With Eye on Erosion, Santa Barbara County Updates Isla Vista Bluff Safety Plan

County Orders Cliffside Property Owners to Measure Property’s Proximity to Cliff Edge Twice a Year

The updated bluff policy will require owners to monitor and report on the status of their oceanside homes, with some Isla Vista decks teetering on the edge of cliffs. | Credit: Margaux Lovely

Cliffside property owners in Isla Vista must now measure their property’s proximity to the cliff edge twice a year due to a revision in the county’s bluff policy for the college town. The update — announced to property owners on June 7 — was sparked by two fatal falls from oceanside properties’ close cliffs in the past 10 months.

“This is another tool that will help us make better decisions for the safety of tenants,” said County Supervisor Laura Capps, who spearheaded this change and others under her eight-point bluff safety plan.

The biannual measurements will help track coastal erosion and determine, in a timelier manner, when owners need to cut back their fences and homes from the ledge. Before this update to county policy, no one consistently measured oceanside properties’ distances to the edge.

The measurements must be obtained from a California-licensed surveyor or civil engineer, then submitted to the county if the home is within 20 feet of the cliff’s edge. At this distance, the county also requests detailed geotechnical reports about the structural integrity of the property and the sediment beneath it.

If a home gets within 10 feet of the edge, the county requires tenants to vacate the property and the owner to submit a plan detailing how they will cut back the property or redo it entirely, farther from the cliff’s edge. The property owner at 6779 Del Playa Drive — which was fully rebuilt into a multimillion-dollar fortress in 2020 — underwent this process after realizing the property was well within the 10-foot allowance. Currently, there are two vacated bluff-side homes in Isla Vista grappling with what to do.

While the new policy will enhance the safety of cliff-side decks and homes, it will come at a cost to property owners. Surveyors or civil engineers will have to take measurements from the beach below the bluffs and the actual property over a full day. James Wenzel, president of WW Surveying Inc. in Santa Barbara, said their company would likely charge around $4,000 for this work.

Capps thinks that the benefits of monitoring bluff erosion wildly outweigh the costs to owners, and creating safer conditions for Isla Vista residents should be the top priority. “Especially considering the astronomical rent prices on these homes, finances are a small price to pay when weighed against the other factors,” she said.

Comments on the updates can be sent to County Building Official Craig Johnson at johnsonc@countyofsb.org until June 25.

This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.