North County residents got some good news this week when the popular Beacon's Beach in Encinitas reopened to the public months after a landslide created unsafe conditions on a beach access trail to Encinitas' Beacon's Beach, prompting city leaders to close the area.
"The contractor has completed repairs to the trail, and the trail is now open to the public," the city announced Wednesday. "Fencing will remain in place at the north end of the parking lot until contractors repair a hole under the sidewalk. This work will not affect beach access."
The bluff began to slide downslope and to the west in January amid a winter weather system that brought rain and high winds to the coast. At the same time, high tides known as king tides thrashed the shoreline.
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"Effective immediately, the beach access trail is temporarily closed and the beach area around the trail should be avoided by all persons until further notice," the city said in at the time in public notice. "The city discourages residents and visitors from breaching the current fence or entering this unsafe area."
"Warning: Park at Your Own Risk," a signed warned visitors during the closure. "This parking lot is subject to natural bluff failure."
Pat Abbott, a geology professor at San Diego State University said over the winter that January wasn't a good time of year for repairs.
“Right now, where the hillside there’s new fractures, this is a bad time to repair it, because with a likely having a lot of rains in February or March, that will add to the water in the hills and help promote instability all the more,” Abbot said.
The landslide was part of "episodic instability" due to an existing historic landslide that is at times reactivated, most recently in May 2022 when the beach access was closed as well. Prior to that, the slope has seen very little movement since 1990, according to the city. Landslides created by winter storms in 1982 and 1983 damaged an old staircase that led to the sand.
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In 2019 at Grandview Beach, just north of Beacon's, three women were killed in a bluff collapse. Their families are suing the city of Encinitas and California for negligence in their response to signs of dangerous erosion, according to the lawsuit.
Collapses have also affected the city of Del Mar, which is working with SANDAG to determine how it can restore the bluffs and move coastal rail tracks off of the unstable cliffs. SANDAG received more than $300 million from the state in 2022 for the project.
