THE SOLUTION: COASTAL RESILIENCE + INNOVATION
Save Oceanside Sand feels that the City of Oceanside is moving forward with a truly innovative approach to solve an over 80-year problem. By working together, we have a unique opportunity to restore and protect our beaches and improve coastal habitat for generations. The implemented Oceanside solution will be something for others to study, learn from and potentially adapt for use on their shorelines.
The City is looking to our history and to our ecology to guide us toward a solution to our eroding shoreline. In 2021, the City completed a Beach Sand Feasibility Study, which identified a number of options for solving our erosion issues, including adding sand to our shore and retaining it in place. The San Luis Rey groin is just one example of a structure that has provided the City with continued resiliency against coastal storms and rising seas while also affording all of the community, human or otherwise, with a myriad of benefits.
In 2022 SOS worked with the City to establish Oceanside's first Coastal Zone Administrator, whose full-time focus is restoring shoreline resilience. The City of Oceanside created this brand new position to address coastal erosion concerns and sea level rise and build resiliency against all these environmental stressors. The new Coastal Zone Administrator brings a myriad of nature-based solutions to our coastal erosion issues that provide countless benefits to surfers, beachgoers, homeowners, and, of course, the critters.
In January 2023, the Oceanside City Council reviewed and approved the contract for Phase 2 of the Sand Nourishment and Retention Pilot Project - RE:BEACH. And in January 2024 the City approved International Coastal Management’s “Living Speed Bumps” concept to pilot along the Oceanside shoreline. The “Living Speed Bumps” concept includes the construction of two small headlands that will aim to stabilize sand on the back beach, with an offshore artificial reef aimed at slowing down nearshore erosive forces. ICM, based in Australia’s Gold Coast, has decades of experience implementing “speed bumps” on their own coastline, bringing forward a new concept for Oceanside’s coast, but with a proven track record of success on the East Coast of Australia.