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ENCINITAS – The fight over sea walls that consumed Solana Beach is spreading to Encinitas.

This time, however, environmentalists are not opposing sea walls that protect bluff-top homes, but a sea wall that would shore up the hillside above Beacons Beach, the third most popular beach in Encinitas behind Moonlight and Swami's.

About 170,000 people visit Beacons at Neptune Avenue and Leucadia Boulevard each year, city officials estimate. But the 85-foot-high bluff above the beach and the trail down its sandstone face from the parking lot are unstable and could collapse at any time.

The city has proposed building a 450-foot-long sea wall – the length of the beach – to keep the bluff from crumbling, said John Frenken, the city's park and beach superintendent.

The sea wall would be 17 feet high, but most of it would be below sand level, leaving about 6 feet visible. Steel anchors would be connected to bedrock to stabilize the upper bluff face. The $5 million project includes building new stairways, a lifeguard tower and showers.

An environmental impact report analyzing the project is available for review. Comments are due at City Hall by Nov. 23.

“Beacons is made of historical landfill. It has a history of landslides,” Frenken said. “The whole bluff is unstable. The parking lot is in danger of collapsing. Any time it rains, we lose something.”

The last big landslide occurred in February 2004 when 40 cubic yards of dirt, enough to cover one-quarter of a football field, fell off, Frenken said. Even surfers acknowledge they are visiting slippery ground.

“This place has been sagging for 30 years,” surfer James Crager said yesterday. “It has failed many times. But I can drive here and have a panoramic view of the ocean.”

Yesterday, Surfrider Foundation's San Diego chapter was the first to oppose the idea.

The environmental organization has argued that sea walls prevent waves from doing their job, that is, eroding bluffs to form new sand that replenishes beaches.

Surfrider sued the city of Solana Beach in 2004 for allowing bluff-top homeowners to build sea walls without studying their effect on the environment. The foundation advocates other measures to protect oceanfront properties, such as widening beaches to keep waves from wearing away the bluffs.

That could be one of the solutions at Beacons, said Todd Cardiff, a member of Surfrider San Diego chapter's advisory board.

Cardiff also suggested better drainage to minimize storm water erosion of the bluff.

The California Coastal Commission makes the final decision on the proposed sea wall. Gary Cannon, a planner with the commission, said he has not read the environmental impact report, but has one question: “Why can't you leave it the way it is?”

Frenken said the city already has done its best to leave the bluff untouched and has installed a drainage system, but that was not enough to stabilize the bluff.

If built, the sea wall would be made of colored concrete to simulate the texture and color of the bluff, he said.

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