Repairs to the historic wharf in Santa Cruz, which collapsed in heavy swell on Monday, were reportedly delayed after an environmental and preservationist group’s lawsuit delayed changes to the 110-year-old structure by several years.
Waves were unusually high on Monday up and down the West Coast, bringing Christmas joy to surfers, who flocked to popular surf spots, north and south, to catch the swell.
But in Santa Cruz, the heavy swell also brought destruction.
No one was hurt, but three workers had to be rescued from the detached end of the wharf, which floated on the sea.
The San Francisco Chronicle recalled Tuesday that the city had planned to reinforce the wharf, but that the proposal had faced a lawsuit by a group of environmentalists and preservationists called “Don’t Morph the Wharf,” which caused repairs to be delayed and also caused part of the project to be abandoned.
The Chronicle reported:
In 2016, the city had proposed another plan: create a below-deck walkway wrapping around the wharf’s western side, creating new space for pedestrians while providing the piles a buffer against incoming waves. The plan would have extended the wharf in some new places and added new buildings — including one directly atop the section that collapsed.
Opponents of the additions, assembled under the name Don’t Morph the Wharf, sued in late 2020, arguing the city hadn’t done a proper environmental review of the plan.
The city countered that the new “Westside Walkway” was necessary to mitigate damage from waves during storms, as it would extend past the current wharf and act as a break for waves, preventing them from hitting the wharf and the buildings on it, protecting the pilings on the west side of the wharf and providing additional lateral stability.
The opponents won their lawsuit in 2022, and the plans were changed to remove the protective walkway and the additional building. Leaders of the Don’t Morph the Wharf challenge are now claiming that the changes would not have helped.
Regardless, the litigation caused repairs to be delayed by three years, according to the city’s staff earlier this year.
Notably, city officials blamed “climate change” for the swell that caused the wharf to collapse — not the 110-year-old structure.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.