront property owners, who have built walls to protect their homes from the sea, against inland residents who say the structures illegally encroach on public sand and limit beach access.

The homeowners argue that they have acquired rights to the sand through perpetual use of the seawalls, which they say were constructed decades ago. Public beach advocates disagree and insist that all encroachments should be removed from the area in question, which is between 17th Street and the mouth of the San Dieguito River.

For 15 years the council has attempted to come up with a policy that balances the rights of both groups. More than once, council members drew close to resolving the issue but balked in the face of threatened litigation.

Now, council members are counting on the Beach Overlay Zoning Ordinance to restore order to the beachfront.

Under the proposed ordinance, a shoreline protection line would be drawn the length of the beach, in most cases coinciding with homeowners’ property lines.

Everything west of the shoreline protection line would be considered the public domain, and property owners with private walls in that area would be required to remove them over a period established by the city.

As first drafted, the ordinance would have permitted public seawalls to be built as far as 30 feet onto the public beach.

Construction and maintenance of the walls would have been paid for by homeowners, and the public sand east of the walls would have been open to all.

But council members proposed changing that and other parts of the proposed ordinance Monday night after almost four hours of testimony at a public hearing. The testimony included warnings from a Coastal Commission representative that the ordinance would not win approval in its existing form. The Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over such land-use decisions in the coastal zone.

Council members recommended that future seawalls be built no farther than five feet west of the shoreline protection line. That change pleased public beach activists, who argued that seawalls 30 feet onto the sand would be “psychological barriers” discouraging public use in the area east of the wall.

The council also suggested that sections of the state Coastal Act regarding public access and the placement of permissible seawalls be incorporated into the ordinance. The city staff will rewrite the ordinance, incorporating the council suggestions, and it will be reconsidered in mid-February.