PACIFICA -- Only 20 feet of bluff separate Joan Levin's deck from the edge of a crumbling cliff -- and a steep plunge into the ocean. 

But she can't get a permit to install boulders at the base of the cliff to stabilize it, because her situation doesn't meet the Coastal Act's definition of an emergency.

Levin's home, a historic building known as "Dollaradio," lost 10 lateral feet of bluff in 2009, taking her fence and sprinklers with it. Her wind-whipped backyard now consists of loosely packed sand covered by a black tarp and sandbags.

"I'm devastated. There's not much more to go. Last year it was at 30 feet to the house, now it's at 20," Levin, 72, said Monday as she peered over the edge.

Dollaradio sits on the same eroding cliff line as two apartment buildings on Esplanade Avenue that were evacuated in the winter of 2009-10. They remain abandoned today.

Another neighbor to the south of Dollaradio, Lands End Apartments, recently received an emergency permit from the Coastal Commission to place riprap, or piles of heavy boulders, on the beach and another emergency permit to construct a heavy-duty sea wall, which is under construction.

Lands End has offered to donate 3,000 tons of unused riprap to Levin, which would be enough to build a 25-foot pile across the base of the cliff that spans Dollaradio.

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Posted by Steve Sinai