San Clemente residents have successfully placed a measure on November’s ballot that would increase their own taxes if approved, in an effort to shore up sand on the city’s disappearing idyllic beaches.
While tax increases are usually some of the most unpopular policy actions among residents, the city needs the money for what many consider a very important reason — to prevent the coastline from washing away.
[Read: Is San Clemente Sinking Into the Sea?]
San Clemente voters will consider a 1% sales tax measure that would be set aside for sand placement, beach projects and wildfire prevention.
A 1% local sales tax increase would be 1 cent for every dollar spent in San Clemente. It would increase the city’s sales tax from 7.75% to 8.75% and is projected to generate about $15 million annually, according to staff estimates.
The ballot measure is the result of a local initiative that gathered over 7,000 signatures from registered voters in the city, placing the question on November’s ballot.
During the city council’s meeting on May 5, officials unanimously voted to accept the certification of the ballot initiative and place it on the November 3, 2026 ballot.
The council also voted to direct Councilmember Zhen Wu to write the argument in opposition for the ballot representation, but council members made a special point to make sure he would be representing only himself in that argument — not the council as a whole.
Cameron Cosgrove, a San Clemente planning commissioner and resident who wrote the ballot initiative, is expected to write the argument in support.
If approved in November, half the funds gathered by the sales tax would go towards beach restoration projects, like sand placement, and the other half would be allocated to wildfire prevention efforts.
It comes after the city tried to pass a similar increase, but that initiative narrowly failed in the November 2024 election.
“If the citizen’s initiative doesn’t pass, not much changes,” City Manager Andy Hall said at the council’s April 21 meeting.
“Whether or not that passes, these things are critical issues in our city, and so we’re working on them regardless. But if the citizen initiative passes, certainly many projects could be considered or advanced more quickly.”
Beaches Need Sand, Officials Need Funding
San Clemente leaders have known their beaches need sand for years.
While other coastal Orange County towns have prioritized sand nourishment over the past several decades, that’s not the case in San Clemente.
Now leaders are grappling with a beach that’s washing away and a budget that can’t support getting sand dumped on the shoreline fast enough.
In 2024, the city trucked in about 40,000 cubic yards of new sand from the Santa Ana River and dumped it on North Beach — a project that was granted with an emergency contract that cost $2 million.
“The deficit is much higher, but that was a good start,” Hall said about that North Beach project.
In order to restore beaches to 250 feet wide, San Clemente needs to add about two to nine million cubic yards of sand, according to Leslea Meyerhoff, the city’s coastal administrator.
[Read: San Clemente Needs More Money For Sand]
During the city council’s April 21 meeting, leaders discussed what beach projects the increased funding could be used for, if approved by voters.
City Manager Hall said the extra money could be used for more sand placement at North Beach — one of the more critically eroded spots along the city’s coastline.
The funding could also be used to continue the city’s partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is expected to bring two million cubic yards of sand to the city over the next five decades.
However, the city is expected to split the cost 50-50 with the federal government, meaning the city needs to come up with about $15 million every five to six years to continue the partnership.
Hall said city staff is trying to find grant funding to cover these costs, but that isn’t guaranteed.
“We’re going to continue to try to look for [state] grants, the problem is, the state right now is in worse fiscal condition than when we started this project,” he said. “We’ll just have to watch and see what’s happening.”
“We need to start finding revenue sources.”
Take Two: Residents Previously Rejected Tax Increase
The new proposed sales tax increase comes after a previous attempt that narrowly failed in the November 2024 election.
[Read: San Clemente’s Sales Tax Increase is Likely to Fail, Jeopardizing Sand Replacement]
The ballot measure outlined a 0.5% sales tax increase that staff estimated would have generated approximately $6 million annually.
Since that city-backed initiative would have generated funding earmarked specifically for beach restoration projects, it needed to get at least 66.7% “yes” votes to pass, according to city staff.
That ballot measure narrowly failed with 64.62% “yes” votes.
Since the new ballot measure is a citizen’s initiative, city staff said it will only require a simple majority approval to pass — more than 50% “yes” votes.
[Read: San Clemente Leaders Review ‘State of the Beach’ As Citizen Initiative Heads to Ballot]
Funding Could Also Be Used For Wildfire Prevention
While half the funding from the proposed ballot measure will be used for beach projects and sand placement, the other half would be used for wildfire prevention efforts.
That could include efforts like removing overgrown and invasive vegetation, adding fire-resistant plants and extending the city’s goat grazing program.
[Read: San Clemente Officials Consider Extending Goat Grazing Program]
San Clemente resident Mike Kay, who runs the city’s goat-grazing program, said this decision will fundamentally change the city and residents must be accurately educated.
“This is a crucial decision that our town must make — a fundamental one that will change our town one way or another,” he told council members at their April meeting. “People need to be informed.”
Hall said the council could also consider creating some kind of firebreak in town to stop or slow down the spread of wildfires if one were to occur.
Cosgrove, who wrote the ballot measure, thanked residents who volunteered their time over the past six months to get the initiative on the ballot.
“We had thousands of conversations with residents, and those conversations turned into something very consistent, which is a shared set of community values,” Cosgrove said at the meeting.
“I heard, loud and clear, that residents want to feel safe in their homes. They want their neighborhood to be protected. They want to know that their kids are safe in their schools.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
