This story is available for republication. Please see our policy here.
Shrinking oil revenues and a questionable future for federal disaster aid have prompted Long Beach officials to halt reconstruction on an aging seawall that shields the Naples Island community.
Among the proposals to revive the project: have homeowners foot the bill.
For decades the seawall has shielded mulit-million-dollar homes and fortified the man-made canal that loops around the island.
In 2009, divers and landside inspectors found gaps and cracks along the seawall they attributed to decades of erosion from gnawing waves that penetrated the concrete and corroded the steel bars that reinforce it.
Since then, two of its six sections have been replaced. The rest remains in “fair condition,” prone to flooding and at risk of collapse in the event of a “major near-source earthquake.”
The price tag to complete the job is steep.
In a memo released on Nov. 8, officials said the city needs $125 million to finish replacing the 86-year-old barrier.
But an anticipated sharp decline in local oil production means the city’s Tidelands Operations Fund — which paid $32 million for the first two sections — cannot cover the cost.
This has left city officials searching for options, including the possibility of a 30-year bond, paid back by all Naples residents or only those living along the seawalls. This amounts to $5,100 per property annually if spread across the neighborhood, $48,000 per property if reduced to seaside residents.
Councilmember Kristina Duggan, whose district includes Naples, called the option “laughable.”
“That makes or breaks people,” Duggan said. “Seniors who are living on fixed income, that changes how they can afford things. … People can’t sustain that.”
Any such assessment would require a two-thirds majority vote by the affected property owners. Unable to provide a specific number of homes, a spokesperson with the Long Beach Public Works Department said Monday there are 1,572 parcels that reside along the seawalls, 174 of which front the unrepaired portions.
Part of the difficulty lies in a special condition tacked on by the California Coastal Commission, which requires any further construction on the seawalls to coincide with development of the Sorrento Trail, a public walkway along the canal at an expected cost of $12 million.
The commission said that “if you don’t finish the first phase of the Sorrento Trail for public access on Sorrento trail, you cannot continue with the seawall repairs for public access,” Duggan said.
In a recent meeting with the Naples Improvement Association, a local civic group, Duggan said she was clear with residents that the seawalls have been the city’s responsibility “for almost a century” and, “like a sidewalk,” are public infrastructure. She plans to hold another meeting on Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. at the Long Beach Yacht Club.
Duggan recommended the city look at federal disaster aid funds, as well as money through California Boating and Waterways funding.
While the city isn’t married to the idea of having residents foot the bill, funding elsewhere may be hard to come by in the coming years. Officials said in the report that Long Beach is already tied up with more than $758 million in infrastructure projects ahead of the 2028 L.A. Olympics.
And both state and federal aid may be scarce, as California wrangles with its own $2-billion-and-growing deficit while President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to withhold grant funding to Sanctuary communities.
Josh Hickman, Deputy Director of the Public Works Department, said the intent of the report was to present “feasible options for the community.”
“We wanted to present options,” Hickman said. “We know there’s a need and at some point, we’re going to have to replace these seawalls. How do we do that? The assessment is really just one such option to be able to fund the replacement.”
The city doesn’t have a “specific date or time frame” to bring anything forward but warned that options are limited as Tidelands Funds — fed by the city’s dwindling oil revenue — “are really drying up.”
The fund is expected to decline by $301 million over the next decade, including $21 million by the end of the next fiscal year.
Chris Orlando with the Naples Improvement Association said the report left homeowners feeling there’s “been a bait and switch.” People who purchased their homes in the past decade did so on the confidence that “there was a plan,” Orlando said.
“They knew there were phases and (the city) completed a couple phases,” he said. “Everyone is generally disappointed. … That’s probably the cleanest way to say it.”
Conditions are especially fraught along the northwest section of the Rivo Alto Canal due to “deterioration and scouring at the base of the walls,” according to the city report.
It’s a difference of “night and day” between the new sections with the old, Orlando said. Sections of the old are visibly cracked and give way to a high tide that routinely floods the sidewalks several inches deep.
“That’s the whole point,” he said. “The seawall is supposed to keep the seawater out, and it doesn’t.”