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Residents press council on ReBeach and beach restoration funding; city manager says design funded and construction funding being pursued
Summary
Public commenters, including Save Oceanside Sand and Visit Oceanside, urged the council to prioritize ReBeach and other coastal resilience projects; City Manager Jonathan Borrego said design was funded (ARPA), shoreline funds and Measure X contributions exist, and staff is pursuing grants and bond funds for construction.
Public commenters at the Oceanside CIP workshop focused strongly on coastal resilience and the ReBeach pilot project, arguing restoration is essential both as a recreational asset and an economic engine.
Leslie Gall, CEO of Visit Oceanside, asked the council to continue funding coastal resilience, completion of the pier and amphitheater improvements, and downtown placemaking, calling those projects “core economic drivers.” Charlie Bowen, communications director for Save Oceanside Sand, said the city’s CIP documents do not meaningfully identify ReBeach’s implementation funding and urged staff to explain why the pilot’s construction funding is absent.
City Manager Jonathan Borrego responded that while ReBeach may not be spelled‑out on every line of the CIP tables, the city does have shoreline restoration funds: an annual dredging allocation ($600,000/year that rolls over; Borrego said approximately $1.8 million was currently set aside) and a Measure X allocation (quoted as $500,000/year in the current plan, increasing by 10% year over year). He added that design and permitting for ReBeach were funded through ARPA and that staff is actively pursuing grants and state bond funds (the transcript references Prop 4) and philanthropic support for construction.
Borrego emphasized that construction funding for ReBeach still needs to be secured and that the project’s funding profile is dynamic; he said staff is optimistic based on grants secured to date but acknowledged the need to identify stable construction funding before moving to build. He also noted the city continues to pursue permits and grant opportunities and will integrate updates into the CIP process.
The exchange highlighted a key tension in the workshop: public demand for visible coastal investments and the staff requirement that projects be feasible, shovel‑ready and matched to identified funding sources before being advanced in the CIP.
