Posted on June 11, 2025
OCEANSIDE — The city’s shoreline restoration pilot project, known as RE:BEACH, has been selected as the region’s representative initiative for local beach and sand restoration efforts.
The San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) Shoreline Preservation Working Group voted June 5 to designate RE:BEACH as the region’s model project. The decision aligns with SANDAG’s 2001 Regional Sand Retention Strategy and integrates the project into future updates of regional shoreline policy and planning documents.
SANDAG will assist the city throughout the project’s environmental compliance process, helping to identify potential impacts and necessary mitigation measures, supporting construction funding efforts, and coordinating the project with the third Regional Beach Sand Project.
Approved by the City Council in early 2024, the RE:BEACH project aims to address long-standing shoreline erosion through a “living speed bump” concept developed by the Australian firm ICM. The design includes two artificial headlands at the Tyson and Wisconsin street beach access points, along with an offshore artificial reef intended to retain sand along the coast.
“The design is exciting…We want to build a state of the art, science-based system that all our coastal systems can use,” Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce said in a statement. “We recognize millions of people rely on access to the ocean for their wellbeing, and this is critical for that to be an accessible resource in Oceanside and beyond.”
The working group comprises 13 voting members, including elected officials from coastal and bayfront cities, county representatives, the Port of San Diego, and the U.S. Navy, as well as non-voting advisory members from community organizations, environmental groups, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and state and federal agencies.
The working group’s decision follows efforts to improve understanding of coastal sediment movement.
According to Oceanside officials, the group’s approval was based on RE:BEACH’s potential to inform regional sand retention practices.
The city called the decision a recognition of an “innovative solution that aims to add additional tools to the coastal management toolbox in a location that has historically struggled to maintain sandy beaches despite past nourishment efforts.”
Beach erosion in Oceanside has been a persistent issue for decades, primarily attributed to the construction of the Camp Pendleton Boat Basin in 1942 and the Oceanside Small Craft Harbor in 1963, which disrupted the natural sediment flow into the Oceanside Littoral Cell.
The erosion has worsened in recent years, leaving several of Oceanside’s southern beaches covered in rocks and pebbles.
Officials hope the combination of headlands and reef will help trap drifting sand and restore the beach, drawing on successful strategies implemented on Australia’s Gold Coast, which faces similar erosion issues.
The working group also commended the project’s baseline monitoring program, supported by a $1.835 million grant from the California Coastal Commission, for its potential to improve understanding of shoreline dynamics both locally and regionally.
Oceanside-based engineering firm GHD will lead the monitoring program, which will collect data to help refine the project design and serve as a point of comparison once construction begins. The city will also utilize the grant funding to update its vulnerability assessment, add a supplement to its Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan, and develop an amendment to its Local Coastal Program that addresses sea level rise.
“We are proud that RE:BEACH will deliver a wide, sandy beach that Oceanside’s residents and our region’s beachgoers will enjoy in just a few years,” said City Manager Jonathan Borrego. “This affirms our vision that RE:BEACH will benefit the entire region.”
The working group’s decision follows recent efforts to improve understanding of sediment movement along the coast. In 2022, the group formed a Sediment Management Technical Task Force to study sand transport in the Oceanside Littoral Cell.
“What we learn from RE:BEACH could transform the methods on how we manage our dynamic beaches across the region,” said Oceanside Coastal Zone Administrator Jayme Timberlake. “As the region’s pilot project, it offers a unique opportunity to share insights on both the project development process and implementation aspects of the novel concept design with all of San Diego’s coastal communities.”
