Beach restored

Self said it took six years to secure all of the necessary permits to restore the beach, a relatively simple project that was largely complete in about five hours on Monday. For the project, a barge brought in hundreds of tons of sand to fill in the beach because erosion had caused significant impacts, including a steep dropoff and exposed cement and rebar. Such conditions were a safety hazard for MSI’s students, some of whom are kindergarten age, and were also an obstacle for the kayakers, paddle boarders and other recreational boaters who launch from that beach.

Brad McCrea, regulatory director for BCDC, suggested the permit process in this case was unusually slow because of communication issues between the agency and MSI.

“While it took longer than BCDC would have liked, you have to remember that it takes both parties to make the permit process work well,” he said. “A successful permit process happens when both the permitting agency and the applicant exchange information in an open, communicative, expedited manner. And the permit process is accelerated when the permitting agency and the applicant are collaboratively pulling in the same direction, like in a multi-person rowing shell. That hasn’t always been the case on this project … .”

Now that the 115-foot beach near the Port of Redwood City beach has been filled in with sand, MSI’s students and recreational boaters can access the water safely and unencumbered. 

“I’m ready to break out the Champagne,” Seiff said. “We’ve learned a lot in moving forward on how to work with [BCDC] and I think we’ve seen that there’s community support out there for us.”

One of those supporters is Bob Wilson, co-founder of the SF Bay Stewardship Alliance, which promotes informed conservation and responsible development of the San Francisco Bay shoreline, according to its website. 

“This is an incredible organization with wonderful people doing great work that will pay off for decades, in terms of people appreciating and being aware of the environment,” he said. About 50,000 children a year take advantage of MSI’s marine science programs. “I can’t think of anything more important to help young children form their opinion about how the Earth works and what needs to be done to preserve it.”

The Alliance assisted MSI in completing BCDC’s permit process.

“[BCDC] seemed to move incredibly slowly and I don’t know why,” Wilson said. “I think we had people [at BCDC] who were trying to do the right thing, they were trying to do their job, but just overreach and overzealous is how I’d describe it. And once we got their attention they just seemed to be very difficult to move. … It just took too long.”

Wilson and Seiff said BCDC made many onerous demands of MSI throughout the permit process, including a study estimated to cost more than $20,000, before gradually backing away from many of those demands. McCrea, however, said BCDC didn’t change its standards or lower its requirements for this project.

Before MSI secured a permit from BCDC — the last one it needed for the project — it had secured permits from at least a half a dozen federal and state agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

MSI is not the first organization to take issue with BCDC’s regulatory practices. In November, Westpoint Harbor and BCDC settled after a legal dispute that spanned seven years. And in August, a bipartisan group of state assemblymembers called for an audit of BCDC because of questionable enforcement procedures. The results of that audit are expected to be published in May. 

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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