The city of Oceanside has begun a dune restoration pilot project aimed at reversing years of sand loss along the coastline and strengthening coastal resilience.

The project is underway north of the Oceanside Pier, where crews have been installing posts and fencing designed to capture windblown sand and help rebuild dunes that once naturally protected the shoreline.

“This whole area was filled with dunes. In fact, all of the harbor was a big dune system that connected to all the estuaries there,” said Jayme Timberlake, a coastal zone administrator for the city of Oceanside.

The North Oceanside Coastal Dune Restoration Pilot Project is the latest effort to address erosion that has steadily reduced beach sand for decades. According to a study from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sand along Oceanside’s coast has been diminishing since the 1940s, when harbor projects began. While annual dredging has helped replenish some of that sand, erosion remains an ongoing issue.

Crews from the California Conservation Corps were seen hammering and drilling Wednesday as part of the installation process. The goal, advocates say, is to create conditions that allow dunes to rebuild naturally.

“The sand is blown, it hits, it hits the fences, it hits the vegetation and then it starts depositing and growing that back beach area, so you’ll get that little dune hump. There will be native plants and vegetation going in here,” said Robert Ashton, president and CEO of Save Oceanside Sand.

Ashton said restoring dunes is about more than just preserving the beach.

“A healthy beach and habitat like this is important for the health of the community,” he said.

Timberlake said northern Oceanside is one of the few areas where enough sand still exists to make dune restoration possible, thanks in part to sand placed on the beach from harbor channel dredging.

“In this area of northern Oceanside, we have sand still because we use the sand from the channel harbor dredging, and we put it on the beach here, but there’s still episodic erosion issues. There’s still chronic erosion happening here in this northern area as well,” she said.

City officials describe the project as a nature-based solution to climate change and sea-level rise. With fencing, posts and eventually native vegetation, Timberlake said the dunes can grow more quickly and provide a buffer between the ocean and developed areas.

“We really need to keep that sand on the beach where it is, when we have it so that we can keep that resilience between our homes, our infrastructure and the ocean itself,” Timberlake said.

Fenced plots have been installed from just north of the Oceanside Pier to Harbor Beach and the San Luis Rey River, part of a broader effort to protect nearly four miles of coastline.

“That’s our objective: to get all our beaches restored in a sustainable and responsible manner that restores the health and the life blood of our city,” Ashton said.

City officials said the fencing used in the pilot project could remain in place for about three years as the dunes develop.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.

A San Diego appeals court on Tuesday upheld the judgment and what amounted to a $1.775 million award to former news anchor Sandra Maas, who sued the company that previously owned KUSI, alleging it violated equal pay laws by paying her significantly less than her co-anchor.

The opinion comes nearly three years after a San Diego Superior Court jury also found for Maas in her whistleblower claim, in which she argued that her contract was not renewed because she pushed back for the pay disparity.

McKinnon Broadcasting Co., which had owned KUSI when Maas worked there, had challenged the verdict on various grounds, “none of which we find persuasive. We affirm the judgment,” reads the opinion issued Tuesday from the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 1.

Maas’ attorney, Josh Gruenberg, said in an email Tuesday that the appellate court “confirmed that the jury’s findings were supported by substantial evidence and that the process was impartial and sound.” He called the opinion “a true celebration of equal pay rights and of a judicial system that holds firm — even on appeal.”

“Most importantly, it brings long-overdue closure to a grueling chapter in Sandra Maas’s life,” Gruenberg said. “It takes courage to come forward, and even greater courage to withstand the blocks and tackles that followed in this case.”

Attorneys for McKinnon did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

According to arguments and evidence in the 2023 trial, Maas was paid a lower annual salary than male co-anchor Allen Denton during their years anchoring the TV station’s flagship newscast. In 2010, when they first teamed up, she was paid $120,000 annually, and he made $200,000.

When he retired, in 2019, his annual salary was $245,000. Hers was $180,000. That same year, Maas left the station. Maas’ attorney told the jury that when Maas asked for equal compensation, her contract ultimately was not renewed.

Pam Vallero, one of Maas’ attorneys, told the jury in opening statements of the four-week trial that the two anchors had sat “side by side at the same news desk, reading from the same teleprompter, anchoring the same newscast, but paid significantly different by KUSI.” That, she told the jury, “is why we are here.”

The attorney for KUSI told the jury during opening statements that Maas had been “paid fairly for her work in light of her experience, in light of her work ethic, attitude and overall value.”

Maas’ counsel argued that she had worked in broadcast television for 33 years, compared to Denton’s 37 years on TV. KUSI’s attorney said Denton had 48 years of experience, counting 11 years in radio before jumping to TV.

Maas, who worked at CBS 8 in San Diego in the 1990s, started at KUSI as a morning anchor in 2004. Denton, who had worked in the Bay Area, joined KUSI in 2010.

Aside from upholding the verdict, the appeals court on Tuesday also upheld the award of more than $2.3 million for Maas’ attorneys fees.

Now that a hotel tax hike San Diego voters approved in 2020 is on firm legal ground, the city is preparing to start spending millions of dollars on some key civic initiatives this fiscal year — fixing up its aging convention center and addressing homelessness.

Although the city began collecting the added tax revenue authorized by Measure C in May, it held back on releasing the money until after the last of several legal challenges spanning four years finally ended late last year.

