A set of stairs 6 feet wide will provide safer travel to and from the beach. Currently, people scramble down nearby arroyos to get to the water.
Beach-goers who have waited years for more beach access in Shell Beach will have a new staircase by August.
Work is set to begin this month on stairs at the end of Beachcomber Drive that will connect the 43-foot-high bluff to the sand.
“It’s a popular beach with a nice sandy area that is kind of isolated,” said Dennis Delzeit, Pismo’s public works director and city engineer. “The stairway will make it more accessible to families and all age groups.”
Beach-goers have been able to reach the beach from that area by traversing a rocky trail that it is difficult for elderly people and families, Delzeit said.
Local residents have waited years for the staircase, said Shelly Higginbotham, the city’s mayor pro tem.
Beachcomber Drive resident John O’Connell agreed. He said he has waited for stairs since he moved into his house six years ago.
“My grandkids love the tide pools there,” he said. “The (rocky) paths can be difficult when it’s been raining. It can be slick.”
O’Connell, who is an avid surfer, said his only reservation about the project is if the stairs draw crowds that leave litter on the beach.
The Beachcomber Drive stairway will be the second at the north end of the coastal community. The other is next to The Cliffs Resort.
Talk about a new stairway started in the 1980s, when development in the area was growing. But budget restraints and stairway designs that were considered too modern and expensive delayed the project for years.
The city is paying $350,000 to Nipomo-based Souza & Peterson Construction to build the mostly concrete and wood stairwell. Much of the money came from a $210,000 grant from the state Land and Water Conservation Fund and from development impact fees incurred from the Sunset Palisades development.
The stairway will be 6 feet wide and 76 feet long.
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