And the uh Newport Beach Commission.

Um, we thank everyone for coming tonight.

Uh so we from the city council, we have uh Stephanie Smythe.

Oh, give me applause.

Yeah, right, right.

Exactly.

Exactly.

To the end.

Uh Gina Politano, uh, Lynn Segley, uh, myself, and we'll wait on.

I know uh Sai can't make it tonight because under the weather.

And hopefully we uh Dave and Ellen can make it.

Uh then I'll turn it off to you, um Mark.

Good evening, Mayor.

Um, my name is Mark Fitzgerald.

I'm the chairman of the Newport Beach Commission.

To my left is Allie Oakley, our vice chair.

To my right is Susan Marks, our newest member as of January.

And at the end there is Elizabeth Ponte.

Um we have a couple of members, one that is on his way and may come in at about 6.15.

The other mayor, the other members, we have one illness and one possibility that may also come in late.

They're also a little bit worried about uh getting here by and finding a parking spot at this time of day with everyone, the rest of us here.

Sure.

Um, so what we're gonna do tonight, um in a moment, I'll turn it over to um our director of resiliency and sustainability, uh, Teresa Crean.

Um, and she'll introduce uh the members of our um well the everyone that's doing the the concepts and the uh engineers and architectures and all those fun positions that are way over my pay grade.

But um for anyone here from the public, we're gonna uh go through the presentation and then after the presentation are our done and after the the council and beach commission go through the questions, then we'll open it up to any public comment after that.

Okay.

Uh so without any further ado, I'll introduce uh Director Creen.

There it is.

So you see uh delayed applause for the council and the beach commission.

Uh Teresa Crean, Director of Resilience and Sustainability.

Thank you so much for everybody's attendance tonight um for this joint workshop with the City Council and Beach Commission to talk about the status of where we are with the East Ends Beach planning for a resilient future project, which started over a year ago.

Um even longer than that.

It goes back several years where these facilities were first deliberated by the city, and this recent effort has taken a look at the structures, um, especially what we the reality that we're facing after the storms that took place in December of 2023 and and January of 2024.

And our um very talented uh consultant team has put together a great suite of uh products for us to move the conversation forward to determine how we the city plans to spend the 11 million dollars that was positioned in the general obligation bond that passed in 2024 and make some decisions on what the future of the beach will look like.

The project has been really robust with public engagement.

The um there were there was a walk shop, and I don't want to steal too much of the thunder with the review of what where we where we were.

Um, but we had um a walkshop in June.

Uh there were concept drawings and an eight-foot model with uh movable pieces that the public was able to engage with, and that series of workshops and on-site um charredding that the consultant team um engaged in led to some concept alternatives that were released for public review and survey.

Um we did a lot of outreach to get survey responses for that.

So I think the public engagement part has been really strong.

And with the leadership of the beach commission and the members of the Easton's Beach Resilience Committee, we've been giving the beach commission regular updates and we've had a good diverse set of um community members weigh in on different aspects of beach use over the course of this project.

So tonight we have our consultant team here to walk you through about a half an hour presentation of where we are with the concept review and the modeling that took place after the concepts were generated back in June.

And without further ado, I will turn the floor um over to our consultant team led by Beth uh at Fuss and O'Neill.

Thank you.

Thank you, Teresa.

And thank you all for having us here tonight.

We're very, very excited to be able to show you the results of the work that we've put in so far.

So if we could advance to the next slide.

I have the clicker over here if you want to take it.

Thanks.

Or don't trust myself with those things.

I thought it was my garage door opener.

Cars are beeping now, everything's going crazy.

Um like um Teresa said, or or Director Crean said, uh we have been at this for a while.

Uh I know a number of you have heard us talk uh at length on some of these concepts.

What we're hoping to do tonight is give you a very pared down overview of exactly where we are with the concepts.

Before we jump into that, just wanted to revisit the problem statement.

So when we started this project, um, it was a follow-on to another study that looked at the facilities more specifically.

What was decided in that at the outcome of that study was that the beach itself was vulnerable.

You've seen it sustain damage from multiple very low level storms over the past couple of years.

It is susceptible to storm surge, coastal flooding, and erosion.

And this vulnerability is expected to increase in coming years.

So we needed to know exactly how that vulnerability was expected to increase.

We needed to understand exactly what the risks were that we needed to mitigate.

Um, because to protect this landform to keep the beach itself here for the community of Newport will require very specific design responsive to those conditions.

And we want to make sure, because it is a significant investment.

We recognize that, and we want to make sure that the significant investment is made in a way that is not excessive.

You know, if you're gonna build a dune, you sure you could build it 50 feet high, excessive.

You don't need to spend that much.

Let's figure out exactly what you need to do.

So the goals of this project were to increase the resilience of Easton's Beach.

Think about the amenities that could be added back to the beach landscape, the adjusted beach landscape, or retrofit the ones that are there on the beach landscape once it is made more resilient.

First and foremost is to achieve that so that you can maintain public access to the beach, maintain it as a as a public amenity.

And then how would we want to do this through nature-based solutions?

Why nature-based solutions?

They're dynamic, they are responsive to climate risk in a way that hard infrastructure needs to resist that climate risk.

Uh nature-based solutions are natural systems and natural systems respond in a dynamic way.

They're often over time less expensive as a result and offer more mitigation.

Additionally, you get those co-benefits.

People go to beaches because they look like beaches.

So let's build this beach to be a beach, the one that supports a sense of place and is an enjoyable experience and an enjoyable experience is found on a beach with natural infrastructure more so than on a beach.

And this is a very subjective statement.

But more so on a beach that is that is dominated by built infrastructure.

So we have explored nature-based solutions, which was a direction that was guided by um and supported by the feedback we received in the public engagement process.

So without further ado, don't want to go down too many rabbit holes here.

We want to keep this brief.

I'm going to introduce Brittany Hoffnagel from Woods Whole Group who can uh is going to walk you through the uh the development of those options as they were rooted and grounded in our science-based approach.

Thank you, Beth.

Um again, my name is Brittany Hoffnagel.

I'm from Woods Hole Group.

We're based on Bourne, Massachusetts.

Um, I'm a climate resiliency specialist, but a lot of my colleagues who worked on this project are coastal engineers and coastal modelers.

So definitely have um a lot of internal expertise to help solve some of these really important critical questions.

Um just want to point out this is really sensitive.

Um so tonight I'm gonna briefly go through what we've done briefly, just to um overview some of the the data collection, the modeling, and then really dive into the proposed options that we developed in response to the engagement um and provide some more information necessary to make some decisions.

Um, so where we started um in the fall of 2024, we conducted a series of field investigations.

Two provide us the input conditions for the modeling so that we can then understand the existing conditions.

And then ultimately all of this information was super critical for us to develop a design specific to Eastern Speech so that we could bolster the enhancement of the resiliency of Eastern Speech.

So really how can we maximize the capacity of any proposed beach dune system to provide that buffer from storms and sea level rise.

And it's really critical and gathering all of this data and really important.

We then in the spring of 2025, we utilized all that data to do existing conditions modeling.

And the purpose of that modeling accomplished two things.

Really taking the wave data that we collected to understand how the waves from offshore in east in the broader ocean, how those wave change and transform as they approach Eastern Space.

That allows us to develop site specific current conditions and wave conditions, important for understanding how those coastal processes affect the existing beach.

And then we also understood how sediment in this system in the Eastern Space system is moving alongshore, so side to side, west to east, or even onshore and offshore.

So with all of that work and with the increased engagement that happened through the summer, we were able to develop three concepts.

And we like to think about them as phased, kind of our entry level option that provides that maintains the existing infrastructure, but still provides a little bit of resiliency.

So that's our phased concept.

So the next three slides are going to look much like this, where we have the aerial view where you can see where the dune is going to start.

And then we on the bottom we have these cross sections where if you're looking east, um, you can see uh the rotunda and the parking lots on the left going towards the water on the right.

And so these the cross sections show what the dimensions of that phased um dune is going to look like.

And so again, this is the first progression.

Um this is again no initial modification of the existing infrastructure, but allows, if choosing so to further um pursue other conditions or other proposed alternatives if the phase approach is the best option for right now.

Um, but this allows you to build upon in the future if you want to do some more adaptive management and implement uh a larger dune in the future.

So this is um summarized by a hundred-foot beach firm with a physical coastal dune about 40 feet wide.

The next option is what we're considering partial dune concept.

Something that we learned through the engagement is that uh parking spaces is something that's really gonna influence the type of solution we can make here.

Um, so this uh about this alternative, this concept um considers maintaining 500 spaces.

So in that case, the western dune is a little bit wider, whereas the eastern dune um, in order to maintain the large amount of spaces, we have to maintain the majority of that parking lot.

So the dune on the eastern side is is a little bit um uh not as wide as the western side.

So that is the second um alternative, which we're calling the partial dune concept.

