Van de Kamp Urges Coastal Plans on N. County Beach Tour

California’s attorney general spent a day on the beach Friday, taking a firsthand look at legal problems arising along San Diego County’s sand and surf.

John Van de Kamp, accompanied by a group of state deputy attorneys general specializing in coastal legal problems, toured the beach from Del Mar northward to Encinitas, a six-mile span where several problems of bluff erosion and beach protection exist.

The Democrat cited budget cuts by Republican Gov. George Deukmejian which, Van de Kamp said, have exacerbated coastal problems by curbing the power of the state Coastal Commission and other regulatory bodies.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers Jeffrey Frautschey and Jerry Kuhn briefed Van de Kamp on the beach problems, ranging from accusations of private encroachment on public property in Del Mar to sea caves undermining bluff-top condominiums in Solana Beach.

Van de Kamp criticized the failure of most local governments to adopt coastal plans that would strengthen government control over beachfront and ocean bluff development.

“It has been seven years since local coastal plans were due,” he said. “Few have been adopted. It is time to force the issue.”

He also pointed out that privately installed seawalls, costing millions of dollars and built to support unstable ocean cliffs below condominiums, are being eroded because of excessive irrigation by condo residents.

Kuhn, who recently co-authored a book on erosion problems on San Diego County’s coastal bluffs and beaches, showed Van de Kamp slides demonstrating several years of wave-created caves along the base of the steep bluffs. The caves prompted slippage and landslides along the sandstone surfaces.

Van de Kamp said he was also concerned about the bluff damage caused by ground squirrels and other burrowing animalism but was heartened by the return of sand to the North County beaches that were denuded of much of their protective sand buffer by storms and high tides during early 1982.

“I am down here to listen and learn, not to make pronouncements or come up with a grand plan,” Van de Kamp said after the 3 1/2-hour beach tour. “This stretch of beach is one of the most beautiful in the state. We must do everything in our power to preserve it, despite innumerable examples of bad planning in the past.”

The attorney general also suggested that more attention must be focused on the development of public easements by local officials so that restricted sectors of public beach can be opened to the public.

The caravan of attorneys, Scripps scientists and reporters accompanying Van de Kamp along the beach traveled in four-wheel-drive vehicles.