San Diego has approved a sweeping plan to fight sea-level rise by reconfiguring iconic city locations including Sunset Cliffs, Ocean Beach and Tourmaline Surf Park.
The coastal resilience master plan, which the City Council approved Tuesday unanimously despite some community backlash, opts for nature-based solutions like dunes instead of older methods like seawalls and culverts.
“This is about resiliency and making sure we protect our natural recreation areas and our investments in public infrastructure and private property,” said Councilmember Joe LaCava, who represents La Jolla and Pacific Beach. “What we had yesterday won’t be there tomorrow unless we take action today.”
In a last-minute move, city officials adjusted the plan’s four priority projects to replace one in Mission Beach with the project at Tourmaline, which is on the border between Pacific Beach and La Jolla.
The project at Mission Beach now joins a proposal at La Jolla Shores as one of the only two projects in the plan that are not on the fast track for approval — which means they also have no dedicated funding streams.
The Mission Beach project was pulled off the fast track because city lifeguards recently raised concerns that it might restrict lifeguard vehicles by narrowing the beach and some key pathways.
But the project facing the most public backlash is the one in Sunset Cliffs, where city officials want to shrink Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to one lane and possibly start charging drivers to park.
People gather at Sunset Cliffs on a windy Wednesday in April. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The cash-strapped city has focused in recent months on boosting parking revenue by beginning to charge in many places, including Balboa Park. But charging at Sunset Cliffs had not previously been mentioned.
Scott McCaskill of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation said there has been strong backlash against the city’s plans.
“It does not seem well-thought-out at all,” he told the council Tuesday. “We have received nearly universal condemnation to the idea of installing any paid parking at the cliffs or OB.”
Javier Saunders of the Peninsula Community Planning Board also criticized the plan, which he said would push drivers off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard onto less trafficked streets.
“Redirecting traffic through local residential streets will lead to increased traffic safety concerns,” he said.
Saunders also said nature-based solutions alone can’t fight sea-level rise effectively at Sunset Cliffs, praising the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for saving them with more old-fashioned solutions in the 1970s.
“While natural-based solutions may provide some environmental benefit, they are inadequate on their own to protect public infrastructure and not a viable long-term solution to protect Sunset Cliffs,” he said.
City officials declined to address concerns raised by residents, instead touting what they called the benefits of the plan — protecting habitat, enhancing coastal access and boosting recreation opportunities.
Most of the proposals add walking trails and new cycling connections. That includes the plan in Sunset Cliffs, which would turn a lane now devoted to car traffic into a protected path for cyclists and pedestrians.
David Rodriguez, 55, of Chula Vista fishes at Sunset Cliffs with his brother on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
More than a dozen environmental organizations sent the city a joint letter this month endorsing the new plan, which was funded by both federal and state grants.
Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who represents Mission Beach and the Ocean Beach/Sunset Cliffs area, stressed to her frustrated constituents that the projects in the plan are essentially only rough ideas.
“I want the public to realize these are conceptual ideas,” Campbell said. “We are in the trying-to-figure-it-out phase.”
City officials called the projects “high-level” concept designs that could change significantly after engineering analysis and other work gets completed in the next phase, which will also include cost estimates.
“These are high-level concept designs that need additional technical studies and community engagement,” said assistant planning director Kelley Stanco. “This is a first step. There will be many steps before the projects are actually implemented.”
At Tourmaline beach, the city is proposing a vegetated dune to fight sea-level rise. The project might also modify an existing stormwater culvert to boost public access, which now means walking through a parking lot.
People go to the beach with their dogs at Ocean Beach on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Michael Ho / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The city is proposing two projects in Ocean Beach, one at the pier and one at Dog Beach.
The city would create a path for cyclists and pedestrians at Dog Beach that would be fronted by elevated sand dunes that could provide flood protection to the immediate area and the rest of the neighborhood. The dunes would be connected to an additional vegetated sand dune near the pier.
In Mission Beach, the city is proposing a large dune within the existing beach south of the Giant Dipper roller coaster. Because the dune would eliminate some beach space, the plan could include a new perched or elevated beach.
At La Jolla Shores, the city is proposing an earthen berm lining the existing park and an enhanced seawall in the existing parking lot that city officials call a “seatwall” because people can sit on it.
People have fun at the La Jolla Shores Beach in early July. (Michael Ho / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
While the grant funding the city has received will only cover the four fast-track projects, chief climate resilience officer Julia Chase noted that recently approved California Proposition 4 provides $10 billion for climate projects.
The city’s plan estimates that sea levels will rise about 1 foot by 2050 and by somewhere between 3 feet and 7 feet by 2100. And it says that by 2050, an estimated $150 million to $230 million of city-owned assets and about $260 million in other assets could be at risk unless the city takes action.
Under the worst sea-level-rise scenario, more than 2,600 businesses and about $8 billion in sales would be vulnerable to flooding countywide, the plan says.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn said the city’s 17 miles of coastline are what make San Diego special and city officials must address sea-level rise to protect them.
“They face real threats from flooding and erosion that are only expected to worsen in the years ahead,” he said. “This plan sets our coastline up for long-term success.”
The Coastal Resilience Master Plan is part of a wider strategic effort called Climate Resilient SD, a collection of 86 strategies the city adopted in 2021 to prepare neighborhoods — particularly low-income areas — for climate change.
Climate Resilient SD differs from the city’s climate action plan by focusing on adapting to climate change, while the action plan focuses on mitigating climate change itself with efforts like reducing greenhouse gas emissions.