Surfrider Foundation’s Marin County Chapter has been fighting a proposal to build a residence in Stinson Beach for nearly ten years because the proposed house would be placed in a hazardous location in Marin that regularly floods; where neighbors were evacuated this past December due to high surf and flooding.
Marin County decisionmakers recently approved the 1,296 square foot home and septic system at the beach end of Calle del Onda even though it violates many local policies to protect the coast and plan for sea level rise. The County made this decision in deference to the property owner’s right to reasonable use and enjoyment of their property.
Surfrider urges the Coastal Commission to find substantial issue with the project because an alternative project that would have less of an impact on coastal resources exists. At Friday’s Coastal Commission meeting, Commissioners will need to answer one question in order for substantial issue to be found and a hearing to take place:
“Does the project represent the minimum level of development that is constitutionally required on this property that will allow for the maximum amount of coastal resources to be protected?”
The proposed home is twice as big (1,296 square feet) as a home that existed on the property in the 1930s (600 square feet), and since the entire project site sits on sensitive coastal dunes; it is quite clear that simply scaling down the footprint of the house would immediately reduce the project’s impacts on coastal resources.
The project at Calle del Onda includes a residence and septic system sited in the most high-risk flood zone that FEMA designates. The Commission should determine whether adjusting the height of the proposed pilings of the home or location of the septic system could result in less hazardous development and less sewage likely to end up on the coast (and in the adjacent Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.)
The Coastal Commission’s close examination of this project is important because California should not still be approving development in floodplains where projects are going to constitute a hazard for inhabitants and for the coast. Where the State is forced to approve such ill-advised development, it should heed the Coastal Act’s direction to maximize public resource protections that benefit all members of the public.
Marin County is also especially vulnerable to flooding. More than 20 houses in Stinson Beach were damaged in storms last January and six homes had septic systems fail. The County is currently struggling to complete the coastal hazards portion of its Local Coastal Program, and the Coastal Commission's substantial issue determination would show that the state intends to seek to uphold the LCP’s current commitments to coastal resource protections to the extent possible provided by law.
The proposed development at 21 Calle del Onda, which would be located in sensitive dune habitat, subject to coastal hazards and indirectly disturb ESHA — in contravention of the Coastal Act, LCP and municipal code — is entirely unreasonable and could not possibly have an investment-backed expectation. The Coastal Act was enacted in 1977 and property owners have been on notice for nearly five decades of these state and local laws that the proposed development directly violates.
Members of the public can watch the Coastal Commission deliberate on this item on Friday’s Coastal Commission meeting by clicking the livestream button on the meeting agenda. The item is 10A, Johnson Trust SFD and is expected around 10 AM. Our submitted comments on this item at the Coastal Commission meeting can be found here.
The 'calles' in Stinson Beach flood due to high surf.
The subject property will be directly on the coastal dunes featured here.