Frequently asked questions

General

Project Impacts

  • The Oceanside Coastal Resilience Design Competition aims to surface an innovative, multi-benefit, sand retention project for the City of Oceanside’s beaches that provides both local and regional benefits. The Jury will use specific Design Criteria to evaluate the designs. The Criteria are meant to fulfill two core objectives: (1) provide limits to the scope of design for the proposed solution; and (2) generate a set of goals that design teams, and their solutions can be measured against. There are five specific categories that the Criteria address, including 1) physical, 2) financial, 3) environmental, 4) social, and 5) regional aspects of the design.

  • The Design Competition Jury consisted of 5-non-voting, advisory members and 10-voting members from various governmental, non-profit, and institutional sectors , reflecting community, regional and stakeholder interests in the implementation of a pilot sand retention project. The Jurors applied to participate in this role, and the Jury’s composition was established to create a diverse portfolio of expertise and perspective that is beneficial to the final pilot project outcome. After the 3rd design round in December 2023, the Jury reviewed the final designs, and voted to select a preferred design.

    The Project Team, upon approval of the Jury’s recommendation, will then draft a recommendation to be presented to the City Council for final approval in early 2024. The Project Team recommendation will be informed by multiple reviews and feedback from the competition Jury, City Team, and input from three Public Workshops.

  • RE:BEACH is a stand alone process led by the City of Oceanside to design and implement a solution for Oceanside’s coast. The City and Project Team are currently coordinating with other coastal projects being planned throughout the region that will overlap in some way with RE:BEACH in an effort to find complimentary and collaborative solutions. This also includes coordination with regional jurisdictions through the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)’s Shoreline Preservations Working Group (SPWG). However, these projects are led by other entities (not the City of Oceanside) and have their own schedule, goals, funding sources, and permitting requirements.

Siting Analysis

  • A siting analysis is a process to evaluate different locations for placing a project. Typically multiple criteria, both qualitative and quantitative, are utilized to compare the alternative locations to each other.

    The Oceanside City Council will receive a report detailing the results of the Siting Analysis, provide a summary of outreach results from each public workshop and pop-up event, and offer a staff recommendation on the layout and segment of the pilot project. Based on these considerations the Council votes to approve the siting location.

    In December 2025, the Council unanimously approved the siting location.

  • The Project Location is from the Pier south to the Buena Vista Lagoon (i.e. border of the City). The three segments within this south portion of the City’s coastline were identified based upon natural breaks in the coastline via major roadways, coastal features, and public accessways.

    The criteria were developed through reviewing criteria used as part of the alternative analysis in the Phase 1 Feasibility Study as well as the criteria used in the Design Competition. It was further refined through discussions with the City Team, which included lifeguards, public works, and engineering, in identifying important parameters to consider through permitting, implementation, operation, and maintenance.

    The project team can optimize the pilot project design for any segment to meet the sand retention performance goals. However, the ease of implementation across segments and tradeoffs of benefits/challenges across segments are not equal. The evaluation of the criteria in each segment will help us determine the best location for the pilot project where the design can be refined and optimized accordingly.

  • No, there are no proposed changes to parking as part of the concept. The goal is to enhance access where possible at the eventual location of the pilot project, not to diminish it.

  • Surfing resource impacts are evaluated based on existing surfing conditions over a designated time span. The Project Team has already conducted some baseline surf condition assessments based on historic Surfline camera analysis, previous public workshops, and anecdotal data gathering form the surfing community. Based on this preliminary review of surfing conditions, a segment with high surf quality and a higher number of users would represent an area with a greater potential for negative change (i.e. a greater impact to surf resources). Whereas a segment with an existing low surf quality and low number of users would represent an area with a greater potential for positive change.

Project Implementation

Design Competition

  • RE:BEACH is the City of Oceanside’s primary coastal resilience building initiative. It encompasses the development and implementation phases of the City’s beach restoration and sand retention work.  

    RE:BEACH is not, a  traditional groin project, a  breakwater designed to eliminate waves, a shoreline armoring project, or a tourism-only initiative.

