San Clemente sales tax ballot measure for beach sand is falling short

Voters across several cities in Orange County weighed in on sales tax ballot measures on Election Day, but only one involved generating new revenue for eroded beaches.

Measure BB in San Clemente asked voters to approve a half-percent sales tax hike to fund sand replenishment, ocean water quality and infrastructure projects along the city’s nearly 5-mile coastline.

If passed, Measure BB would raise the city’s sales tax to 8.25% and yield an estimated $6.75 million annually solely for such projects.

With more than half of the ballots tallied by Thursday afternoon, the initiative was more than three percentage points shy of the 67% threshold needed to pass.

“I’m encouraged that we had a majority of residents supporting this,” said Cameron Cosgrove, a Measure BB campaign leader. “We are within striking distance of the supermajority, which is really encouraging.”

San Clemente residents have already had the opportunity to see beach nourishment in action this year.

After an initial delay, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a federally supported sand replenishment project in April that pumped an initial 114,000 cubic yards of sand near San Clemente Pier.

Construction crews resumed work in late October to finish the project’s first phase by pumping an additional 86,000 cubic yards of sand.

Once completed, the Army Corps will continue to replenish beach sand around the pier every five or six years for the next 50 years.

Going forward, San Clemente will share half of the costs of every future cycle, a commitment that prompted a majority of council members, in part, to put a proposed sales tax hike on the ballot.

The city also spent $2 million for its own project to replenish North Beach’s critically eroded coastline with trucked-in sand.

Before council members voted to put the measure on the ballot, O.C. Supervisor Katrina Foley sent an Aug. 6 letter to San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral and the council outlining her opposition to a sand tax.

“Orange County residents pay more than our fair share in taxes to the state and federal government, with historically little advocacy to bring these monies home,” she wrote. “The council’s proposed sales tax increase places an undue burden onto the residents of San Clemente, at a time where unprecedented government funding is available from the taxes these residents already paid.”

The Orange County Transportation Authority has recently secured $305 million in state and federal funding to protect its coastal train tracks in San Clemente from landslides and beach erosion, which has shuttered passenger lines for a total of 12 months over the past three years.

Preliminary plans include sand replenishment.

On Oct. 31, Foley joined Rep. Mike Levin and Mayor Cabral for a press conference in San Clemente that announced the Federal Railroad Administration’s $100 million award to OCTA.

Despite the influx of funding to OCTA, Cosgrove still sees a need for Measure BB.

“The OCTA is only going to do what stabilizes the tracks,” he said. “We have almost 5 miles of coastline that need to be restored. While it will be helpful, it’s not a restoration program by any means.”

If the two-thirds threshold isn’t surpassed, Cosgrove and other beach activists aren’t going to give up. He found a lot of enthusiasm for restoring San Clemente’s battered beaches when talking to voters on the campaign trail.

Cosgrove is already looking ahead to 2026, if need be, to bring a similar ballot measure back before voters.

“I’d like to see residents take more control over a future ballot initiative, collect the required amount of signatures to qualify it and have greater engagement in that process,” he said. “Beach erosion is a serious problem. If we don’t manage it, our beaches will disappear.”