Bluff Retreat

The bluffs bordering the Esplanade Apartments in Pacifica, Calif. must be bolstered, but will be costly and probably only a temporary fix. The Costal Commission would not allow such development on coastal bluffs today without a ?EUR??,,????'?????<

 

?EUR??,,????'?????<

The bluffs below the Esplanade Apartments in Pacifica, Calif. are an outdoor erosion-control laboratory. Pacifica is on the Northern California coastline between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. The eroding bluffs that overlook the Pacific have long threatened some of the apartment units in the Esplanade complex.

One apartment building was evacuated on Dec. 17, 2009.

Engineers have suggested stitching the top of the bluff together by installing steel rods and securing them in place with grout, then building a concrete wall across the outside of the top of the bluff (perhaps camouflaged to blend in with the natural setting). Concomitant to the bluff fix is a proposed base fix: a thick steel retaining wall (behind existing beach boulders) sunk deep into the beach and rising five or six feet above the sand.

Such erosion control measures could easily surpass $1 million and may effectively only be a stopgap measure for what some see as the inevitable collapse of the bluff due to wave erosion at the base of the bluffs.

Crews have recently placed hundreds of boulders to support the bluffs.

The Coastal Act allows all buildings constructed before 1972 to erect sea walls and other protection if no other option exists. The Coastsider reports riprap was installed at the bottom of the cliff in 2003 and again in early January 2010. New building along the coast today requires approval by the Coastal Commission, which mandates developers allow for 50 years of natural bluff retreat.