  • A groin is a shore-perpendicular structure, typically made of rock, concrete, or timber, built to extend into the littoral cell and interrupt longshore sediment transport and trap sand moving along the coast. Groins range in length, but traditional groins in southern California area approximately 500 feet long and are placed in a series along an eroded or affected shoreline. The designed artificial headlands for the RE:BEACH project do not extend out to the length of a traditional groin; they are instead designed to work in consultation with the reef and the placed sand. 

  • No. Traditional groins are shore-perpendicular structures designed to trap sand from within the littoral cell.

    RE:BEACH proposes to add sand into the littoral cell from offshore sand borrow locations. This placed sand is combined with engineered headlands and an offshore artificial reef, all of which have been designed to mimic a natural reef and work with coastal processes. The reef specifications, geometry and placement are refined through modeling, with the objective of sustaining sand on the beach while also maintaining surf resources.

  • We anticipate that beach sand replenishment will continue to be an important piece of the overall strategy for the City of Oceanside and the region, but the pace at which sand is eroding off our beaches is unsustainable – as evidenced by recent sand nourishment projects and annual sand placement from Harbor dredging. Retaining some of the sand that it replenished for longer periods of time will ensure that Oceanside’s beaches are preserved and continue to provide safe access to the public. Additionally, retaining sand will make existing sand nourishment efforts that the City already partakes in more efficient and effective.

  • One of the core criteria given to each Design Team is to ensure that regional impacts are fully mitigated; including the potential disruption of sand flow to the south. This means that designs must propose solutions that result in an equivalent or greater amount of sand flowing to its neighbors to the south. This approach is also critical to identifying a design that is congruent with the Coastal Act and the desire to coordinate on regional solutions for coastal management.

  • Protecting wave quality is a key design consideration. The offshore reef and headlands are currently undergoing advanced physical modeling and testing at Oregon State University’s O.H. Hindsdale Wave Research Laboratory to evaluate:

    • Wave breaking behavior

    • Wave peel angles

    • Wave transmission

    • North and south swell direction response

    • Energy dissipation

    • Circulation patterns

    • Current velocities

    • Surf amenity potential of reef arms

    Testing is specifically intended to refine performance metrics, including surf quality, that will help refine the design before construction decisions are made.

  • While the primary objective of RE:BEACH is coastal resilience and beach restoration, physical modeling includes evaluation of surf amenity potential.

    By adjusting crest height, arm orientation, and reef geometry, the modeling process allows the team to evaluate how wave organization may change within the project footprint.

    In some similar projects, reef structures have enhanced peel and surfability. While not a primary objective, surf amenity potential is evaluated as part of design testing.

  • No. Oceanside’s shoreline is critical public infrastructure and a daily recreational resource for residents and all beach-goers alike. The project is intended to:

    • Protect public beach access

    • Address chronic erosion

    • Reduce infrastructure vulnerability

    • Maintain recreational use

    • Support long-term coastal resilience

    Tourism is one economic component of a healthy shoreline, but the beach serves the local Oceanside community year-round.

  • The goal is to have a shovel ready project with permit applications submitted to the regulatory agencies by 2026.

  • The headlands are predicted to take approximately 6-9 months to construct.

    The artificial reef could be constructed in 4-6 months.

  • A Scientific Monitoring Plan was developed as part of Phase 1 (Appendix D), which will be the framework that guides the monitoring program.

    Southern California beaches are dynamic as a result of varying wave approach directions and energy, which makes the flow of sand and beach change a difficult metric to measure. A robust shoreline monitoring plan has been developed to establish today’s beach conditions that can be used to compare post-project effects and identify and mitigate any potential impacts

    Surfing benefits or impacts will also be assessed through a complimentary monitoring program that will follow any implemented pilot project. Based upon the selected design, a robust surf monitoring program will be developed to assist with determining benefits or impacts from a pilot project.

  • RE:BEACH needs your input and perspective to ensure the best possible designs are developed and considered throughout the competition! We invite you to attend one or more of the Public Workshops to get updates on the Design Teams’ work, and give feedback on what you would like to see happen on Oceanside’s beaches. In addition, after each Public Workshop we will be posting updates on the designs to this website. Join our mailing list to stay updated, and follow along with RE:BEACH on Instagram @rebeachoside.