The city devotes roughly $10 million to climate resilience projects in its annual budget each year. Those typically include efforts to improve neighborhood parks or to plant trees, which reduce heat in mostly paved neighborhoods.

Councilmember Joe LaCava said it’s crucial that climate resilience efforts focus on the city’s older neighborhoods because they have older infrastructure typically built to less rigorous engineering standards.

“Making sure we’re protecting San Diegans where they live, where they play and where they work is a key part of the city’s responsibility,” LaCava said during an Environment Committee update on Climate Resilient SD last week.

The coastal resiliency part of Climate Resilient SD is a bit ahead of some other efforts, partly because the city received a $1 million state grant to create a plan for coastal resilience.

City officials recently unveiled six projects they would like to be part of that plan, which must be approved by the state’s Coastal Commission.

In Ocean Beach, the city would create a path for cyclists and pedestrians at Dog Beach that would be fronted by elevated sand dunes that could provide flood protection to the immediate area and the rest of the neighborhood. The dunes would be connected to an additional vegetated sand dune near the Ocean Beach Municipal Pier.

In Sunset Cliffs, the city would narrow Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to one vehicle lane and make the other lane a path for pedestrians and bicyclists. The project, which would happen in phases, would also include drainage upgrades and replacing invasive species with native plants.

In Mission Beach, the city would build an elevated sand dune west of the existing seawall at Ocean Front Walk.

At Tourmaline Surf Park in Pacific Beach, an existing riprap would be buried to provide a core layer and topped with a mix of cobble, sand and native plants.

At La Jolla Shores, the city is proposing two different flood protection efforts.

Along the western borders of La Jolla Shores Park and Kellogg Park, an elevated linear earthen dike would be built between the grassy area and the La Vereda pedestrian path.

Along the western border of the parking lot, a terraced seawall would be built to provide a viewing and seating area.

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