Rebuilding Malibu Homes Amid Rising Sea Levels

Introduction to Rebuilding Malibu Homes

Dean and Denise Wenner were sweet on the Cape Cod-style home from the moment they found it in 2019. It had five bedrooms spread over three levels, with decks that hung over Santa Monica Bay. When the tide was up, you felt almost like you were on an ocean liner, with views that swept from Palos Verdes to Point Dume. Now the Wenners are among more than 300 families along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu who lost their homes in the January firestorms, all of them facing even greater hurdles than their inland neighbors in trying to rebuild homes that most never planned to leave.

Challenges of Rebuilding

Dean Wenner walks through what is left of his three-story beachfront house on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The reason for extra anxiety along Pacific Coast Highway? The very qualities that made the houses so special — their precarious toehold on the Pacific coast — will now make them particularly challenging to rebuild. Already burned by a fire that came from the north and east, the owners are being required to rebuild their homes to ward off ever-rising seas and fiercer storms coming from the south and west. That will mean not just incorporating the fireproofing measures now required of homes throughout California’s fire zones but propping the homes many feet higher and constructing sturdier seawalls — measures meant to protect the homes and their septic systems from ocean encroachment that grows ever greater as the Earth’s climate warms.

Political and Environmental Considerations

Reconstruction along the Malibu coast underscores a truth repeated many times in inland communities: While the laws of nature cry out that this is inhospitable ground, the politics of tragedy and the laws of private property demand that the Wenners and their neighbors have a chance to rebuild. “Right now it would be political suicide for anyone in public office to talk about not rebuilding everything and anything, after the fires,” said one longtime observer of coastal development, who asked not to be named to avoid alienating Malibu homeowners. “This is not a time that invites the most thoughtful policy discussion.” That means no one in political leadership — from Malibu City Hall to the governor’s mansion — has been willing to raise another alternative, favored by some academics and climate policy analysts: removing homes along the shoreline to accommodate the advancing ocean.

Costs and Regulations

For beachfront property owners in Malibu, the challenges of rebuilding include regulations, cost of construction, rising sea levels, and shoreline erosion. Many of the homeowners along the eastern Malibu coast inherited homes and have most of their wealth invested in the properties. The fire victims say they only want what other victims of the January fires want — a chance to put their homes and their lives back together. Wenner, a 57-year-old engineer, blamed the early January fire’s advance on the failure of officials to deploy firefighters before the blaze sprang up in Palisades Highlands. “The reality is, the fire should have never made it over here,” he said. “Somebody took something from us. That never should have happened. And now we just want it back.”

Ongoing Damage and Concerns

Unlike other stretches of the disaster zone, the ocean’s presence has meant that damage has continued to slowly unfurl in the months since the fire tore up the coast, incinerating the vast majority of the homes from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Carbon Canyon. With little dry sand or protective shore along that stretch, the tide and waves have continued to wash charred debris from burned homes into Santa Monica Bay. With homes and their seawalls now heavily damaged, there’s a fear that the already vulnerable Highway 1 will be more exposed to erosion. Dean Wenner shows a picture of his three-story house that was reduced to rubble by the Palisades fire.

Environmental and Health Risks

And hundreds of individual septic systems that collected human waste at each of the houses remain buried under debris. That means most of the tanks have been unexamined, and unpumped, for more than two months, raising fear that waste could leak into the ocean. “It’s really top of mind, because it’s Malibu and protecting the environment is part of our mission statement,” Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart said in an interview. “And every day that goes by, it just hurts us a little bit more.” Engineers say they can’t examine the waste systems until the fire debris on top of them is trucked away.

Rebuilding and Restoring

The city has been staging a series of hearings to help residents understand what will be required to rebuild. Some homeowners have banded together to try to share some of their expenses, proposing, for example, to build common seawalls to protect adjoining properties. But that’s not possible for everyone, and some dread the price of the coastal “armoring,” which can include new concrete pilings and foundations. “For all of that, a homeowner might have spent millions before they have spent even one dollar on the house itself,” said Doug Burdge, an architect who has worked in Malibu for decades. “It’s easy to require all this, but who is paying for it?”

Alternative Solutions

Environmental advocates have encouraged a strategy of “managed retreat” for particularly vulnerable properties — essentially removing human-made structures that impede the erosion that typically would occur along the shore. A stretch of Highway 1 near Hearst Castle was relocated to accommodate the rising ocean, as was a parking lot in Ventura. After Superstorm Sandy, some homeowners in Staten Island were only too happy to move away from the advancing ocean. The government paid $120 million to buy out 300 of them. In 2021, state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) won approval for a bill that would have provided low-interest loans to allow local governments to buy up properties at risk of falling into the ocean.

Conclusion

Rebuilding Malibu homes after the fires must also factor in the rising ocean, a challenge that requires careful consideration of environmental, economic, and social factors. While the desire to rebuild and restore homes is understandable, it is crucial to address the long-term sustainability and safety of these properties in the face of climate change. Alternative solutions, such as managed retreat or the purchase of vulnerable properties, may offer a more resilient and environmentally conscious approach to coastal development.

FAQs

1. What are the main challenges facing Malibu homeowners who want to rebuild their homes after the fires?

   • The main challenges include rebuilding to withstand rising sea levels and fiercer storms, complying with new regulations, and dealing with the high costs of construction and coastal protection measures.

2. What is the concept of "managed retreat" in the context of coastal development?

   • Managed retreat refers to the strategy of removing human-made structures from areas that are vulnerable to erosion or flooding, allowing natural processes to occur and reducing the risk of damage to properties and the environment.

3. How can the issue of septic systems and wastewater treatment be addressed in the rebuilding process?

   • The issue can be addressed by requiring homeowners to install new, more robust septic systems or by considering the construction of a sewer system, although the latter may be controversial and faces significant hurdles.

4. What role can government policies and regulations play in supporting the rebuilding of Malibu homes?

   • Government policies and regulations can play a crucial role by providing guidance on sustainable and resilient rebuilding practices, offering incentives for homeowners to adopt these practices, and ensuring that new constructions are compliant with environmental and safety standards.
5. How might climate change impact the rebuilding and future of Malibu homes?
   • Climate change is expected to increase sea levels, intensify storms, and enhance erosion, all of which pose significant threats to coastal properties. Rebuilding efforts must take these factors into account to ensure the long-term viability and safety of the homes.