Laguna Beach begins rehabilitation of beach access at Moss Street
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The entry stairway to Moss Street beach — a hot spot for scuba diving in Laguna Beach — will soon undergo renovations, one of a number of projects improving beach access around town.
State and local officials were on hand Monday to mark the beginning of construction for the latest in those rehabilitation efforts.
Beach access improvements at Moss Street are expected to cost $2.7 million, with the construction contract accounting for $1.8 million of that.
State Sen. Dave Min and Assemblywoman Diane Dixon helped secure $1.225 million in state funding in support of the project.
“These are beautiful spaces,” Min said. “Part of what I think is unique about California is access is in our constitution, access to our coastline, so just trying to ensure that access is not just a theoretical concept but is really there.”
The improvements will include a new concrete path and stairway, as well as the installation of drought resistant vegetation. The rehabilitation of the site will also provide further accessibility to views of Moss Cove, adding a ramp to an observation platform and reducing the height of the retaining wall to improve views of the rocky shoreline below.
“We had a master plan to replace every single beach access that the city owns and maintains in town,” said Mark McAvoy, the city’s director of public works. “We’re going through them one by one. The previous one to this was Pearl, which was after Agate, which was after, I think, Mountain and a couple others.
“Moss is next. In design right now is Anita, and in preliminary design right now is Cleo. … We know all of them that were 40, 50, 60 years old need to be replaced.”
McAvoy added that the layout of the new concrete stairs would make the stairway wider.
“Public access is a way of life in California, and we want to protect that,” Dixon said during her remarks. “... I say this a lot to our beach cities. Our clean beaches, safe beaches, restored beaches are really important to our local economy, and we need to protect that.
“When these beaches aren’t here, we do not have a beach, people are not going to be coming and enjoying our cities, so we have to work really hard. It’s really a priceless amenity in the state of California, that we in Southern California who represent our beaches, especially, want to work together.”
Construction plans will also extend the stairs to the beach when sand levels are low. The current staircase included a few wooden steps at the bottom to reach the sand. There will also be bicycle racks available at the project’s completion.
Although Moss Street has a thin stretch of dry sand compared to some of its neighboring beaches, the improvements also call for the installation of a lifeguard tower.
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