The third and final evaluate uh alternative or concept is known as the full dune concept.

And this is one where the amenity space was considering reducing the number of spaces down to 300 in order to maintain maintain access of the beach.

Um, this dune extends equal um consistently the whole length of Eastern Speech, where we have a hundred foot uh beach firm and about an 80-foot dune, um the entire length of this beach.

So those are the three concepts.

Again, the phase, the partial, and the full dune.

And in order the next now, I want to talk about where we are now.

So we just completed the cross-shore sediment transport modeling, which means we need to know how these proposed alternatives are going to react to storms and how sediment or overwash or flooding of the parking lots will happen onshore, offshore.

So now that we know these three concepts, we can model how the waves, how the currents, how storms are impacting the erosional patterns of these three proposed conditions.

So we did the modeling along two transects.

But simply I'm going to show you a series of figures that show and present the results of this modeling.

And I just want to get you familiar with this little graphic on the bottom, as you see everything in brown is what the current elevation or the current cross-section looks like.

So you see the water on the right, then we get up to the existing knee wall in the middle of the site.

Then we have the parking lot, Memorial Drive, the moat and the berm with Easton's Pond.

So I just want to get you familiar with that cross-section because you will see that cross-section in the next couple slides.

So we're able to again evaluate how this profile of the beach will change based on the three alternatives from the impacts of storms.

Before we dig into that, I just wanted to give you an overview of the summary table.

This summary table describes the results of all of our modeled scenarios.

And so I just want to get you familiar with the green as indicating that the proposed storm is adding protection.

That dune is providing an enhanced resiliency benefits under those certain storm conditions.

If you see one of our results with red, that's indicating that that storm is able to develop or cause damage to each of those proposed alternatives.

So the following slides will show you the results and just keep an eye out for the green or the red to give you a really quick reaction to how each of these storms impact the different alternatives.

So on the right, you'll see the results of the two-year storm event, which is a smaller storm, but something that might happen more frequently.

So you see the green, the brown, which is the initial, anything under the black line is the initial profile.

And then from the results of the model, it's hard to see from a distance, but anything below the orange line is this the material that's eroded or damaged or flooded or overwashed from the storm results.

So really seeing this results really tell you which which alternative or each which concept it provides the most protection.

So when we are considering these smaller, more frequent storms, all three of these concepts, the phased, the partial, the full, are beneficial to Eastern speech.

They'll provide resiliency, but remember that there's a small, more frequent storm.

So that's indicated by that green box, showing that each of these proposed alternatives or concepts provide a resiliency benefit for Eastern Spee for smaller and more frequent storms.

When you consider, and these is this is an animation to just drive home the point.

I'll let this roll over and over.

But when we start to consider the 10-year storm, the storm that's a little bit larger, something that we might see once you have a chance of seeing this on a one to 10 year basis.

Um, every year you have a 10% chance, you can see how the results of the modeling starts to provide varying results between each of the different um potential concepts.

So in the phased concept, as you see the animation continue, you'll start to see the waves from the storms come through and start to damage the dune, provide overwash or flooding of the parking lot.

So in this case, the phased concept, the first concept I spoke about, is not providing a resiliency benefit for Eastern Speech.

But when you consider the partial dune or the full dune, you do see that there's some slight overwash or flooding of the parking lot, which is expected in some storms.

Um, but in general, that dune, those dunes that are built there provide a resilient benefit to Easton's beach.

So we're confident that the partial and full dune provide protection for a 10-year percent storm.

Uh however, when you consider something larger than a 10% storm, so something that's less likely to happen, but it happens more less frequently, but it does represent a larger storm.

None of the proposed concepts provide that enhanced resiliency.

So we're looking at Easton's Beach.

Um, you know, we're we're looking to protect Easton's Beach to these more frequent storms, these more smaller storms, and understand, you know, we can't keep out these massive large storms.

Um that's not, you know, the purpose of Dune beach nourishment programs are not to prevent flooding from large storms.

There's not much we can do for that.

But I think we're confident that we can provide resiliency for these more frequent lower storms in in present day conditions.

So I also want to do we did a scenario where we looked at sequential storm damage.

As many as you know, um, in the December 23 and just January 24, we had multiple storms back to back.

Um and in that case, the December 23 was a 10-year storm, so one of those larger storms, and then the January 2020 storm was that two-year storm.

So something that's um much smaller.

Um, but we want to understand how each of the proposed concepts would react to two storms that happen sequentially.

And what we found is the phased approach, the phased approach is not protective.

So if you have um we already know that it's not protective against the 10-year storm, um, and so having another storm sequentially after that is is not providing any more protection.

But if with the partial and the full dune concept, we do maintain protection and resiliency benefits for sequential storms like you all experienced in December and January of 23 and 24.

We also considered a steel rise scenario where we assumed uh 1.5 feet of sea level rise, which corresponded to a 2060 projection, um, just to see how these uh proposed concepts would respond to increased water levels.

And here that we find um even in the two-year storm, so that smaller storm, more likely to happen more frequently, is no longer protective if you use the phased concept approach.

So the phased, it's looking more and more that the phased approach is no longer gonna add protective benefits.

And so in this case, for these smaller storms, more frequent storms, you're really looking at the partial or full dune concept to provide some resiliency benefits.

And then when you start to think again, even at the 10%, that 10-year storm that used to be protected, protective of storms, it was sea level rise, it's no longer protective.

You can see in all three of these concepts, those storms um are no longer these concepts are no longer adding or enhancing the resiliency of the of Eastern Speech.

The magnitude of damage might differ with each of these storms.

There might be some dune, might be some beach firm that still remains, but ultimately there's going to be flooding and sand overwash into the parking lot in any of these scenarios under the future um 10-year storm events and anything larger than a 10-year storm event.

Um, so I just want to bring you back to that summary table.

That that table, the red and green talks about all of those storm results.

We didn't show them all in these slides, but that hopefully hoping hopefully that table uh presents a really nice summary of what storms are protective and what dunes provide the the most resilient resiliency for Eastern Speech.

Um, I wanted to quickly talk about service life.

Um, so not only can we model the effectiveness of the dunes, um, we can also understand the service life.

So, how long will each of these concepts last before we have to start thinking about nourishment, renourishment or maintenance?

Um, what we found is the phase approach would be like two and a half years before you have to start thinking about renourishment and maintenance, whereas the partial and full dune is around six to eight, which is what we would consider typically a success for similar sized projects.

What I will emphasize here is that six to eight years doesn't seem like a long time, but I want to emphasize this doesn't mean that the entire beach or the entire dune is gone.

It just means that it's damaged to a point where nourishment and maintenance is required.

And even when you do have to maintain it or renourishment, you're not starting from scratch, right?

You're the costs are going to be reduced because you don't have to replace the entire beach and dune.

It's a reduced cost.

It's just that you have to re-add sediment to the template and to to the system.

The last thing I'll mention is we do provide preliminary costs.

Ultimately, the phased alternative is the least expensive, but it's only because it doesn't require destruction of any of the existing infrastructure.

So pulling up the pavement to make room for the dune, things like that.

So that's sitting around 6.3, 6.5 million dollars based on sand source, depending on where your beach nourishment stands sediment source is, but also about beach grass planting engineering and perbinate in the next phase and pavement removal.

The partial and the full dune transformation are relatively similar with 9 to 10.2 million for the partial dune, um, just because there is a um less volume of sediment, and then the full dune is in that 9.9 to 11.7 just because it's a larger dune, uh, pulling up more pavement of the parking lot and having an increased volume of sediment.

So on that note, I'm gonna hand it to my colleague, Jennifer.

Hi, I'm Jennifer O'Donnell.

I'm a coastal engineer with Busin O'Neill, and um I get to summarize all of this.

Um, so Brittany wanted to uh show you all the work that they've done.

She has actually only showed you a very small portion of what has taken place.

These three concepts, the the phase, the partial, and the full, are um a result of the extensive public engagement that took place, both the workshop, uh three-day workshop, but also there's been three surveys to get an idea of what the beach community is, what's important to them.

Um the phased approach, um, it's the lowest cost, the smallest, and it will provide protection for a two-year storm.

And the idea is when we, as money comes in, we'll do a little more and do a little more.

The problem is we could have a storm that wipes out the entire um dune, the entire phase dune.

And so we'd be starting over again with the first phase again.

There's no guarantee that if we did it that way, we would get beyond the first phase.

So we consider that a risk-based approach.

We're hoping we don't have storms.

The partial dune and the full dune.

Um partial dune, the west side of the beach will have a wider um uh dune, and then the east side will have a narrower dune to maintain more parking spaces.

The community made it clear that parking was a big issue to them, and so this was kind of our um way of maintaining as many parking places as we could while providing protection.

So it maintains more parking places, but a little less protection, a little less initial cost, um a little less protection.

