A week-long repair scheduled to start on March 25 to fix the road into the Surf Beach at San Onofre State Beach should allow access to the beloved beach again by April 1.
Heavy rains gushing through a storm drainage runoff system the military installed to help a fairy shrimp habitat area on the cliff above flooded the toe of a slope, and with ocean erosion during high tides and strong swells battering the dirt entry road from the sea side, it collapsed in mid February.
California State Parks is working with Camp Pendleton – the military leases the land to the parks system – to address the storm damage and drainage failure, which has restricted the area’s parking and access in the past month, officials said.
During the road repairs, access to an upper concrete lot that has remained open and holds about 30 parking spaces may be impacted.
State Parks Superintendent Kevin Pearsall said each year it gets more difficult to manage the area and to allow vehicle access.
“Challenges are not only to have the road accessible to vehicles, but for us to maintain the restrooms down there,” he said. “It is important, because it is an incredible popular and well-known area for surfers and it is a lot of effort on State Parks to make sure it is accessible. It is an ever-growing battle.”
Adding to the area’s uncertainty is who will actually manage the beach in the future and will it continue to have public access.
A 50-year lease between the military and California State Parks, a gift to the public by President Richard Nixon in 1971, expired three years ago and since then officials have been negotiating the fate of the land just south of San Clemente.
A three-year lease extension sunsets in about six months, on Aug. 31.
The popular beach has a storied history: It was once a fishing camp before early-era surfers discovered the rolling waves in the 1930s.
Still today, it’s a step back into the past, the large cliffs hiding the tucked away beach from the…
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