Land for Sand : City Council Ties Transfer of Navy Property to Beach Preservation

Where once there was only ocean now sit piles of sand, sand that will sweep down the city’s coast and restore the municipal beach eroded to within a few feet of roadway.

But the piles dredged from the mouth of Channel Islands Harbor in the past month are not enough to convince City Council members that the sand will keep on coming.

And a piece of congressional legislation designed to guarantee continued federal funding for sand replenishment efforts may not be enough to convince them, either.

City Council members will decide tonight whether the federal measure, sitting on President Clinton’s desk for signature, provides enough assurance that they can surrender their only trump card and allow a transfer of Navy land to the Port of Hueneme.

Community Development Director Tom Figg is recommending that the council hold off on approving the transfer of the 33-acre Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory at least two more weeks unless the city sees “a good faith effort” on the part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to find more money for more sand as outlined in the legislation.

“We’ve got the buns, but now we need the meat,” Figg said. “We don’t want to be portrayed as being inflexible in jeopardizing the timely conveyance of the NCEL, but we do have a broader community interest in mind and we do not want to be premature in selling our citizens short.”

The bill authorizes the federal government to pay for dredging 1.25 million cubic yards of sand a year so long as it retains ownership of the port’s entrance channel and jetties.

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But the current, emergency sand replenishment effort will dump only 900,000 cubic yards on Port Hueneme’s municipal beach when it’s completed later this month--far less than the legislation requires. So Figg and some council members would like to see the Corps of Engineers come back with more sand this year before approving the land transfer.

The port’s construction more than 50 years ago disrupted the natural downstream movement of sand that maintains the city beach. Without the program, the shoreline could recede as much as 1,000 feet. That would displace about 1,200 people from more than 400 beachfront homes valued in excess of $55 million.

Concerned that no written agreement existed specifying the federal government would continue to pay for dredging a certain amount of sand every two years in perpetuity--and that the city could get stuck with the bill in the years ahead--Port Hueneme tied its approval of the land transfer to some sort of written guarantee the program would continue indefinitely.

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The result: Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Rep. Elton Gallegly added language to a federal bill that establishes the sand benchmark to maintain the beach and authorizes the Corps of Engineers to pay for it.

But authorizing the spending is not the same as handing over the money, Figg said.

With the new federal fiscal year beginning last Tuesday, he said there is a possibility more money will be available to augment the ongoing sand replenishment project, which falls about two-thirds short of the sand needed every two years to adequately preserve the beach.

Indeed, a sand shortfall in previous years led to the need for the current emergency $2.7-million project about two months ahead of schedule to prevent damage to Surfside Drive and other city property.

“We want to make sure we’re not faced with this crisis two years hence,” Figg said.

Mayor Bob Turner favors holding off on the land transfer until the city learns whether more money will be available for dredging. That is expected to occur within the next two weeks.

“We’ve battled this thing for over a year and I don’t think two more weeks will hurt anything,” he said.

Port officials, who have been critical of the city’s delay in approving the transfer, did not return calls seeking comment.

The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, 550 Park Ave.