The other thing is when we look at the service life, it has a service life of six years.

No one's saying it's gonna be exactly six years.

This is just uh an estimate.

But if you think about it, and it has a slightly shorter service life, it's gonna cost a little more in the long run.

What Brittany showed were the initial costs, the construction costs, not the maintenance cost.

So you kind of have to think about the long term.

Beach nourishment will need to be renourished to keep the the level of protection up that we need.

Um, after major storms, as we you saw in the um the uh graphics that Brittany showed, a 20-year storm, you're gonna have to do some renourishment.

So this is to give you the idea of the three concepts.

Oh, and where it says the partial will need to be adjusted.

When the modeling was done, there was an east transect, which you saw in the graphics, and a west one.

It did not model the transition from the west to the east.

If we were, if you selected this, we would have to modify the design to make the transition from the west to the east more gradual.

Right now, the graphics show it as coming across and making a nice right-hand turn, and that would not be how it would go.

So yeah, the cost, yeah.

This is what you really are interested in.

What's it going to cost?

Right now, the city of Newport has 11 million dollars.

Now that money could be spent immediately to do something right away, or we could be used as an opportunity as a matching fund.

You're probably aware that most grants that we would be looking at, these larger grants want to see a commitment from the community and they want to see matching.

And so this matching could be used, this 11 million could be used as matching for a much larger grant that would get a bigger project created.

And now I had another slide, but I don't see it.

One of the things I was going to talk about is an um an immediate umity is the NIFWIF grant.

And that will require making a decision on what you want to do and um putting in a letter of attent, probably by um probably by April, maybe May, and then if that is um accepted, then a full proposal will probably need to be submitted by July.

The thing is, and this is to keep in mind when you're thinking about the beach and how it is now.

Let's say it gets awarded.

We won't find that out until December.

So there'll be no money until probably five months after that.

So you're looking at the funding coming in about May of 2027.

That's if you submit to NIFWIF this year.

So if you decide to postpone, just keep in mind that means there'll be another year before any construction can take place based on what we've um had here.

Oh, there it is.

There's the um the timeline.

So everything that Brittany's been talking about, everything that I've been talking about is about the beach, sand, the dunes, the beach firm.

Now, Martha Wenro Winterfeld, sorry, I tried, um, from DBVW architects is going to talk about the amenity, the the physical building that are at the um each.

Oh, quick question.

Um, speaking of the uh timeline, if this uh this all goes through we get the bids out November, December, what is the timeline for the actual construction project?

Have to uh defer to Beth, but I think in what we would have to do after um the uh um the award is there would have to be permitting taking place and final design and then going out to bid.

Um so there what Jennifer is talking about is uh a time constraint and uh and a scheduling constraint that we would need to put on the table.

But let me first address your uh concern about the construction.

So it's likely that sand placement um would be regulated by time of year constraints by the Army Corps.

They have not issued, we've we've uh engaged the Army Corps and uh CRMC uh to ask questions leading up to this in anticipation of needing to permit it.

Um it's a possibility that they would restrict that placement.

Does it mean that um it couldn't all happen in one season?

It probably could, but if your sediment source uh is coming over land, and we need to manage sediment source delivery with the bridges capacity to handle trucks coming over it, that's another piece that gets gets put into that puzzle.

Um additionally, there's some potential demolition that would need to be worked into that schedule, which could could push it out further, and then finally the the construction of um the uh the amenity pieces that Martha's gonna talk about in a second, that would need to be worked into the um to the schedule as well.

So in an incredibly optimistic way, we could say a year of construction, but I think everyone in this room has lived construction enough to know that with all of those components that need to be knit together, it's more likely uh at least a year and a half.

Um, I want to quickly address what Jennifer was talking about.

Um, which fits right in with the slide.

The letters of interest are coming up.

One of the criteria with that grant is that the permitted drawings need to be ready.

The construction set needs to be ready to go at the time of the award of funding.

We have been told by permitting agencies that we should allocate approximately 12 months for permitting.

So if you're looking at money, let's say the grant was successful, the money is arriving next May.

That means that you need to have construction documents and permits in hand ready to go by next May.

There's a little bit of wiggle room there, but really it's you could count it in days.

So being prepared there means that that phase of work needs to launch and uh and accelerate to get you to that point.

Because that's if the if it's successful this year.

Um buying waiting a year leaves the beach at risk, but it does give you time to develop those drawings.

The other part of that though is that we understand that some of the bond funds expire.

And so making sure that the bond funds don't expire within the window of an awarded project so that you can use it as match is critical.

So weighing out those those um time constraints and time opportunities uh is an important decision.

Okay.

Martha.

Good evening.

I'm Martha Warenfelds, a senior principal at DBVW Architects.

We, as the architects for this project, have had the privilege to be looking at the buildings at Easton's Beach for quite some time now.

We've been involved since 2001.

Uh, so what I'm going to talk about are the buildings at the beach and what the potential future of those buildings is.

If I can advance the slides.

No.

Well, I succeeded in turning it off.

How do we get back to the perfect?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so DBVW architects, my team has completed our assessment of the existing buildings, and we've compiled a fairly extensive report.

The whole thing with appendices is about 200 pages.

So that is available online.

I'm going to briefly summarize that report.

I think a lot of you have heard our assessment of the buildings before.

So I'm not going to spend a lot of time doing that, but I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have at the end of this presentation.

Um, we assessed all the buildings on the beach so that we could have a good handle on the existing conditions.

We could then talk with you all about our recommendations for what should happen with the buildings, and we could work very closely with our other teammates at Fuss and O'Neill and Woods whole group to decide how to are how do the future of these buildings dovetail with what we do with the dunes and the beach to make sure everything is working together to make Easton's Beach as resilient as possible.

Um, so again, I apologize if you've heard this before, and I'll go quickly.

But our assessment of the bathhouse structures revealed some really key um considerations.

The deck on which the bathhouses sits is not pitched properly.

It's not draining properly, and therefore the water that should be sheeting off the surface of the concrete deck and over the edge is standing on the deck and it's infiltrating into the concrete and between the concrete planks below.

And that is not causing a structural problem now.

The building, the uh platform is structurally sound, but it will continue to deteriorate the conditions and it will cause problems in the future.

The only way to correct that issue is to remove or lift up the bathhouses so that the deck can be pitched properly.

At the eastern end of the bath houses is the picnic pavilion, which is suffering from some fairly significant issues, basically having to do with the steel connections that tie the wood components of the buildings together.

These steel connections have rusted and need to be replaced.

So there's really a substantial amount of work that would need to happen at the picnic pavilion to make that a viable building into the future.

At the west end of the bathhouses is, as I'm sure you're very well familiar, the two-story bathroom building, the top floor was rebuilt in 2014 after a fire.

So the top floor is in good condition.

The bottom floor needs upgrades and it, but it's in satisfactory condition.

The problem is when you look at this building from a resiliency perspective.

The top floor was built as wood frame construction on top of the bottom floor, which is brick construction, and the two are not tied together in a way that can resist storms.

They're structurally sound, absolutely.

The buildings aren't going to fall down, but they are also not resilient to storm events because you essentially have two different construction types sitting one on top of the other.

If the rotunda were to be reused, what does it need?

It needs a new roof, it needs new HVAC systems, it needs to have the basement filled in because the center picture on the bottom indicates what's happening under the building.

There is steel structure that supports the rotunda in the basement of the rotunda.

The basement floods regularly under multiple different types of storm events.

So that steel structure that supports the rotunda needs to be reinforced, and we recommend filling in the basement if the rotunda were to be saved so that there's now a solid uh foundation under the building, and so that the steel could not continue to deteriorate.

The building also needs a new elevator.

Um, so this is all sort of in addition to whatever fit out the building would need if it were to be reused as an event space or as something else.

Um it also needs new windows and doors.

So, and and restoration of the masonry.

Yes, it's a lot.

Um then we have the resiliency question that I've alluded to and the storms that everyone's been mentioning that happened at the end of 2023 and 2024.

What does that mean for the future of these buildings?

What should the future of each and Easton's Beach look like relative to the buildings?

Um, so our findings are that the uh, and I'm in a really bad spot here because I can't read with or without my glasses, and I don't have the computer right here, uh, but I think I remember what I put on the slides.

Um we recommend that the bathhouses be at the findings are that the bathhouses are very deteriorated.

They need to be lifted up in order to lift it up or removed in order to repitch the deck.

Sorry.

The um rotunda requires a significant amount of work to reuse it, and we have to deal with the resiliency requirements.

Thank you.

And as I said, the picnic pavilion has structural deficiencies and the restrooms are vulnerable to storm damage.

So the other part of this equation is that we did this extensive public engagement process, which I'm sure you are all very familiar with.

And that engagement process included doing some online surveys.

And I'm just going to call your attention to a few of the findings of those surveys because I think they are results that have influenced our thinking about these buildings in addition to the condition of the buildings that I just described.

