A wave splashes near Its Beach and the West Cliff path on Nov. 11. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local)

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz city leaders on Tuesday suggested a priority list of potential projects to help shore up West Cliff Drive, none of which involved converting the street to one-way traffic.

The city has been gathering residents’ input as it creates a 5-Year Roadmap for West Cliff. A public comment period will run to mid-January, and a final version of the 5-year plan is expected to be considered by the Santa Cruz City Council in March.

A bridge and culvert on West Cliff Drive near Woodrow Avenue is expected to reopen in spring 2025, city officials said this week. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local) 

At an online meeting Tuesday, city officials said they would prioritize shifting a 400-foot stretch of West Cliff Drive that abuts Lighthouse Field State Beach about 50 feet inland, removing it from the imminent erosion zone. The estimated project cost is $2 million.

Based on feedback from both city staff and the public, other West Cliff projects proposed for the 5-Year Roadmap include: 

• Restacking existing boulder piles, known as rip rap, and otherwise reinforcing structures that prevent erosion. Estimated cost: $15 million, plus $500,000 in annual maintenance.
• Creating consistent design standards for signs, landscaping, bike racks and other amenities along West Cliff. Estimated cost: $100,000.
• Using a newly installed tidal gauge at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, along with drones and camera stations, to track cliff erosion, beach width and sea-level rise. Estimated cost: $350,000, plus $20,000 in annual maintenance.
• Funding a study to explore new ways of raising revenues for West Cliff infrastructure and climate resilience. Estimated cost: $400,000.

City leaders had considered prioritizing three other West Cliff projects, but for now have left them off the proposed 5-Year Roadmap:

• Stabilizing the area’s myriad sea caves.
• Updating West Cliff’s 42 stormwater outfalls to reduce erosion and improve habitat.
• Establishing a parking management plan.

Ultimately, it would not be feasible for the public works department to complete all of these in the next few years, said Assistant City Manager Michelle Templeton. She said the city might be able to address certain other community desires as part of the 5-Year Roadmap, such as traffic-calming measures, protected bike lanes and native plant landscaping.

This stretch of West Cliff Drive could be shifted about 50 feet into Lighthouse Field State Beach to remove it from an erosion zone, city officials said Nov. 19. West Cliff is pictured in June 2017. (TR Dreszer)

A proposal would move West Cliff Drive into Lighthouse Field State Beach near Its Beach and a cliffside parking lot. (City of Santa Cruz) 

Two-way traffic for five years

The 5-Year Roadmap will not address converting West Cliff to one-way traffic, as occurred on East Cliff Drive in the 1990s. In a recent survey of Santa Cruz residents, more than 60% of respondents said West Cliff should be a one-way street and ranked walking, cycling, beachgoing, accessing the surf and enjoying the view as a higher priority than driving. 

But this April, the city council unanimously rejected a pilot program that would have kept westbound vehicle traffic while turning the eastbound lane into a protected bike lane. 

“As directed by [the city] council, we are focused on restoring West Cliff Drive to its pre-storm conditions, which includes the original two-way traffic patterns that were in place before the storms,” city spokesperson Erika Smart wrote in an email. 

“The plan is to open it back up two-way for at least the next five years while long-term plans are being discussed. And that makes the most sense to me,” said Don Iglesias, a member of the community group Save West Cliff. Iglesias is also on the city’s West Cliff Implementation Committee and is a former superintendent of San José Unified School District.

Iglesias worried about the traffic implications of a one-way West Cliff Drive. A detour from West Cliff Drive to Pelton Avenue has meant at least four times as many vehicles passing his home daily than when repairs began on a culvert and bridge near West Cliff and Woodrow Avenue after a January 2023 storm, he said.

That stretch of West Cliff is scheduled to fully reopen in spring 2025, Santa Cruz Public Works Director Nathan Nguyen said Tuesday.

“The problem is the neighborhood is not really designed to handle that kind of [traffic] volume,” Iglesias said. “A lot of people are at a high level of frustration.” He added that, with no sidewalks on many side streets, kids and dogs are at risk.

Historically, West Cliff has been stabilized with seawalls and rip rap, though these structures can cause beach erosion and otherwise damage the local ecosystem. Prompted by the California Coastal Commission, the city compiled a 2021 West Cliff Drive Adaptation and Management Plan that warned of an “inevitable future of accelerated coastal erosion.” 

UC Santa Cruz coastal scientist Gary Griggs said that climate change is bringing ever larger waves and more powerful storms, and that sea levels would continue to rise for at least the next 1,000 years. 

“In the long run, there’s absolutely nothing we can do to hold back the Pacific Ocean,” Griggs said in a Nov. 15 interview.

A powerful storm on Jan. 5, 2023, toppled portions of West Cliff into the sea, most notably around Woodrow Avenue. The extensive damage was caused by a “combination of really high tides and really big waves,” Griggs said.  

Storms in late 2023 and early 2024 also caused damage to the bluffs. About $28 million has been spent to repair storm damage on West Cliff over the past couple years, city officials said.

West Cliff from the lighthouse to Almar Avenue is “weaker and softer” than other parts, UCSC coastal scientist Gary Griggs said. The cliff erodes near Lighthouse Field State Beach in February 2024. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

‘Resilient and accessible space’ in 50 years

In April, the Santa Cruz City Council approved a 50-year Community Vision for West Cliff, which projected 5 to 25 feet of erosion by 2075. “Without private property acquisition, separated pedestrian and bicycle lanes are not feasible while maintaining two-way vehicle traffic,” the report stated.

Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker wrote that the goal should not be “preserving West Cliff as it exists today, but rather creating a resilient and accessible space that can withstand the impacts of climate change while continuing to serve as a vital hub for our community.”

Following the adoption of the 50-year Community Vision, the city council directed city staff to create a 5-Year Roadmap, with the purpose of identifying priority projects for 2025 to 2030. Templeton said the 5-Year Roadmap marked the first step in implementing the 50-year Community Vision.

Several separate West Cliff projects and studies are already underway, city officials said. For example, in 2023, Santa Cruz received a $500,000 grant to study “living shorelines, sand management techniques and other nature-based solutions to address coastal hazards.”

However, Griggs doubted such measures would be effective along West Cliff, where there isn’t much room to plant native vegetation. He said nature-based solutions work better in places like San Francisco Bay and Elkhorn Slough, where marsh restorations can blunt the impact of powerful storms.

The section of West Cliff most susceptible to erosion, Griggs said, stands from Almar Avenue to the lighthouse. He said the rock there is “weaker and softer” than other parts of West Cliff, with “a lot of joints and fractures.”

Many surfers are concerned about cliff erosion around Steamer Lane. “That point that juts out is what creates the waves and tones down the wind coming from the west,” Iglesias said. “If that point were to crumble and fall in, then that surf spot will no longer be world class.”

Iglesias said artificial reefs or concrete fill should be considered to protect parts of West Cliff. “Steamer Lane is going to need concrete,” Iglesias said.

Tiffany Wise-West, the city’s sustainability and resiliency officer, said during Tuesday’s meeting that the California Coastal Commission would not allow all such projects.

Wise-West said, “We won’t be able to armor everything.”

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