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At the Santa Cruz City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 23, the main discussion was about the future of West Cliff Drive and the plan to repair the roadway from the devastation of the January storms. There is no question that West Cliff Drive is an iconic Santa Cruz location for community activities; a recreational area for walkers; runners, bikers, skateboarders, surfers and yes, vehicle traffic. The location in our coastal town is a public asset where locals and visitors alike enjoy the environment. The winter storms have increased awareness that changes to the road and the cliffs need immediate attention. It takes hard work to find short and long solutions for erosion repair, improvement to the road and addressing traffic calming. The city staff has demonstrated an unwavering focus to get a plan together with a broad collaborative approach that includes the city staff, the federal and state government, our state and federal legislative delegation and the community. One group formed to provide community engagement is called Save West Cliff. There is no question about how important West Cliff Drive is to the city, but we have known for decades that coastal resiliency and protection of the cliff are challenged by sea-level rise and weather patterns that have taken their toll on our coastline. According to the City staff report, “The purpose of “A Resilient West Cliff Accessible to All” (Roadmap) is to develop a shared narrative about West Cliff, specifically the area between Natural Bridges State Beach and Lighthouse Point, by assessing the City’s historical body of work with the Council and the community. This includes numerous draft and final documents that support specific pathways for projects and infrastructure on West Cliff. City staff and Farallon Strategies (Project Team) are extracting the actions, policies, triggers and thresholds from this prior work." Public Works has retained a transportation engineering consultant team to assess failures along the bluff and the Bethany Curve culvert and develop repairs to restore the path and roadway to pre-storm conditions. At this time, instead of replacing rip-rap, construction of infill walls along 920, 932,1016, and 1030 West Cliff Drive is the preferred method of construction because they are estimated to be more cost-effective and a more robust solution that maximizes flexibility in the future decision-making for additional coastal infrastructure. After a well-received presentation from the city staff and their consultant, Farallon Strategies, the City Council moved with the following action: The motion, brought by Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson in response to requests by Save West Cliff leader Al Ramadan, provides city staff with three key directions as work continues to repair the scenic road after a was came through the testimony from the Save West Cliff — a community neighborhood group who wants to see immediate action on protecting the road and area. 1) Receive an update on citywide West Cliff work, including infrastructure, transportation, and the development of a roadmap for a resilient and accessible West Cliff; and 2) Initiate community review of the in-process roadmap to collect additional input, and provide an updated draft of the ‘A Resilient West Cliff, Accessible to All Roadmap’ to the city council by the end of August 2023, that includes activation of projects listed in the ‘Post Disaster Projects 0-3 years’. 3) Through a multi-agency approach, utilize the policy concepts named in the dynamic coast section of the draft roadmap, including nature-based solutions, to develop the ‘Beyond the Three Years’ section to include a 50-year plan by the end of 2023. How does the City coordinate this plan: Ongoing community conversations A 16-person interdepartmental working group led by the City Manager’s Office Pending grant application to the Silver Jackets for a State And federal interagency support program, particularly focused on nature-based solutions Technical assistance for federal and State Resource Marketplace to match needs to resources. Exploring possible interagency partnerships across land-side and bay-side jurisdictions The city staff will continue community outreach for input on the draft roadmap, a planning document designed to help guide the city’s decision-making for rehabilitating West Cliff Drive over the next three years. The draft, prepared by the city and Sacramento-based climate consultant firm Farallon Strategies, is expected to be updated by August. That update will also include city staff’s plan to begin several projects over the next three years, including the cave study on the west side of Lighthouse Point that could lead to a look at whether to relocate the lighthouse, intersection improvements at Bay Street and West Cliff Drive, implementing a coastal monitoring program to track the changes in the coastline, and sea wall and cave stabilization. The key according to the staff report is “pending nature of funding, policy, and public works initiatives, combined with the urgency of storm repairs and recovery, have placed the City in a challenging position. The City must manage complicated timelines across regulatory agencies, funding decisions and reimbursement protocols, necessary repairs, and community interest, all while through the lens of long-range decision-making tied to the projected impacts of climate change and ongoing erosion along the coast.” The City is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) which are the key funding sources for infrastructure repairs. The city staff and the project consultant told the city council and the community that they have submitted the necessary paperwork to those agencies and are patiently waiting for a response. A posing deadline is approaching soon in which a formal response is received before that deadline, full funding would be available. if not the city would have to come up with a local share of the repairs: specifically repairs to the road and cliff erosion and Infrastructure project work including furthering funding steps with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and specific Bethany Curve engineering consulting regarding assessment and design of repairs. As is the case with dealing with funding agencies, timing is critical to obtaining those funds. Let’s hope that our state and federal representatives are doing their work to help.