On December 6, 2025, more than a hundred community members gathered at the San Clemente Historic Cottage for the San O Community Assembly — an important milestone, kicking off the next chapter of shoreline resilience planning at San Onofre State Beach’s Surf Beach.
Hosted by the Surfrider Foundation, alongside California State Parks, San Onofre Parks Foundation, and the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation, the Assembly brought together surfers, beach loungers, adaptive users, Tribal representatives, scientists, agency partners, and longtime San O regulars — all united by a shared love for this place and a desire to protect it.
Why it Matters
San Onofre’s Surf Beach is changing — fast. Erosion, rising tides, storm damage, and vulnerable infrastructure are already impacting access and shoreline conditions, as we saw with the beach closure after December’s king tide event. While the challenges are complex, one thing was made clear throughout the evening:
The future of San Onofre must be shaped with the community.
This wasn’t a formal hearing, or a one-way presentation for that matter. It was a collaborative space to share information, ask questions, and begin to work through what opportunities and tradeoffs may exist for the future of this special place, together.
Common Concerns
Rather than a single issue, community concerns clustered around a few shared themes — many of which came up repeatedly across tables and conversations.
Access and safety were top of mind.
Word cloud of responses to the question “What are you most concerned about?”
Parking and future access sparked especially thoughtful discussion. Many participants expressed concern about losing the lower lot in the immediate and short-term, while also naming opportunities to build resilience in the long term:
- Prioritizing accessible parking in limited paved areas when beach parking is closed
- Utilizing the existing Southern California Edison (SCE) lot for public parking once the SONGS decommissioning is complete
- Making some parking available on the bluff top, paired with stair or trail access
Nature-based solutions were strongly favored. Over and over, people made the case to:
- Avoid additional hard armoring
- Revisit existing riprap impacts on beach width and wave quality
- Explore dunes, sand movement, and other softer, natural adaptive approaches*
(*Great news! That’s exactly what we’re doing!)
Several participants also pointed to specific erosion hot spots, especially near the entrance, shower areas, and south of existing hard armoring, underscoring the urgency for action.
What Makes San O Special
To ground this project at its onset, and all future planning, in why this place matters, we also asked a simple but powerful question: ‘What makes San Onofre special to you?’
The responses were deeply personal and noticeably consistent.
Word cloud of responses to the question “What makes San O Special?”
People talked about:
- Spending whole days at Surf Beach, surfing, relaxing with friends and family
- A place where time slows down — dirt roads, palm trees, bamboo, fire pits
- Accessibility that allows adaptive surfers to show up, unload, and get in the water
- Incredible nature — dolphins in the lineup, long rolling waves, and unforgettable rides
- A non-commercial, deeply Californian beach experience
- And of course, enjoying a burrito on the beach
And for some, San Onofre is something even more profound.
One community member shared how San O became a place of healing after losing her husband — a place to grieve, remember, and keep going. Stories like this remind us that coastal resources like San Onofre are truly indispensable.
Action
Thanks to a recently awarded California Coastal Conservancy grant, engineers at ESA are analyzing near-term shoreline stabilization pathways rooted in nature-based approaches. The feedback shared at the Assembly — from parking ideas to erosion hot spots to deeply personal stories — will help inform future management and project design at the beach.
San Onofre’s history includes moments of tension and uncertainty. What this Assembly showed is that there is even greater momentum toward collaboration, transparency, and shared stewardship in this next chapter of San O’s history.
What’s Next
The Assembly is just the beginning! Additional engagement opportunities are planned throughout 2026, timed to the technical work schedule to maximize opportunities to update the public and shape the design concept through public participation.
Tentitive timeline of work and events
If you joined us, thank you! For showing up, spending your time with us, sharing honestly, and caring deeply about this place.
If you couldn’t make it, we hope you can join us next time! And in the meantime, you can add your responses to the mapping question we asked attendees HERE.
A very sincere and special thanks to all of our community and project partners, without whom, this work would not be possible.
California State Parks, San Onofre Parks Foundation, the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation, the San Onofre Surfing Club, Environmental Science Associates, Coastal Futures LLC, and the California State Coastal Conservancy.
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