Finding that elevating and shoring up the road accessing Centerville Beach is “not a prudent use of public funds,” Humboldt County is instead aiming to move it inland.
Centerville Road’s erosion and flooding issues are at a critical point and at the Oct. 27 Board of Supervisors meeting, a staff-recommended strategy for addressing it was approved.
The road’s turbulent history includes being part of multiple disaster declarations over the last several years.
With storm damage and flooding on a roll, the county has looked at different ways to address the situation.
Deputy Public Works Director Hank Seemann described an initial retreat strategy, which was to develop “a new inland road connection to the top of the bluff.”
But that was scrapped because “the potentially affected landowners were not interested in the time at providing an easement for the road to the county.”
So another plan was put in motion to “repair the road in place” by armoring and raising it to “get it out of reach of almost all storm events.” The beach park’s parking lot would also be moved out of the ocean’s reach, re-establishing 12 spaces.
Each project is estimated to cost $4 million.
The road armoring/elevation project isn’t favored. The state’s Coastal Commission has a permitting role and, reviewing it with an eye on coastal policies, the commission has set 16 conditions. Those include blocking vehicle access to the beach, but the ultimate deal-breaker is a condition requiring that the armoring be removed after 20 to 25 years.
Under the commission’s scenario, that would allow time to plan a lasting fix — relocating the road.
For supervisors and staff, it makes more sense to just move the road.
Seemann said accepting the commission’s conditions and eventually undoing the armoring and elevation would be an “extremely substantial” project.
Another factor is that “the physical condition of the bluff to the south has worsened, most recently in 2024, and there’s evidence of risk that other segments of Centerville Road could be damaged, which would, could, really limit the lifetime and the benefits of the beach project,” he continued.
The road realignment plan involves seeking state and federal funding approvals.
Most of the armoring project would have been covered by previously-approved federal storm disaster funding and the county will seek to have it re-allocated to the road realignment.
Eight residences are along a potential right-of-way extending Poole Road to connect with a realigned Centerville Road.
“Long term, it’s to everybody’s advantage to have a stable access wherever that might be because if you’ve got eight residents, they’re going to need to get to their properties one way or another,” said Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone, describing the “unraveling of those slopes” as “just mind boggling.”
During a public comment period, some property owners said they support the relocation, although one said she’s concerned about the odds of funding approval and another questioned the degree of public involvement in the process.
Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo clarified that “we’re not talking about what the proposed alignment would be,” as that will be determined by county staff “in conjunction with landowners” and “that would be a much more robust process.”
“Correct, we’re asking the board to provide direction on the concept and then through engineering and land use, we would look at alternatives and then do specific outreach to the potentially affected landowners,” Seemann said.
He described Centerville Beach as a “very popular” county park, but the flooding issues have reduced its parking capacity over time and now “it is limited and I think it probably precludes access for certain users.”
A “parallel” effort to the road relocation is to “continue looking at opportunities to enhance the beach access there,” he said.
Supervisors unanimously voted to pursue the inland road realignment project.
This article appears in Caring for Trans Youth.