Malibu elite renew beach
Malibu’s Broad Beach, long a magnet for Hollywood A-listers and corporate chieftains, could once again live up to its name after decades of deterioration caused by pounding storms and high tides.
The California Coastal Commission has narrowly approved an unprecedented sand-replenishment project along the prized but diminished 1.8-kilometre oceanfront.
Owners of 121 parcels have committed to paying $31 million (U.S.) over the next decade to fund the undertaking, which will involve trucking in mountains of sand from quarries in Simi Valley and Moorpark and trying to re-create sandy beach and dunes, the latter atop a massive, man-made rock barrier.
Residents who have for decades watched rough surf encroach on their coastal turf say they’re pleased that restoration work might soon begin — after the coming El Nino winter, that is.
“As I understand it, what the homeowners are doing on Broad Beach is unique: We are funding the restoration totally at our own expense,” said Michael Sitrick, a crisis-PR man who has had a getaway home on Broad Beach since 1999.
The plan, approved by a 7-5 vote Oct. 9, has met with skepticism from coastal advocates, who remain unconvinced that the pricey venture will work and who fear that the public could pay a high cost in reduced beach access if it fails.
“The question of whether the project will be successful is fraught with uncertainty,” said Sarah Sikich, vice-president of Heal the Bay, a non-profit group. “We’ve never seen a dune restoration in California where the foundation is a rock seawall.”
Jack Ainsworth, the coastal commission’s senior deputy director, described the plan as a “pilot project” that will be subject to the vagaries of climate change.
“You can have the best modelling in the world but not know the effect of all the variables,” Ainsworth said. “Certainly, this gets more difficult as time goes on and the sea level rises and we have more vigorous storms.”
Among those who will be contributing to the $3.1million annual fund for the next decade are Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan, billionaire businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong and actors Dustin Hoffman, Ray Romano and Pierce Brosnan. (Filmmaker Steven Spielberg last summer sold his Broad Beach compound, with 44 metres of ocean frontage, for about $26 million.)
Ehrlich said the district was working with commission staff to finalize the coastal development permit.
Hollywood has long gravitated to Broad Beach. In the 1960s, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy rented a house on the strand; he suffered a heart attack there in 1963. Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen shared a multi-level house in the 1970s; one day they set their dog on a photographer who asked them to pose.