Um, so in the left-hand chart, this this is from the amenity survey that was done in early June 2025 and extended through August 2025.

There were 229 responses online to this survey, and I've created a dash line around the two lowest scoring amenities at the beach as part of that survey.

Um, the private bathhouses and private event spaces are what scored the lowest in terms of what people want to see, what people value at Easton's Beach.

In the graph on the right, this one only received 25 responses.

So, you know, we have to consider that it was fewer people weighing in.

But it was interesting that a number of those people were in favor of putting temporary buildings back at the beach, i.e.

trailers.

Um, so two-thirds approximately of the respondents were in favor of using trailers at the beach, um, and one third were more focused on permanent structures.

Going to the next slide again, the first the uh graph on the left, uh, the question was what are the important beach amenities?

And it's similar to the question that was asked previously, but again, what what do people value as the most important in terms of the amenities at Easton's Beach?

And again, the lowest scoring ones were public lockers, public rest, I'm sorry, private restrooms, and private event space.

And on the right, similarly, the um boy, I can't even read that one.

The the private amenities scored the lowest.

Um that you know, that sort of dovetails with our conditions assessment and what we were seeing at the buildings.

So the recommendations that we've developed, and of course it's up to you all to decide on the final outcome for this, um, but we are recommending removing the existing bathhouses, the restrooms, and the concrete platform, uh, constructing new restrooms and lifeguard facilities, because those are the two things that are essential to the operation of the beach.

And that was also uh an outcome of the public engagement process, but it also makes common sense, right?

We need lifeguards, we need to have safety at the beach, and we need restrooms at a minimum.

Um the rotunda, we could either renovate the building at some cost, or it could remain as a folly, which I'll show you an example of, or the rotunda could go away.

And all of these can have all of these things can happen in conjunction with what FUTSEN O'Neill and Wood's whole group are recommending for the the actual beach and the dunes.

Um so we're at uh we're also recommending adding site amenities like boardwalks, shade structures, that sort of thing.

And we're recommending utilizing movable structures such as trailers for food andor retail if those are desired at the beach.

Um, and of course, all of the changes need to be made in concert with the resiliency requirements and the recommendations of the other members of our team.

We did do some cost analysis of each of these options.

Demolishing the existing building is in the neighborhood of 800,000.

Um, if we were to rebuild those buildings in the form that they are today, uh, that would be in the neighborhood of 3.2 million dollars.

And we don't know yet what buildings might replace those.

So that's TBD in terms of what new buildings might cost.

Um, then you might ask, well, what should we put back?

And this is very conceptual.

This is these images are from the end of the stakeholder engagement process.

We were doing sort of a design charrette throughout the whole three-day process.

Um, and at the end of it, working again very closely with our engineers on the team.

We came up with these concepts where we would have just two pavilions, one for the lifeguards and one for public restrooms on a new elevated platform, which would be above the flood elevation, and could potentially have this sort of covered seating space between the two pavilions.

Again, I want to stress that these are concepts only.

This came out of a three-day workshop.

Um, but this is the kind of thing that we would recommend putting back at Easton's Beach.

With respect to other amenities, um, there are proposals to have no permanent structure.

So if you didn't construct something similar to what I just showed, you might still want to do an open pavilion, like is depicted here on the left as a shade structure.

Again, that would be elevated and it would be on a boardwalk type walkway.

Um, with respect to the rotunda, it could be renovated.

It could be recreated as any number of different uses as a fully enclosed building.

Um, but we also threw out this concept.

What if we want to keep the kind of idea and the physical footprint and exterior walls of the rotunda, but make it an open air structure so that water could actually flow through the building in the event of a storm?

We would brace the brick walls and eliminate the roof, and maybe it creates a place for the playground or some other outdoor use.

Again, this is just a concept, it's an idea of what could happen at Easton's Beach.

So I think that is the end of my presentation.

I it was a whirling.

I am happy to answer any questions you might have and provide any more specific information.

Yeah.

The structure, the um retundant.

Is that historical?

That's a great question.

Um it's not listed on the National Register.

It goes back to uh 39, right after the 38 hurricane.

Um I've had various conversations with the State Historic Preservation Office about whether or not they would require it to be preserved.

And the um opinion I got back was it's not listed on the national register, it's not considered eligible.

So it seems like we had um aren't required to do anything in particular.

I'm a preservation architect, my whole career has focused on historic buildings.

I think the building has some merit, which is why I wanted to explore like what what else could happen with it.

Um but technically uh it's not designated as a historic structure.

I I think the anything is um when we were first going through the uh schematics and everything.

Um it was the one structure that obviously in 35, 1935, they knew how to build it because the water would go right through it.

Um the basement, fill it in.

Exactly.

And that's our recommendation if the building were to be kept, which I'm kind of partial to.

Um, but I understand the concerns.

I wouldn't say it's the first thing I would prioritize in terms of spending money at Easton's Beach, but once we lose it, it's gone.

Um, I absolutely agree with what you just said.

We would fill in the basement.

Um, and I believe uh that it was designed with resiliency in mind in 1939.

I think some of you have seen the uh talk I've given on the history of Easton's Beach.

There have been architectural campaigns after architectural campaigns after architectural campaigns that have all been wiped out by storms.

Um there's a whole history of architecture at Easton's Beach that's no longer there.

This building being that shape and having uh overhead openings all the way around, it can allow some water to flow through.

So is it designed to meet today's resiliency requirements?

Absolutely not, but it has some resistance to storms.

My other question was about the parking.

Um would the parking be available during construction?

It could be.

I mean, we haven't gotten into that yet.

There's so many what ifs.

Um first would be to select the dune scenario of the three that were presented or some variation on one of those.

Um, one of them reduces the parking, so some of it's going to go away.

And then we have to work with the contractors on mobilization.

You know, what parking can be protected during construction, how invasive is the dune uh nourishment and that whole process.

I think there are definitely questions that we still need to explore, depending on which path forward everyone chooses.

I think the reason I'm asking is because the parking has become a revenue source in the last few years.

So, you know, even if they weren't able to say access the beach because of construction, you would somebody said a year, year and a half, I don't know.

Um the parking has become essential as far as overflow in the city.

Yeah, absolutely summer months.

Yeah, and and you know, that's one of the details that we would want to work out with planning for the construction and planning with the construction documents.

Obviously, the contractor needs laydown space, they need to make the area safe from what's happening on the beach, but all of those things can be considered.

Thanks.

Let's remember that they're dumping the snow down there right now.

What if we have a storm comparable to the ones we just had?

Where we're gonna put the snow.

Right.

We could buy a steamer like New York.

Can that be our dune?

Um I've got a question.

The elevator, uh, how do you put an elevator into the without it?

I mean, is are there waterproof elevators?

Um, there are different types of elevators that are more water resistant.

One of the biggest problems with this one is the elevator pit goes down pretty far, and every time there's a storm, it fills up with water and sand.

Um, there are different types of elevators that are more resistant than others, and we would definitely do a pitless elevator.

Okay.

Also, um, the the buildings that are on the on this sheet with the are would these sustain high winds?

Those are just those would be designed to be resistant to high winds, and they're elevated.

So if we were to design new buildings like those, we would have to do it in a manner that's resistant.

High winds.

It's I liken it to the the beach scenario.

You're never gonna have something that can withstand any storm.

Um, but there are very clear requirements that we would need to meet to build a new building in this location.

um the the buildings that are on the on this sheet with the are would these sustain high wind those are just those would be designed to be resistant to high winds and they're elevated so if we were to design new buildings like those we would have to do it in a manner that's resistant high winds it's I liken it to the the beach scenario you're never gonna have something that can withstand any storm um but there are very clear requirements that we would need to meet to build a new building in this location the design would either be this the this sort of permanent structure or trailers or some combination thereof um this represents a restroom building and lifeguard facilities and then additional um food or whatever else is needed at the beach could happen with temporary structures so there's the possibility of sort of mixing and matching but in our opinion these two should be permanent I mean clearly the lifeguards need to be up on up high where they can see what's going on so that suggests a more permanent structure and the restrooms are a a convenience but a necessary one okay thank you mark um let's turn it over to you guys obviously you guys had a lot of probably closer interaction on these plans so I'd love to hear from the you and the beach commission but thank you uh Teresa has been attending every one of our meetings and keeping up to us up to date with all the data and we are I don't want to say torn but how do we say here's what the community would like to see the beach become without knowing what it's going to cost and how long it's gonna last.

I mean we could say yes for 40 million dollars we could make a we could bring it back to the glory days and then along comes a 38 or 54 hurricane and we're looking at a pile of wreckage in Easton's pond again.

