The Ocean Beach Task Force consists of members for San Francisco Department of the Environment (DOE), Department of Public Works (DPW), National Park Service (NPS), Surf Riders Association, Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), California Coastal Commission, professional engineers and other interested parties. It met monthly for several years and drafted reports and recommendations for the Commission on the Environment for the then-Mayor Willie Brown.

The following is a timeline of actions that starts with the Commission on the Environment's (COE) adoption of Resolution 001-02-COE 2002 (PDF). The resolution has been implemented and is still used as the City's guiding policy document for directing actions at the Great Highway and Ocean Beach.

January 2002 
The COE signed the resolution in encouraging DPW to monitor Ocean Beach and the surrounding bluffs; be ready to move Great Highway traffic to Sloat Boulevard; study the effects that shifting the traffic would cause; prepare public notices and information packets on issues and actions at Ocean Beach; look into less costly, temporary fixes to the erosion problem; and to support the City's policy of not placing rocks on the bluffs for the 2002 winter season in an emergency attempt the previous year (Resolution No. 001-02-COE, 2002).

April 2002 
The Department of Parking and Traffic created a report on the traffic flow on the Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard. The study focused on a detour lane to be used during the construction of the bluff versus a detour for the southbound traffic to one of the northbound lanes. An emergency detour lane was installed in 2002.

September 2002
The COE completed the Reconnaissance Report and published a 905(b) Fact Sheet stating federal interest in the project.

April 2003
DPW sent Boating and Waterways (DBW) a letter requesting an extension on the planning phase of the Public Beach Restoration Grant, and a four year extension was granted in July.

June 2003
DPW and the USACE came to an agreement on the Project Management Plan and began drafting the Fiscal Cost Sharing Agreement, which they finalized that September.

March 2005
Public policy stakeholders including the executives and their staffs from DOE, DPW, NPS, the San Francisco Zoo, and the Chair of the Ocean Beach Taskforce met for a workshop to discuss the different erosion solutions and outline their alignment with each agency's policies.

All but two solutions had at least one agency in opposition. These two solutions were both temporary:

1. placing a soft structure at the existing shoreline location and near shore sand placement, and
2. the requirement of annual maintenance.

After the culmination of three years of work, interviewing all stakeholder groups and evaluating technical information, Moffat & Nichol completed a study on the Ocean Beach-Great Highway Storm Damage Protection Project in 2005. View the full report (PDF).

The report compiled a comprehensive summary of the erosion conditions at Ocean Beach, summarized the results of the stakeholders' meeting, and analyzed each erosion solution option including a description and evaluation of facilitated retreat.

An executive committee comprised of DPW, DBW, USACE and NPS has taken steps to implement the next step actions contained in on page 5B-4 of the report.

The action steps as recommended from the report:

• The USACE are implementing an additional dredge disposal site and will be issuing an environmental document the summer of 2010.
• DPW and USACE are developing a series of studies investing placement of sand on Ocean Beach.
• DPW has a draft report a report on the Guidance for Beach nourishment which includes assessing the current cost of all the public infrastructures including recreation benefits. A cost benefit analysis is required to be performed to justify federal participation in the program.
• DPW has provided a status report and made presentations to the Commission of the environment. The latest presentation took place July 2008.

Read the 2001 Ocean Beach Task Force Status Report (PDF).

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