Mini-controversy Around Planned Improvements For East Cliff Drive
Some argue that county-planned improvements are overkill and threaten to remake the area as a Mid-County version of Santa Cruz’s more upscale West Cliff Drive.
Some argue that county-planned improvements are overkill and threaten to remake the area as a Mid-County version of Santa Cruz’s more upscale West Cliff Drive.
Some locals wonder if the good intentions are misplaced, if replacing this half-mile stretch of rugged, ragged blufftop road means Pleasure Point loses some of its grit, and with it, some of its spirit.
“Jack’s house is the most famous house in surfing,” said Mark Massara, a local surfer and environmentalist who has lobbied for a seawall on O’Neill’s behalf.” (Massara is also the Sierra Club California Coastal Program Director.)
Surfrider Foundation regional manager Sarah Damrom, whose organization fought unsuccessfully to stop the county seawall, reluctantly said she would not oppose O’Neill’s plans. “We don’t support armoring the coast there. However fighting things piecemeal doesn’t seem like it’s going to solve the problem,” she said.
Wells is the project superintendent of the $6.2 million Pleasure Point seawall project, now taking form between Pleasure Point and 36th Avenue. After he arrived in Santa Cruz from Discovery Bay in April, it didn’t take Wells long to realize how important and delicate this project is to the surf community.
PLEASURE POINT — Construction of what will be the largest seawall in Santa Cruz County will begin next month, setting in motion nearly a year of major engineering work, heavy-machinery use and road closures along a popular stretch of East Cliff Drive.
For decades, the ocean has slowly devoured East Cliff Drive along the Pleasure Point neighborhood. At times, the world-renowned surfing waves merely nibble at the crumbling bluffs beneath the road and the popular pedestrian corridor. At other times, storm swell takes ravenous bites out of the Purisima sandstone, and chunks of pavement suddenly collapse.
The California Coastal Commission last week signed off on the county’s plan to build one of the largest, and perhaps most decorative, seawalls on the Monterey Bay
The California Coastal Commission (CCC) staff has recommended approval of the above project conditional upon their recommendations as can be found on page 11 of their staff report.
PLEASURE POINT “” The cliffs are falling into the ocean, and county supervisors agreed Tuesday to move ahead with a 1,100-foot seawall along scenic East Cliff Drive to save the bluffs from further slides.