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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Watershore And Beach Advisory Committee - 03/04/2021 WATERSHORE AND BEACH ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Regular Called Meeting Thursday, March 4, 2021 5:30 pm WEBEX – Meeting Number: 187 219 4578 | Password: YfHFVaxf353 Join by phone: 1-408-418-9388 Members Present Members Absent Staff Present Terry Palmer Larisa Ford Jyoti Patel Daniel Mazoch Mukesh Subedee Meredith Darden Philippe Tissot Harrison McNeil Lauren Williams Darren Gurley Martha Lawhon I. CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 5:32 pm. ll. ROLL CALL The roll was called, and a quorum was present III. EXCUSED ABSENCES: There were no absences. Jyoti Patel was mistakenly noted as absent but was not. IV. ADOPTION OF MINUTES Minutes from the February 4, 2021 meeting were distributed for review. Philippe made a motion to accept the minutes, Harrison seconded, unanimously approved. Motion passed. V. HEAR FROM THE PUBLIC There was one person from the public who wished to give comments: Cliff Schlabach. Cliff wanted to ask Darren again, how the showers were coming along. Vl. BUSINESS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1. New Business a. Deidre Williams’ Presentation Deidre started by introducing a couple of people (Cheyenne & Ryan) that attended the meeting and have been working closely with her. Deidre will be speaking of the post storm season of 2020 with regards to the Packery Channel and the adjacent beaches. Her assessment will cover channel shoaling and scour, beach erosion , and dredge and nourishment planning. Deidre first spoke about the lack of dredging materials in the Packery Channel that would be used to nourish the seawall area. The area of Deidre’s presentation is the area between Newport Pass and Access Road 4. Deidre next spoke about the water levels and the wind; from July to November the water levels were very high, and the wind was a major factor in that. All of this contributed to the large accumulation of sand in some areas , and the lack of sand in others. Some of the key points she mentioned were that the sand in the channel is almost to were it was in 2011, before dredging. There could be some navigational issues with the impact of channel shoaling and channel scour. Deidre went into details regarding the both of these impacts and the areas involved and dredging issues. Deidre went on to talk about our sand needs, and the beach width concerns. Next, she explained and showed graphics/charts to show the shoreline recession along the seawall. Deidre told the committee that the recovery time from the storms of 2020 will take 3 to 6 years for the beaches and 11 years for the dunes, based on the recovery from Hurricane Ike. Her full program has been added to the WBAC notes for March 2021. b. Sand on the Packery Channel Walkways Terry had received some complaints about the buildup of sand on the jetty sidewalks and he was curious about how Beach Operations deals with that. Darren explained that Beach Operations does clean the sidewalks, but those walkways are in bad shape and you can’t use any heavy equipment to clean them. The sand seems to accumulate at the dune line on the Zahn side, but it has been cleaned up. It’s a constant battle with the wind and sand. One issue is that the dune is large and encroaching and with the winds you could clean it one day and the next day it would be covered again. Deidre did add that once Darren gets to redistribute the sand, some of this problem will go away. 2 C:\Users\NormaD2\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\C1K8JZ51\March.docx 2. Old Business c. Forming a Beach Management Plan revision subcommittee Terry has looked at the maintenance plan and doesn’t have any problems with it. Others might, but he is not sure what those problems are. Darren explained that it would be a couple of months before he gets the USACE permit and sees what they actual approved of the changes he wanted. After that happens, the maintenance/management plan can be changed, Darren would send the changes to all interested parties for input. Harrison believes that the current complaints are not sound, that people are just complaining because they have a platform, and their criticisms aren’t constructive. Philippe reminded that group that one of the WBAC goals is to get the public more involved, so any public input is welcome. d. 2021 Goals Meredith went over the goals for 2021 and just reminded everyone to keep these goals in mind. e. North Beach Update Philippe gave the group a couple of highlights from the video; it is going to cost the City about 42 million if not more, it is elevated, complicated and conceptual at this point. f. Packery Channel Repair Terry had emailed a news article from the Moon and he is wondering how accurate it was. Darren reported that he knew that the City was working with the USACE, since they built it. He did say that FEMA walked away from the banking but that they were looking at doing the walkways and the bollards on top. Before that work can be done the other repairs have to be completed. Deidre did let us know that the USACE did a study regarding the repairs and how they would affect flooding. It passed that test; it would reduce flooding. They did this study because the pot of money they are working with, is flooding. Now they are deciding if it is economically sound. VlI. PARK AND RECREATION ACTION COMMITTEE – Howard Schauer Howard reported that their February meetings, they had a regular and special one planned, were both cancelled. He did let the committee know that the bond projects, with regards to Watershore, are movin g along. Howard also wanted to relay that the Je’Sani Smith Foundation is doing great work. VlII. ISAC Report Terry reported that at the ISAC meeting was long. They did speak about the development plan, and a traffic study plan, but really nothing directly related to WBAC. lX. Nueces County Beach Management Advisory Committee Report – Cliff Schlabach Cliff reported that the meeting was short, it was only the second one and that this committee will now be BM AC. Cliff chaired the first 2 meetings; they have not elected a chair yet. The meetings are run just like ours. One of the main discussions was the rebuilding of the parking at Bob Hall pier. This will take a long time, there are miles of red tape. The GLO has some issues with using concrete and several locals are not happy with using concrete either. Deidre is on this committee. Gabi Hilpold is the chair and LJ Francis is the vice chair. X. STAFF LIAISON REPORT Darren wanted to have the sand piles gone by Spring Break but that will not happen. The showers will hopefully be in before the summer. He did report that permit sale for 2020 were better than they were in 2019, and that he is ready for Spring Break! Terry was questioning the location of the driving lane, it is very close to the water, but Darren explained that because of the sand not being moved, it had to be and that he would have enforcement out there for people speeding. Darren did say that he would include the North Beach update in next month’s report. XI. IDENTIFY ITEMS TO BE PLACED ON NEXT AGENDA 1. Packery Channel Repair XlI. ADJOURNMENT As there was no further business the meeting adjourned at 7:25 pm.