Posted: 08/22/2011 09:46:42 PM PDT
Updated: 08/22/2011 11:16:35 PM PDT
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.
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
3 comments:
I'm guessing that the riprap placed at the base of Lands End re-focused the wave energy south and that is why she is having accelerated erosion at her property. I'm not surprised Lands End wants to give her some rocks, it's better then getting slapped by a massive lawsuit. She should be taking to a lawyer, rather than kick the problem down the road by shoring up her cliff, and passing the problem off to the property owner south of her. Eventually someone will figure out that they are going to lose this fight to the ocean, and they will be the one holding the bag.
Playing musical chairs with Mother Nature rarely ends well. Sounds like there may be some liability issues an attorney could work with and advise on. Might keep it from being a total financial bust.
Anon at 8:37 am - Lands End is to the south of Dollaradio, as noted in the article. The current generally comes from the north. And the property to the south of Lands End experienced erosion that resulted in red-tagging those buildings prior to the installation of the rip-rap/seawall at Lands End.
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