What they've made clear to us is that to do anything less than the full dune you're gonna anything you build on the beach is still completely subject to getting a washaway so it's and then on top of all that is yes as as counselor Napoleano said the parking lots not just as a source of revenue but look at the events the downtown the the auto show the boat show the fest music festivals all rely on those parking lots if we take half of it away well there goes a significant revenue source for the city which would pay for those amenities.

So it's there's there's 10 balls in the air and for us as a commission yes we'd like we've been listening to the public we know what they would like to see everything ranging from bring back the amusement park to it's it's kind of doomed unless we go to a full beach dune and berm system which eliminates most of the parking eliminates most of the amenities and turns it into just a beach for lack of a better way of saying it it's best to be to that it it's the most significant Dune nourishment program that was outlined still retains 350 parking spaces out of 850.

No 550 I think I thought we had eight yeah yeah 850 now going down to 350 in the more extensive more extensible but even the minimum to one takes it down to 500 is it but I think I think 550 550 the middle one also the buildings can be built the the buildings that I described can be built with any of these scenarios.

And oh sorry Beth I just wanted to say too just Mark because one of the things I definitely heard and took a note of was just the fact that we have to remember like was told to us no 20 year storm is going to withstand any of those measurements right like no energy storm.

So we're really trying to find something that correct me if I'm wrong we really want to do resilience for those two to five maybe a 10 year storm so that's why that partial dune deferred to Jennifer and Beth on that woods whole lady she was great.

Yeah I that's that's the impression I got is that no matter what we do we're not gonna be able to surpass that nothing will happen right mark so the partial dune seems to give us a little bit of that both which will still give us that resiliency for those storms that we're seeing more frequently correct okay because that chance of that big one happening yes there's a chance but those two to five year seem to be the ones that we really want to prepare for correct kind of well 10 year we had that they're the ones that we have the option to prepare for um earlier I was I was making a joke about being at a at a beach with a wall that's not an option from a permitting and construction point of view your option for achieving resilience really is sand based in terms of permitting and and options and when we looked at the sand option which is um you know on the table in terms of what's allowable you get resilience to a certain degree it doesn't solve everything and it doesn't solve everything forever.

So making a decision that is that is um grounded in that reality is important.

I was just gonna I was just gonna add that we we did mention that we can't prepare or propose a dune beach system that it's gonna be a hundred percent per effective in a large large storm like a sandy or something like that.

What I would say is whether choosing between the partial or the full is a substantial increase of what we have now, and it's gonna provide protection, even though it does, if it does get damaged during a larger storm, the cost to then renourish and maintained that damaged dune is still gonna be less than the initial construction of that beach dune.

So you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna be pretend, you're not gonna be protected of 100%, but to re-nourish a a damaged dune from a large storm is still gonna be less than you know, having nothing right now.

So um, yeah.

And something we've been we've been talking about as a commission is we're gonna have to be okay with a certain level of risk.

Right.

And that as a city, we're just putting um, and there's of course a trade-off right now.

There's only a finite set of space we're gonna have to be okay with how much parking can we put in there and how much due nourishment and can we kind of maximize both?

And some of that's gonna be we're gonna have to be okay with a little bit of risk.

Um, we can't prepare for every storm.

We can't predict what's gonna happen in 20 years or 50 years.

Um, so we're we're we're just we're gonna have to sort of come to some some middle ground.

And I just really quick point out because we've talked about this before as a commission.

Um, you know, the the we talk about the structures that are there now and the damage uh and we've sort of been over this that the structures there currently, the elevated structures are the damage done is mostly from neglect, not from storms.

Right.

So uh we'll so the so the damage to the elevated structures is from storms has been minimal.

That's the elevated structures.

Um the base, the the platform though, is not was not done correctly, is that was something that came up a while back.

Right.

The the concrete platform on which the buildings sit is not pitched properly.

And we've been asked the question is did that settle?

Did was it built in correctly?

I can't answer that.

It was quite a while ago.

Um, but the way it's pitched is leading to damage.

And is the storm is the damage directly related to storms?

No, but it is very much the damage that we see is very much related to the very exposed conditions that you have at Easton's Beach, and the fact that when the buildings were built, they weren't built out of the most durable materials.

Um we've got plywood on the bathhouses.

So I wouldn't attribute all of it to lack of maintenance.

I think it's um a choice of the original materials.

I think it's the very, very exposed environment and the fact that they take a beating on a daily basis.

Right.

And hopefully going forward we'll have better materials and better maintenance.

Exactly.

Right.

Um build that into the plan, right?

Exactly.

Um, and in terms of the concrete platform, it could be saved.

We've looked at that, whether or not it would make sense to save the platform and maybe build some of the new facilities on top of it.

Um, with what we know about the concrete now and the age that it is, it really doesn't make sense to try to improve it and get another 50 years out of it.

I think it would make more sense to replace it with something durable and something that we know is really well constructed.

Um, if I can add one other thing, we essentially, I think what's been laid out are three options for the beaches and the dune nourishment.

I like to sort of cut to the chase.

We have an option that's uh the low option, the medium option, the high option.

The low option is the least amount of sand brought in and the least amount of dune, medium is in the middle, and the more robust option is the biggest dunes, most amount of sand, most amount of nourishment.

The parking situation is completely dependent on on those three things.

The first one that was the minimal option, I think we can all agree it doesn't make sense because it could be washed away in a storm right after it's done.

So then we have two options left sitting on the table.

The medium option allows for more parking, the more robust option has less parking.

In my um oversimplified mind, those are the kind of it's a it's a balancing act, it's prioritized.

I don't think we can maximize dunes and maximize parking.

There have to be some choices made about do we go with the more robust dune and less parking, or do we go with more parking and a less robust dune system?

Was a parking garage considered?

Parking garages are extraordinarily expensive to build.

Um, and in my pretty long career at this point, I can't tell you the number of projects I've looked at where we've investigated parking garages, done conceptual designs for parking garages.

I've built one and it was in the center of Plymouth, Massachusetts, where there was a huge parking crunch and land was at a premium.

Um it's just not typically cost effective in a in a scenario like this one.

Yeah, I've actually looked that up too, um, just to kind of see where other communities and you typically find them in Florida and California cities, your urban beaches where they have uh you know parking structures to get around the parking crunch.

Um they they do exist.

Um, I I don't know if a full-fledged garage should be considered, but a second level, which is not totally a garage.

I've also you know floated that idea just just for consideration.

Right, right, of course, but it goes back to the trade-off and everything else, and you know, nothing's nothing's for free.

I'd like to add to you that for purposes of presentation, we we chose three static options for you to look at so that you could think about it in in those buckets.

What I I urge you to think about though is that this is something that could evolve over time.

And so let's say that the city does decide to go with the medium option for now.

You preserve lots of parking that way.

There's there's no reason why it cannot evolve when the when the time when when the scenario, the sea level rise scenario really necessitates it, and it could evolve into a much larger dune.

It buys you time to think about a parking scenario that's a little outside the box, whether it's a parking structure, whether it is um you know, parking that is occurring adjacent, um, whether it's enhanced shuttle and bike and pedestrian access to the to the beach, it it does buy you that time, and it's not uh these it's not an either-or scenario, they can merge into one another.

What's really important though, that Martha pointed out and Brittany and Jennifer, that first option, the minimal uh, which was something that was was uh uh asked through public engagement, really does not do the city any service.

But I think Jennifer, you wanted to add a little bit that um yeah, I just wanted to mention that we keep talking about losing the sediment, but because of the nature of the geography of the beach, the sand isn't really going to go anywhere.

It's gonna stay in Easton's Bay, and it's not gonna go away at the end of Easton's Bay.

It will stay there.

It's not like we're on the New Jersey shoreline and it's going to go to the neighboring uh community.

So there is the possibility that some of the sand will move back on over time.

There's also the possibility that you could get permission to dredge the sand that was on the beach and put it back on.

That's that would have to go through the Army Corps of Engineers and CRMC.

But there is reason to believe you're not losing everything and starting over from scratch.

The sand will remain there.

I just want to bring up the parking thing, seems to keep coming around.

And something we've also discussed our meetings was the fact that that parking lot does not fill every single day in the summer.

So losing some spots, it's not dire.

Yes, it's used for events, but and on a rainy day, so to judge everything on parking, we don't want to lose, you know, saving the beach because when no one's down there in the winter, we're not filling it in the spring, we're not filling it in the fall.

Like you have to really consider how many times it is filled.

And yes, is it inconvenient when it's filled?

Someone wants to go absolutely, but does that happen everywhere?

Absolutely.

So it's just one of those things, like Nick said, it's kind of something that we take.

Is it but in the big picture?

Is it worth saving the beach so we have a little more time?

And this is we've had this discussion also, Nick uh here has talked with Salve, um, Professor Sacco, about doing an economic impact study of the beach.

What is the economic impact?

The pros and cons, you know, and if you make changes to the beach, right?

If you reduce the parking, what does that do?

If you increase the parking, what does that do?

