Bringing sand to San Clemente’s shrinking beaches isn’t cheap, so the city will ask if voters are willing to pay a local sales tax to replenish the city’s beaches, maintain coastal amenities such as the pier and beach trail and to fix a battered bridge.
The City Council voted 4-1 this week to put the half-cent sales tax measure on November’s ballot.
The special tax would be targeted and could only be spent on items laid out in the measure. Last month, a council majority opposed adding a ballot measure that would collect a local sales tax for sand as well as public safety and other city needs.
City officials this week discussed whether to place a three-quarters-cent local tax, or a half-cent tax on the ballot, approving the lesser amount.
Sales tax in Orange County is 7.75%, which includes a half-cent collected for transportation projects countywide.
Ten cities have added their own local taxes as an additional revenue source. The highest are Los Alamitos and Santa Ana at 9.25%. A couple more cities have decided to put local sales tax measures before voters this year.
Ahead of the council’s decision Tuesday, City Manager Andy Hall gave an analysis of San Clemente’s sand troubles and what it is expected to take to keep its beaches intact.
“The heart of it is, what can we do to maintain our beaches here in our community,” he said.
Hall gave a scientific look at the problem, explaining how king tides and beach storms create scouring that pulls sand offshore, some of it returning in summer. But there’s a tipping point that happens when beaches get too narrow the dynamics don’t allow for sand’s return.
The creation of concrete channels decades ago and inland development has also locked in much of the sediment that would naturally flow downstream.
Getting sand back on San Clemente’s beaches will be costly, officials said. A replenishment project near the pier led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is halfway done, with estimates anywhere from $2.5 million to $3.5 million needed from city coffers to finish the project later this fall.
That project is expected to be repeated every five years, with the city responsible for half the cost. The city’s tab could be about $10 million with each phase, or $2.5 million annually.
Currently underway is a $2 million effort to truck in 30,000 cubic yards of sand from the Santa Ana River to North Beach to fill in the shoreline, where sections are under water during high tide.
Just a week into the effort, which will close the beach Mondays through Thursdays until complete, already more than 100 truckloads have been dumped onto the sand, officials said.
But those projects only cover a portion of San Clemente’s coast, and more sand is needed to reach a “stable beach,” that stretches out 50-to-250 feet.
Also, city leaders said, the Mariposa Bridge along the beach trail has been out of commission since a landslide damaged it last winter, the lifeguard building gets battered by waves and there are beach stairs, the coastal trail and the pier that need maintaining.
A rough estimate puts the city’s annual needs at about $10 million – funds that can’t be pulled from important services such as public safety or public works, Hall said.
City officials estimated a half-cent local sales tax would generate about $6.75 million each year.
Unlike other coastal cities, San Clemente doesn’t have large hotels to contribute to its transient occupancy tax revenue, Hall said. “Our community did not set itself up to be a resort-based community, we don’t have the mega resorts.”
San Clemente raises about $3.5 million in hotel tax revenue annually. Nearby Dana Point gets $16.2 million, Newport Beach $32 million and Laguna Beach collects $21.1 million in the taxes tacked on night’s stays in town, according to Hall.
The state also did away with redevelopment agency funding in 2012 that used to help fund pier maintenance, officials said. The city also used to have an ocean fund to help with issues such as water quality, but that expired a few years ago, they also said.
“We want to continue to provide the services we’ve always provided to the community, but doing things on the beach is a new expense we have not had in the past,” Hall said. “That’s the challenge.”
Councilmember Chris Duncan said the state should be helping the city more, but the residents should ultimately decide whether they want to add a local sales tax.
“We are taxed far, far too much,” he said. “People are suffering in San Clemente right now.”
Councilmember Steve Knoblock was the lone vote against placing the ballot measure. He said other less-expensive methods, including the city hiring its own dredger to do regular sand replenishments, should be explored.
About a dozen speakers urged the council to add the measure on the November ballot, reiterating the importance of the town’s beaches.
Resident John Dowell acknowledged “no one is excited about taxes,” but said the city is facing an existential crisis.
“We all benefit from our coastal resources,” he said. “Without a beach, property values decline, businesses will struggle and the quality of life declines.”
Ballots for the November election will go out in early October. It will take two-thirds of qualified voters approving the tax for it to pass. If it is approved, the tax would likely go into effect in April.
Originally Published:
