San Clemente voters to decide on sales tax increase for sand-starved beaches
Helping rebuild San Clemente’s beaches may soon be as simple as ordering a pizza by the pier from Cosentino’s or shopping at the Outlets, should voters approve a new sales tax increase.
After a series of presentations and a lengthy discussion, the San Clemente City Council decided to put a half-percent sales tax measure on the November ballot.
The vote on Tuesday came amid questions on how to fund critical sand replenishment projects aimed at curbing coastal erosion for decades to come.
San Clemente City Manager Andy Hall suggested looking at the sales tax measure as not a cost but an investment in the city’s coastline.
“We believe that, certainly, the best way to protect our coastal infrastructure, including the railroad tracks, is sand,” Hall said.
A letter signed by environmental groups demanded the Orange County Transportation Authority complete an environmental impact report before hard armoring San Clemente beaches.
But the business of beach sand is admittedly expensive.
If approved by a required 67% of the local voters, the targeted sand tax is expected to generate $6.75 million annually, which would fall about $3 million shy of estimated costs to improve and maintain the coastline every year.
“That will give us the baseline for … the federal projects,” Mayor Victor Cabral said in support. “It will force us as a city to go out and secure the other funds that we can secure.”
San Clemente is on the hook for anywhere between $2.5 million and $3.5 million for the fall completion of a federally supported sand replenishment project overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
After that, the city’s cost-share increases to 50% for future replenishment work every six years or so throughout the 50-year life of the contract.
But San Clemente’s coastline is in need of much more attention than just the pier project.
A laundry list of repairs includes a $2 million emergency sand replenishment project to restore North Beach from severe erosion. Work on the Mariposa Bridge, which collapsed in January following a landslide, is expected to cost between $10 million and $12 million.
While city officials believe that a 0.50% sales tax increase would provide the funding needed to cover future expenses related to nourishing the beach near San Clemente’s pier, it’s a lot less than previous proposals that were debated last month.
Council members initially considered turning a 1% sales tax increase ballot measure over to voters during a July 17 special City Council meeting.
The measure would have boosted revenue by $13.5 million annually but didn’t find the support needed among the five-member council.
Cabral, instead, instructed city staff to bring back a 0.75% sales tax, which failed to hold sway during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Councilman Mark Enmeier tried, as he did during the special meeting last month, to persuade his colleagues that a general sales tax ballot measure would be the safest bet, especially as it required a simple majority vote.
Dump trucks are set to haul 30,000 cubic yards of sand to San Clemente’s critically eroded stretch of beach this summer to stave off risks associated with its vanishing coastline.
“My fear is that we are trying to replace the good with the perfect,” he said. “Do we want to risk that? If we do, OK. But if it doesn’t go through, man, what does that mean for our beaches?”
Enmeier pointed to a city survey that found 64% support for a tax that funded public safety and beach erosion projects with a 6.7% margin of error in citing a reason for concern.
San Clemente residents at the meeting largely spoke in favor of a sand tax.
“We’re going to be a beach town if we do this,” said Joe Wilson, a member of Save Our Beaches San Clemente. “If we don’t put it on the ballot, we might as well just gather up our beach towels and our boards and go home.”
The sand tax may factor into another race on November’s ballot.
Councilman Chris Duncan, a Democrat, is running against Republican Assemblywoman Laurie Davies (AD-74) and criticized her for not marshaling enough state resources to help San Clemente’s beaches.
He cited political blowback for supporting putting the 0.50% sales tax increase before voters as the Assembly race heats up.
“I’m going to be profoundly attacked, including potentially by some on our own council, for what I vote on here today,” Duncan said. “Watch out for that. This isn’t for me. This is for the people of San Clemente.”
That prompted a response from Councilman Steve Knoblock.
“Our Assemblywoman Davies has been responsible for getting the money that we’ve spent to get the sand here,” Knoblock said. “Her office has led the charge in writing to the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider the fact that they’re charging the city up to $1.5 to $4.5 million extra.”
After debate, council members approved sending the 0.50% sales tax measure on the ballot, with Knoblock being the sole vote against it.
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