That I think is critical piece of information that we don't have is what does the beach mean to the city right now, other than sentimental value?

We all know that that's huge, same as with the carousel, gigantic sentimental value.

But what does it really mean to the city?

If we spend a hundred million dollars down there, is there going to be a hundred million dollar return?

No, no way.

But is there a partial return?

Does it mean something to the people who come to the city today to have that beach there?

We all know it means something to the people who live here that is not on the table, and I have to keep saying that.

But what is the economic impact of having that beach?

Period.

And that's something we have proposed to council.

We're waiting to hear back.

Can we actually begin that engagement with uh the salvae community to get those numbers and get some of that?

What if then if we do this, what happens?

If we do that, what happens up, down, left, right?

I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge on some of this stuff, but is the is there a structure under the dune that keeps the dune in place?

I mean, how or is it just a big pile of sand that is a type of sand that how does that work?

I'll defer to Brittany in a second, but I I do want to point out that that knee wall that exists there today, um, we would be burying that.

So that would be under there.

Okay, but the rest of it.

Yeah, I would um in the uh concepts that we shared with you, the the phased would rem keep the existing kneewall in place, and so that would be used as like a back backbone of the the phased approach dune, the smallest dune.

Um and hopefully some of that knee wall would help kind of trap the sediment from overwashing.

There would still, with that dune, there were the results show that water sediment sand and water would still get over the the the knee wall.

Then um in the partial dune option, the second one, um, on that eastern side, we were also proposing to maintain a uh um build existing landscape wall there to also because the dune there is thinner than the western side because of the way that the parking is arranged, that we would have uh a hardened knee wall there to help stabilize that back side of the dune.

Um, but then for the full dune, we would no longer have a proposed knee wall.

Do do plants like you know, the this the seagrass, does that keep a dune in place typically if in storms?

Sorry, what was the question?

The um the seagrass, does does that help to keep the the dunes intact?

So the the beach grass, yeah.

Just want to make sure it's different than seagrass.

Whatever, whatever grass.

No, yeah, of course.

Um our preliminary budgets did include the cost of beach planting grasses, yes, and the res the rhizomes of those systems absolutely help stabilize the dune.

There's also an option to do bushes or shrubs to help stabilize the dune as well.

Um, those just cost a little bit more money than individual stocks of beach grass.

So you can consider both shrubs and um beach grass, just an un understanding that there's a cost difference between the two.

I think that there's a there's still a really good example of that on our website project with distance that um towards the westward of the parking that structure back before and after all, but it um active so um uh following uh pattern that um said naturalized but also out right actually if you want a really good example, you could look what happened in Miscomiquid after Sandy, where the dunes without any um beach grass, any vegetation on them were completely washed out.

Well, those with um dune grass, um they didn't uh survive the storm completely unchanged, but they still were standing and they would still provide a significant amount of protection.

They lost a little on the seaward side.

I've got two more questions.

Can you add sand yearly to the dune?

Okay.

Actually, actually, sand is added all the time because dunes are frequently made from windblown sand.

So if there's sand available for transport and there is something on the dune, like the beach grass, to stop this the sand from continuing to blow away, then the dune will continue to grow.

That's how natural dunes are made.

So yes, but if the city wanted to say, okay, we want to we want to replenish it for another couple of years, we could we could do that with permitting okay.

And then the other question, I'm sorry, but the other question is the 11 million or like a match grant.

Do we have to would we have to use all of that 11 million as a match, or is there other varying um ways of funding it that you know by using maybe five million or I don't know, I'm just I'm just wondering how that works.

Yeah, I think that but we just look at the overall budget for the um sometimes it's ratted provided for match more points in your brand.

Yeah, but there's always the thing.

I believe it's even um used to require a one-to-one match, and now there's not a match required.

Um, but they do you do get extra points by showing you have match dollars, and the fact that we have um 11 million, really uh 10 million because a million was pulled down in the first tranche for keeping the ball rolling on getting design engineering to permitting.

Um we haven't we're not there yet, but that was the concept is to pull down part of it so we could keep this um process going forward after something is decided.

Um but we would want to apply for the full 10 million opportunity with NIFWIF showing that we have 10 million approved in the general obligation bond as a one-to-one match so that the city is well positioned.

We have a lot of skin in the game to get um a full build out, whatever that looks like with a good hefty 20 million dollar budget and concept.

I asked you all a question.

Um I heard, you know, obviously there's parking at Easton's Beach, which is incredibly important to encourage people to be at Easton's Beach, but I also heard that there is satellite parking happening there for other events in the city.

My question for you all is is Easton's Beach the best place or the even the only place to provide parking for other events in the city because Easton's Beach is such a fragile environment that I would encourage exploring other options for satellite parking that don't require building surface parking in this really fragile environment and focus the parking needs at Easton's Beach to parking that has to be at Easton's Beach.

Just one way of looking at it.

You know, can I just add it it isn't you know all the time?

Sure.

It's when a major event and a lot of times it can be during the night where actually the beach is closed, so it doesn't, you know, affect uh the people going to the beach during the day.

Yeah, that's that's terrific.

If it's at that piggyback complementary use, I think about all the you know outside malls that we drive by all the time that are surrounded by acres and acres and acres of asphalt because they were designed for Christmas Eve or whatever, whenever people shop that we shouldn't be designing for that in a really sensitive environment.

We should design be designing for what's critical to the future of Eastons, in my opinion.

Thank you.

Outside of the dunes, what other concepts did you consider or resiliency?

Sure, there's really not much else that's uh that's available as an option.

Um so you can add a foot to your existing knee wall.

Um, and certainly getting a foot there would give you some resistance more than you have now, but it's not significant.

Um simply elevating buildings is a possibility, but when you elevate the buildings, you're going to start getting sand trapped underneath them anyway.

Um yeah, so really you're very limited in terms of what is um allowed down there.

You you have right now you have the footprint of what's developed.

It would be very difficult to convince anyone to allow you to develop beyond that footprint.

Um very difficult to near impossible.

Uh the the piece that did come down is still part of that footprint, luckily, so you you have that to play with.

Um but in terms of of solutions beyond uh reinforcing the beach with its natural structure, uh not much is permeable.

I think you guys want to talk about the in the in the very beginning, we we um of this process, we discussed the the applicability of wave attenuation in the bay as a as a source of but uh sorry, I was thinking about walls and the fact when waves hit walls, they splash over and will bring more sand on the other side of the wall, and once it's on the other side of the wall, how do you get it back?

We we um of this process, we discussed the the applicability of wave attenuation in the bay as a as a source of but uh sorry, I was thinking about walls and the fact when waves hit walls, they splash over and will bring more sand on the other side of the wall, and once it's on the other side of the wall, how do you get it back?

I wasn't thinking of an offshore wave attenuator.

So there's um it's very difficult to build a traditional hard coastal engineering structure now.

You know, people like think of seawalls or breakwaters or so forth.

Um the trend now is to use nature-based approaches, and there's a wide range of nature-based approaches, but every approach isn't suitable for every location.

And we have a beach and we have sand, so we have to use net natural approaches that would be on a beach or sand.

Um, and so a wave attenuator would be something offshore that would cause the waves to break, and then the waves will reform and they'll be smaller, they'll be less energetic, they'll they'll have um less energy to cause erosion.

Um it's not really a great solution.

Um, one of the things that we heard a lot from the community is there's concern about uh losing the um surfing, surfing is really big there, and a wave attenuator would change this the environment.

And in fact, we've had questions.

If we put sand on the beach and it moves offshore, how would that affect the waves that people like to surf on?

That's happening whether we put more sand on the beach or not.

Um it's a natural process, it happens during storms, the sand moves offshore, forms a bar, and it's a natural wave attenuation.

It causes the waves to break and reform smaller.

Then when we have calmer weather, this the waves move the sand back up on the beach, reforming the beach face in the berm.

Um so uh an offshore wave attenuator is not something that uh as a coastal engineer, I would say is uh an appropriate um solution at Easton's Beach for a number of reasons.

One of the um things that comes up a lot is the reef that's out there, um, and uh you know generates a lot of seaweed, obviously.

Um, and then people say, well, let's just blow it up.

But um does that break the waves also and help protect the beach?

It it depends on the way uh the direction the waves are coming from, but yes, it it does if the waves are coming from that direction and and it does cause the waves to break.

They will reform, but the height of the waves depends on how much water surface that the winds can blow over, and so they will reform smaller.

So, yes, that I remember to one of the studies that they did with the wind when you guys measured the wind off site, and one thing I realized was that no matter where that sea was coming from, the the wind direction just takes it to that corner of the beach, like it bypasses second.

It goes it just no matter what time of season, it's just the way the wind is out there, it will come in.

It just I remember looking at that being like that's why there's so much seaweed.

So just a note.

