Beachfront living dreams wiping out? Dana Point plan shows building challenges on the coast

When the empty beachfront lot hit the market two years ago in Dana Point, it was touted as a rare opportunity to build a dream home right on the sand.

“Enjoy ocean breezes, sensational sunsets and unbeatable panoramic vistas of the Pacific Ocean,” the listing read. “Coastal California living doesn’t get much better than this!”

The dirt lot sold in 2021 for $2.65 million.

But plans for a two-story duplex envisioned for Beach Road – a stretch of coast once the epitome of oceanfront living – hit a roadblock when two California Coastal Commissioners argued that despite several considerations for sea level rise incorporated into the designs and the previous approval of Dana Point officials, the development could pose a “significant impact” and needs further review. A commission hearing will be scheduled.

Their objections speak to whether builders should have the right to develop along the coast, despite threats from the sea, and how sea level rise and beach erosion are blurring the line between public access rights and private property in some areas.

The appeal of Dana Point’s approval for the duplex was one of the last actions of former chair and coastal commissioner Donne Brownsey before she retired at the year’s end. During Brownsey’s tenure, sea level rise concerns were a priority, an issue she said California needs to pay attention to not just in the future, but now.

“The days of carefree oblivion of developing property and building homes on the California coast is behind us,” argues Brownsey.

The proposal for the 5,266-square-foot duplex takes sea level rise into consideration, its architect says. It would be built on concrete caissons, similar to stilts commonly seen in East Coast coastal communities, to allow seawater to wash under the home, according to the plans submitted to the Coastal Commission.

The design of the garage would allow for erosion beneath and “electrically operated vehicle lifts” would be installed to hoist cars out of harm’s way.

The structure’s patio would sit high enough to be safe from projected future flooding and complies with the construction design requirements, according to city staff during an October hearing.

The project’s architect, Masum Azizi, spoke at that city meeting, noting that Beach Road is a gated, private residential neighborhood without access to the public and already 188 existing homes have been developed there over the decades.

Only about six remaining lots are left and anyone should have the right to eventually develop these for future homes, he argued. Homes exist on either side of the property in question.

“The owner has already invested a significant amount of resources, both monetarily as well as time, since October 2021, in order to get this project underway,” Azizi told the city’s Planning Commission. “Most importantly, the owner is well aware of all the risks associated with the potential sea level rises, including future storms, that may occur – which may impact all the residents along this road and perhaps all the residents along the entire western region.”

The proposal was approved by the Dana Point Planning Commission by a 4-1 vote, with the majority of the commission finding the plans met the city’s local coastal planning criteria.

Many of the beachfront homes along Beach Road were built decades ago, when expansive stretches of sandy oasis served as their front yards.

Early-era surfers called this place home, a tight-knit enclave of beach enthusiasts who enjoyed sun-soaked days playing on the sand and in the surf. Innovators such Hobie Alter tested out designs for surfboards and sailboats at the beach.

But in recent years, the sand has disappeared. Waves batter patios and the homes at high tides, especially when mixed with strong swells. Just next door to the community, at the county’s Capistrano Beach Park, a series of big winter storms a few years ago demolished a basketball court, a bridge, restrooms and parts of the parking lot.

Homeowners have put up boulders, seawalls and sandbags to protect their properties.

Brownsey questions whether the steps the architects of the proposed duplex incorporated would adequately minimize risk and adverse impacts from shoreline hazards in the next 75 years.

“That is a super vulnerable site, it floods today. We’re not talking 2060, it’s flooding today where the wave surges are going up over people’s patio walls and in some cases into their homes,” she said.

Also among the concerns are the shrinking sand and the blurred line between public beach and private property, Brownsey said. As sand supply disappears, the median high tide line will push toward where the home sits – and where does that leave public access?

The Surfrider Foundation also weighed in, opposing the project.

“The houses along Beach Road are experiencing tremendous erosion and much of the beach is no longer passable except on low tides,” Surfrider officials wrote in a letter to the commission.

“The location of the proposed project is on a rapidly disappearing beach in the south end of Dana Point,” they said. “Approving new development in such a hazardous area is antithetical to state guidance on sea level rise planning and inconsistent with the California Coastal Act.”

Rick Erkeneff, vice chair for the Surfrider Foundation’s South County chapter, said the high tide line – and therefore the public beach – is moving inland, and those measurements need to be updated when considering development.

In California, people have a right to access public land on the beach waterward of the mean high tide line.

“That line is in people’s living rooms. So the Coastal Commission has to wrestle with the fact that if they do put it on stilts, the public space will be underneath someone’s living room,” Erkeneff said.

The project illustrates difficult conversations coastal communities are going to face more frequently in years to come, Brownsey said.

“It’s happening now, but I think that conversation will become more and more urgent in the next 10 years,” she said. “People understandably have these strong, positive feelings about living beachfront or in a coastal community and perhaps hope that all of the consequences of sea level rise are not going to be part of their decision to live here, that their property won’t be as impacted as perhaps science or other sea level analysis may say.”

It’s not just homes on the sand facing these climate change dilemmas, she said.

Several Southern California projects on coastal blufftops, including one in Laguna Beach also discussed at the commission’s last meeting, are being sent back to the drawing board due to vulnerability to landslides. Landslides in San Clemente, Newport Beach and Palos Verdes in recent years have threatened homes, in extreme cases leaving them red-tagged and uninhabitable.

Laguna Beach in 2023 adopted stricter rules for building or doing extensive expansions on bluffs, requiring developments be set back at least 25 feet from the cliff in specified zones.

If there are successful models that permit safe development in the coastal area, Brownsey said she would support them.

“Are we getting to that inflection point where there are certain areas of our coast where there should not be any new development?” she asked. “It’s a tough decision. I don’t think there’s wiggle room there, as there was 20 years ago.”

City Planning Commissioner Eric Nelson, when approving the Beach Road duplex construction, said the city’s code and requirements now are much more robust, adding today’s rules “takes that risk and mitigates it into a level of resiliency as opposed to some of the other homes that may wash away because they haven’t been built to these standards. They are pretty intense standards.”

Commissioners also noted the property owner designed the duplex with the future risk in mind.

“Development on Beach Road is not for the faint of heart,” Nelson said. “But it should be allowed.”