It is now estimated that nearly $77 million in revenue will be generated this fiscal year, with $45.4 million set aside for convention center expenditures and $31.5 million for homeless programs, according to Mayor Todd Gloria’s office.

Measure C raises the city’s previous transient occupancy tax rate of 10.5% to a maximum of 13.75% for guests staying in downtown properties, closest to the convention center. For hotels in mid-range locations, the rate is 12.75%, while those farthest away from downtown charge guests a rate of 11.75%.

While one of the main objectives of Measure C was to finance a long-planned expansion of the city’s convention center, moving forward on such a costly project, at least in the near term, remains tenuous, largely because costs have escalated tremendously since it was first conceived. As a result, there would not be enough funds from the hotel tax increase to pay for it.

In the meantime, more urgently needed improvements, like a replacement of the center’s central plant that houses the center’s entire cooling and heating system, should be undertaken, said Steve Cushman, special assistant to Gloria for the convention center expansion. He says that the measure’s reference to “modernization” of the center legally permits the city to use the revenue for infrastructure upgrades while it continues to explore an enlarged center.

Cushman has proposed expenditures of $21.4 million this fiscal year and a total of $118.7 million over five years, but those will need to go before the City Council for approval before they can be spent on the convention center upgrades, he said.

“I would anticipate that the expenditures would commence in this fiscal year,” he added.

Toward that end, the council did a bit of legislative housekeeping on Tuesday to reset new implementation dates and deadlines, given the years-long delay in legally confirming that the 2020 ballot measure had passed with a simple majority as opposed to a two-thirds threshold that voters were originally told was the requirement for special tax initiatives.

The new set of Measure C dates that the council approved Tuesday is meant “to fulfill the expectations of voters,” said City Treasurer Elizabeth Correia.

As an example, the new effective date for the measure is now May 1, 2025.

One of the provisions of Measure C is to allocate revenue from the hotel tax boost in varying percentages, depending on the use. The largest share — 59% — goes to the convention center, but for the first 5 1/2 years, homelessness programs will get 41% of the funds before decreasing later on to 31%. The smallest portion of the tax money is reserved for street repairs, at 10%.

Under the measure’s original timeline, the increased funding for homeless services was to end in 2024. With the new dates approved by the council, it will extend through Oct. 31, 2030, and street repair funds will now kick in on Nov. 1, 2030.

To monitor how the tax revenue is being spent, periodic audits for each of the three categories of uses will be required, with the first of those due in 2029.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said she was especially relieved to see that there will finally be taxpayer money available to address longstanding maintenance issues and the modernization of the convention center.

In an update provided last year by the Convention Center Corporation, council members learned that the facility is facing $200 million in deferred repair work over the next five years, plus $200 million more over the next 20 years.

“Every year, we hear from our leaders at the convention center that it has significant needs for maintenance, and we as the city of San Diego cannot fill all those needs (from the budget),” von Wilpert said.

She noted that the Measure C money could be used to support the issuance of an infrastructure bond to provide long-term funding for the convention center.

“I want the convention center to think about this because this is one of the biggest revenue generators in our region,” she said. “We shouldn’t let this chance go because every year I’m hearing more and more about the needs for maintenance in our convention center.”

Cushman’s proposed expenditure plan, assuming it gets the approval of the council, would be to spend $7.5 million this year on a new roof for the western portion of the center, which opened in 1989. More than $9.5 million has been budgeted for the first phase of a central plant overhaul.

Last year, Convention Center Corp. Chief Operating Officer Corey Albright told council members that the No. 1 question from clients is whether the city is investing in its center. “It is weighing on booking decisions choosing San Diego as a destination,” he said at the time. “The answer simply cannot be, year over year, no significant capital investment.”

In addition to higher costs, a convention center expansion is also hamstrung by the city’s lack of control over a key waterfront parcel that would be needed to complete the project.

Fifth Avenue Landing currently holds a lease for that parcel, which expires in mid-2027. The city and San Diego Convention Center Corp. worked with Fifth Avenue Landing off and on for years to work out an agreement to regain control of the leasehold, and ultimately, a settlement agreement was reached in 2018, although it was conditioned on what was expected to be a November 2019 public vote. That didn’t happen until March of the following year, and it was believed at the time that Measure C had failed.

That agreement, however, remains in place, and it is preventing city officials from talking openly about the expansion project or taking steps to move forward with some kind of plan until 2027. Cushman, however, remains optimistic, but considerable work needs to be done.

“In light of the settlement agreement with (Fifth Avenue Landing), in 2026, we cannot do anything to plan for the project,” Cushman said. “However, I anticipate by January of 2027, when we can start working on the expansion part of the project, I will be looking for additional sources of funding.”

In addition to updating Measure C’s timeline, the council also agreed Tuesday to set up a special citizens advisory committee to the mayor and council on how to best spend the money set aside for homelessness programs, as required by the initiative.

David Rolland, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, explained that the money budgeted for this year will help fund existing homelessness programs, including those that provide more than 2,600 shelter options, including what he described as traditional beds, safe parking and safe sleeping.

“I am absolutely delighted that this long dream of providing enough money to help with our homeless is finally over,” said Councilmember Jennifer Campbell. “This time has given us a lot of space to learn what is working and what is not. So the oversight of this committee hopefully won’t be too difficult, and they’ll be able to see from the auditing of the funding that things are going in the right direction.”