But it's so it's odd sometimes when we have no seaweed, the seaweed is over at surfers end at Satchus, so it's like a kind of yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh my question is, you know, since we've been starting this um this project, and we talked about how the how we want to protect the beach, but one thing that we that has been talked about tonight and it's been brought up numerous times is the protection of Easton's pond and our major drinking water sauce uh source that we have.

So has there been any discussion on starting the sections on the pond side and move them towards because if we once that that break, once that levee breaks to the pond, then we're doesn't matter if we have a beach or not.

I really appreciate that question.

Um so Fuss and O'Neill is also working on the um design of um resilience um adaptations for the pond.

Those are being designed to stand alone.

The beach portion is complementary and is being designed to enhance, but is not is not critical for the the design of the resilience for the pond.

Your professional opinion, what's more which one's more important.

Sorry to put you on the spot.

But just it's a workshop.

It's nothing.

I think that they are that they work together.

And I think that that is really uh an answer that can only be derived from the city understanding the value of the drinking water and understanding the value of the beach and putting those two in the balance.

Um the the dune is meant to protect the beach primarily and the the landform, the the welded barrier beach, and that as a landform will enhance the protection of the pond.

Right.

But as a drinking water source, um internally at FUS, we have had this conversation so many times.

Do we do we further integrate these projects?

How do we, you know, should they be connected funding?

Should they be uh and at the end of the day, making sure that the drinking water is resilient and has a standalone um system, apart from from the what's happening at the beach, uh was something that was that was decided upon amongst our project teams amongst amongst the professionals at FUSP.

And then um just one other question, and with what the regardless of what we do at the beach, do we are we getting involved with DOT on that since they own the road in there?

Do they have any jurisdiction on what you do with the beach?

They love the work with us.

Yeah.

Well, um, fortunately, the resilience improvement program that DOT um initiated a few years back.

It has the horrible acronym RIP, but it's the resilience improvement program.

Um Orial Boulevard is one of their top five statewide focus areas.

So they do have um an engineer they've been working with to look at uh Memorial Boulevard, and we are the next um phase of this is to set up a meeting with the beach folks, the road folks, and the pond folks, so we can all figure out what the everybody is on the same page of understanding where we stand with decision making and the process and the studies that have been done so that DOT can have make their most informed decision of what the future of Memorial Boulevard looks like and how that um right of way can evolve with these two evolving projects on either side.

Thank you.

Um, take a moment to open up for any public comment.

State your name and address, please.

Uh good evening.

Uh my name is Mike Ryan, and I live at uh 59 Hunter Avenue, uh, which is close enough to the beach that when my daughter used to work at the beach, I could when she would make announcements on the PA system, I could sit on my front step and listen to them, which was very cool at the time.

So uh I do have a few comments.

Um I you know, I I responded to the surveys, but this is the first time I've actually come in person to comment.

So indulge me just a little bit.

Um you know that this process that's gone through really has been focused on resilience and and resilience is a great thing, but I I really think what has been missed is recreation, that this is a recreation facility, not a resilience facility, that it's a a should be a family-oriented beach, it's a city beach, it's not out on the outer cape somewhere, but it's it's a city beach, and and you know, it it should be developed as a as a family beach and a real you know plus to the city of Newport, and especially the the people that who live in the city of Newport, um who you who use that beach.

Um so I gotta I do have a question for Martha.

The the brick pavilion building on the second floor with the carousel fit up there.

I have not uh I have the drawings in my office, and I could look at it spatially to see if it fits.

I I can't answer that off the top of my head, but structurally would be another uh challenge.

That would be you know, just for my recollection, that the the building that the carousel used to be in, um I think was slightly smaller than the the brick uh pavilion building.

And you know, I I think that that that could be a real anemone uh to Newport and a real attraction because it you know the that could be really made beautiful um with a carousel up there, and uh it would become a you know something where I could see people, you know, magnets with the the you know the the carousel building, and you know, you look at the carousel building up in East Providence, and that's a real attraction for them also on the water.

So I I just think that that was is something that should be considered because I think that the that carousel is really had historic part of the beach and really symbolizes the beach as as being a city beach, um for you know, and oriented towards families.

And you know, and I think other things that should be considered uh that would be family-oriented would be as like a splash pad or something like that, you know, for you know, you bring your kids down the beach, you get you know, the splash pad could be you know something that would be really helpful, get the sand off the kids.

It used to be going way back, used to be bumper boats at the beach.

Um the you know, things like that.

I don't think, you know, recreational things, I don't think have really been considered as much as the resilience of the beach.

Um and then the the beach needs, I mean, decent bathroom facilities, you know, basic infrastructure like that.

You know, I uh it's hard for me to imagine why a snack bar is so difficult that uh you know in a building that it you know, I I I go you go up and down the coast, you know, from Maine to Florida, and you see infrastructure on the coast all the time, people building on the beaches, and and you know, I it it seems like the the resilience has has really been the agenda, but the recreational part of the beach and what the beach really means to the people in the city, I think has been not you know over not overlooked, but I don't, you know, it it seems really needs to be considered.

Um and then it a couple of concept, a couple of things just in listening to the presentation here with the construction of dunes.

I'm looking at that, just adding up.

It seems that that is three to four years from now.

You know, I you know, years of permitting years, two years of construction.

I mean, the the beach is embarrassing at this point, you know.

That are we really gonna go like three, four more years with the beach like this?

It it doesn't make any sense.

I think that the facilities, maybe the project needs to be split into two, you know, phases.

One is to to fix the facilities so it's not embarrassing to the city anymore.

Um and and then you know, we can I I guess you probably need to come to a decision on the resilience part so that you fit the buildings in.

But I I don't, you know, the idea that it's gonna be four more years of the buildings looking like that is really embarrassing.

Um I think that the you know the family, the the bathhouses, you know.

I don't know, but you know, there was the survey saying the private bathhouses, you know, were not that popular.

But as you know, we we my family's had a bathhouse there for probably 40 years.

You know, we had a bathhouse back before the current ones were built on the platform.

They just just used to be over there on the west side, and the storm came through, blew them all into the moat.

We got in the minivan, went down, picked the surfboards up, you know, got them out of the moat, put them back in.

It was not a big deal.

Um if you have kids, and I I have to say that I have five grandchildren that all live within walking distance of the beach.

So, you know, it kind of I have an agenda here.

But it's nice to have a private uh bath house where you can store all the toys and everything, so not hauling them down to the beach all the time.

So I I want to defend that a little bit.

And then also, you know, parking lot flooding and also the flooding of Memorial Boulevard, not a big deal.

You know, uh every once in a while a storm comes through and the parking lot gets flooded.

So what?

You know, the Memorial Boulevard, it's not interstate 95.

You just go up the green end and go around.

That's that's you know, that so I don't think that you know those two things, not a big deal.

Protecting the water supply, big deal.

And so what needs, you know, I and I think that things that need to happen there to do that, that should be a top priority.

But I think that you know, uh trying to build something that's gonna permanently prevent the parking lot from getting flooded or the road from getting flooded, that's seems overkill to me.

So anyway, thank you very much for the opportunity to address it.

Yeah.

And uh I do appreciate a lot of work has gone into this, and then I do appreciate everybody's hard work on this subject.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

But I I do want to mention though the the road is a big deal because it's one of the three main uh ingr egresses and ingresses into the city and for traffic to be diverted, it's already an issue now with with those neighborhoods in that in that area with and if we didn't have that that road or Memorial Boulevard down for a long period of time, you're talking that there are a lot of trucks and in and heavy duty cars and just the the amount of cars that go through, but trust me, I get calls constantly about traffic and speeding on K Street and Bibbs or Island Avenue and on and on and on.

So this has been it has been brought up for sure.

Thank you.

Appreciate all your comments.

Anyone else like to make a comment.

Hello everyone.

Um Emily Conklin, Seven Gwyn Court.

Um, I'm the vice chair of the Energy and Environment Commission.

I'm also uh marine biologist, so obviously I'm I'm biased and have my own perspective.

I really appreciate all of the presentations that were given and all of the work that you guys have done on this, all the community engagement.

It's been so wonderful.

Um I know that this is really challenging.

This is a huge project, and so I just I mostly want to say thank you, but also um I wanted to just draw attention to Ali's earlier comments.

I thank you for saying that about the parking.

I think you know, the we have to protect the beach in order to have a beach, you know, a beach that we can recreate on is a resilient beach.

We are experiencing climate change now.

We are going to have bigger storms, we are going to have more frequent storms, and I think having a more natural um system is something that we should emphasize in order to um ensure that we can have this for future generations because we are at a critical point for our city for our infrastructure for our beach, and I think to um have to think about adding hard structure would be a mistake.

So that's I just wanted to get up here and say that really quickly.

Thank you so much for this.

Thank you for this opportunity and um for going through all of these proposals.

I'm really excited for how this moves forward.

Thank you.

Hi, uh Lola Herrera, um oceanographer, uh that is my background.

