CA - Save West Cliff to participate in Thursday city meeting, unveil new resources
The City of Santa Cruz will host a community meeting Thursday about the status of West Cliff Drive repairs and the one-way pilot project for the storm-ravaged coastal roadway. Community group Save West Cliff will present resources of its own that it hopes will serve as a valuable resource to the agencies planning the road’s future.
The City of Santa Cruz will hold its first in-person community meeting Thursday regarding the current status of West Cliff Drive as the city’s public works department continues to evaluate next steps for the iconic, but severely damaged, scenic Santa Cruz road. Notably, resident group Save West Cliff will be participating for the first time after mostly watching and relaying information to curious residents since the violent winter storms hit.
The meeting will be held in three separate rooms at the London Nelson Community Center. City Public Works personnel will be in one room discussing progress on emergency repairs and the status of ongoing studies to determine the feasibility of turning at least one West Cliff-adjacent street into a cul-de-sac to manage traffic issues and transforming a stretch of West Cliff Drive into a one-way street. The Public Works department is set to bring an official plan for that pilot project to the Santa Cruz City Council in May.
Climate initiative group Farallon Strategies will be in another room, laying out the roadmap for the plans in motion and breaking down their funding components.
In the third room, Save West Cliff will be presenting a book that contains a visual record of the coastal road, charting the striking coastal erosion over the past 100-plus years in order to better illustrate the imminent effects on the road, said Save West Cliff leader Al Ramadan.
“This helps people truly understand the existential threat that we’re facing,” he said. “This isn’t about one-way or two-way, this is about no way.”
In addition, Ramadan said the group will zero in on an area that stretches from the municipal wharf to Natural Bridges State Beach, dubbed the West Cliff Recreation Area, or WCRA, by community members, the City of Santa Cruz and Save West Cliff itself. As the area contains Lighthouse Field State Beach, Steamer Lane, Cowell Beach, the famous surfer statue and more, it should be a major priority, said Ramadan.