And I agree with um the presenters about the options.

I think is second and third option are the best.

I think uh have more parking lot.

Uh maybe the city need to look for other ways of uh finding funding for the city, throw concerts or throw a trolley that goes to the beach and people can pay because um what we have there is a beach and is a natural system and that is going to continue evolving, and the next storm 10 years, 20 years, is going to display destroy whatever we are going to build.

So it will be um uh uh really an investment that is going to be a waste of money for all the people in Newport.

And the other thing is that recreation is not against resilience.

Resilience is a concept, recreation is another concept.

So resilience is the the ability to the natural systems to resist the challenge that we are seeing with the climate, you know.

So that is what is resilience and recreation can be inside of resilience, but the recreation, we have to think about recreation in another way in the beach that we have, because if not waste so much money in doing new buildings or things that are going to be thrown away if by the next storm is really really it's not going to be any help for any people here, you know.

So we have to continue using the beach, but thinking about how the climate and the weather is changing and how we can uh enjoy the beach in in another way, you know, and I think if parking lots as well need to be built in another way as well.

We don't have to use again concrete.

We have to use other methods that can be permeable solutions that can go on the the water can go in, you know, and we don't have flooding in also in that area.

So those will be also solutions for the beach and and for improving that system.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any final comments from the beach commission?

No, uh we're just happy that the absolute list nor the information is a lot of fire always with information.

We discussed there's so many facets to it.

I don't know if one more university maybe one of the best of it.

The beach that's really gonna be a challenge.

I've left and all of the cell for everyone here.

And as the proposals develop to get cost.

I think that's gonna be that's kind of more.

None of it's trying to cheap.

Nothing less than a seven or eight digit number stuff out there.

We know tens of thousands.

Absolutely.

It's gonna be the 95 million dollar bond that was based for the whole city.

Just one more thing, Mark.

Well, just so council is aware of other things we've been doing.

Um, we've also had conversations with the uh near a Gansett uh beach director um about their plan and and how they use replenishment and nourishment.

Um we've we've taken away some very valuable points from them.

Um that uh they build into their budget, their beach operations budget, some dune maintenance and replacement replenishment every year.

So it's built in uh and they do you know minor projects every year, and then every every four to five years they do sort of a more major mid-level replenishment.

Um, so we we had talked about as a commission, whatever we decide to do, building in some sort of funding mechanism at the beginning, knowing that we're gonna need ongoing replenishment, you know, down the road, if that's what we could choose to do.

Yeah, yeah.

May I add a point there?

Yeah, which is gonna which is gonna go down the first option that we presented in the series of three is uh is equivalent to what Negaranza has in place, so their maintenance is to replace that on a very regular basis.

Has it been determined that what's out of the bay can be used on the beach?

That was what I thought was still in the sand starts anyway, yeah.

I think our main concern too tonight was to make sure as a beach commission we meet obviously monthly, and we just want to make sure that the council has information so when we do give a recommendation that you guys have a clear idea what what we've been seeing and what we're working with and being able to ask the professionals questions that you have that maybe we can't answer, because like we've all mentioned there.

If we need to have a timeline, it is getting crunched, it is getting close.

So we just want to make sure that in the next probably we discuss what we propose to you guys that you guys understand where we're coming from, and I think that's our main goal just to kind of get keep the ball rolling and not stop, not put the brakes on because we are on a time constraint.

What would be versus upland yet?

Because that is kind of on the fence.

Yeah, all right.

Um yeah, so we have thought about that.

We've we have discussed it with potential sand source places.

It will come down to when you're when you are closer to building, it will be more applicable to source it at that point because you don't know if there will be beneficial dredge reuse available at that point, and it'll be a matter of aligning uh our initial thoughts and conclusions are that it would be far less expensive to bring it by barge, but I'll hand it to Brittany.

I think I think Beth covered it, but I think, yeah, we don't have a source identified yet, but I think just to reiterate that we did do a bunch of that up front um field investigations to collect sediment-sized samples so that when we do start looking for sources, we know exactly what size sand we need.

But I think just to reiterate that we did do a bunch of that upfront um field investigations to collect sediment sized samples so that when we do start looking for sources, we know exactly what size sand we need.

So we've cut out the need to do additional field investigations because we've already gotten the lab analysis to tell us the sediment size that we need that is appropriate to fill in the beach because permits require that the sediment source needs to match.

So we've done a lot of that field investigation up front to help us get to that answer much more quickly.

I can already hear the phone calls of the trucks coming through the town.

Yeah.

Mike, did you want to um could I just ask one question?

The the maintenance, if let's say we pick the middle one, okay?

Let's just say if we added sand to it every year, is does that basically like give us the effect of doing the big, you know, the full one?

Yeah, like let's say we just you you know, you put take you select the middle version and then just keep adding to it every year in the hopes that it would, you know, end up becoming a much bigger one.

I don't know.

But what how whatever they would, but I'm just thinking.

Oh, absolutely.

No, but I'm thinking if we could build that into the budget every year to add more sand to it, would that be a you know, cost effective way of doing it?

I don't know.

Sorry.

So you can you can add sand to the beach annually.

The thing is the partial one, the dune is in a different place.

So what made it more resistant is that it was further landward in a more natural position, um, where it wants to be.

Um, you can see where it is on the west side.

So the partial brings that western existing dune and brings it east, but to maintain the parking, the dune in front of the east parking lot is seaward.

So by adding sand, unless you start adding it to the back part, it's not going to make the partial into the full.

I wasn't uh considering the partial.

I was cons which one is the middle one.

The middle one, okay.

Yes.

All right.

That I was thinking.

Yeah, so uh essentially um yes, but it needs to be very specific in where it's added and how the incremental um uh how the increments are are added to one another in order to achieve the full dune.

And so it's not a matter of putting it into the same footprint of the partial, but it is it's moving that partial towards the full dunes footprint, if that is helpful.

Yeah.

But it buys you time to think about where that parking might be um relocated to.

We have one more public comment.

Um Michael Wilson on Five Anadale in Newport.

Um, I think that we're missing two things that we need to really think about.

The cause, the main cause of the erosion.

It's what's going on the way underneath Easton's Bay is shaped.

And when there's storms coming in, when the big storms come in, the uh red seaweed is basically torn off the ground on the floor.

So I had mentioned it before and was criticized for this before, but I think an offshore wave attenuation should really be studied if it means you know contacting the the Army Car Corps of Engers.

Uh I think it's something that is probably the first thing we should even look at, because that will solve many problems about the large waves that come in, even in a huge storm.

And there's many things I propose to uh uh sinking a ship, but there are those like jacks concrete jacks can be placed off there, and if you look internationally, when that has happened in other bays and other places around the world, that's their solution is to stop the waves from coming in so strong because they're coming in from 200 miles offshore.

The only thing that will stop them is something that's going to stop, and that's going to stop the wave.

That's going to stop the wave that's eroding the beach is the first thing.

Then, you know, if you go back for me, you know, there's two critical things, of course, the water.

I think it also needs to be looked at for studying of raising the road, raising memorial boulevard with the state, whatever it takes, because if you if you do the two things, you're protecting the water both ways.

If you do have a big storm, everything we're talking about, one, two, and three are all destroyed anyway.

So you can't just continue just pouring sand on the situation.

You have to make something that's solid, and there's many other ways to do that as well.

I mean, as I had mentioned before, uh, a boardwalk that could be uh built specifically, and you can't people say it's all gonna be blown away.

But there are many examples where in major storms, uh, a boardwalk, if it's done correctly, is diverting the water, it's channeling it to another place.

And I just want everyone here in this room to think about those options before we make any other uh you know decisions on putting that kind of money.

That's all I wanted to say.

Any last comments from the Yeah, uh just the last few comments.

Uh, first of all, the red seaweed is from a reef that is off the uh Easton's beach.

And years ago, um they talked about blowing it up.

Of course, they couldn't get permission to do that.

Um it produces the red seaweed, and it's really a misnomer.

Yeah, it kills me when people say, Oh my god, you have you know, uh that red tide, yeah.

And I'm constantly correcting them.

The other thing is anecdotally, I was talking to a couple of traffic engineers from DOT a couple of years ago, and they had mentioned that the roadway should be raised 15 feet.

That would be a perfect stop place for the pond.

I mean, you know, it it's things like that that you hear along the way, and unfortunately, whatever we're gonna do is gonna cost a lot of money, and we know that.

We know that, but we want to preserve that with the families that have enjoyed and the residence in Newport, and there's a lot of visitors there too, I can tell you, because there's a lot of private beaches around the ocean drive, and it is the one place they feel they can go.

I do agree about they need some amenities for kids.

The splash pad would be great.

Would be great.

All right.

Well, thank you everyone for uh attending tonight, and uh hopefully we'll have another meeting in a short period of time.

More money.

Thank you.

Thank you.