Dana Point clears way for new cliffside transportation at Strand Beach

For more than 20 years, Dana Point has done its best to run a Swiss-made funicular up and down a steep cliff over Strand Beach.

The funicular became a public transportation option as part of a development agreement to build luxury homes over the popular beach. Agreed to in 2005, it was put in as a mitigation requirement to provide easy public access, despite the gated community that was built above it.

But it quickly became unreliable and wasn’t keeping the required hours of operation — daily during the summer and on weekends and holidays the rest of the year — because of frequent breakdowns.

“The funicular was from a small company in Switzerland and the owner retired,” Dana Point City Manager Mike Killebrew said. “We had to find certified people to repair it and fly them in from Austria, Switzerland, Canada and Colorado. The product was not built for the coastal environment.”

On Wednesday, May 6, the California Coastal Commission agreed to a request from the city that will give it greater flexibility in replacing the funicular with a different sort of transport mechanism — more aptly named “inclined elevator” — once research is done on what would make most sense. Once the design for a new transport system is finalized, it will still need to go through the Coastal Commission review.

For a year now, the city has been using a golf cart to drive people from a location near the funicular to below another entry staircase inside the gated community, creating a “comparable experience” for people used to riding the funicular. It’s a convenient transport for people who aren’t able to get down the incline to and up from the beach and those are toting beach gear and toys.

The golf cart, which is staffed by city employees but paid for by the Strand Community Homeowner Association, runs on weekends, holidays and will be in place daily starting Memorial Day through Labor Day during the summer. The HOA will also be responsible through an assessment for funding the new transport system.

The Coastal Commission agreed to the use of the golf cart, Killebrew said, as the city has worked through replacing the current funicular.

Killebrew said he pointed out to the commission staff that when the vehicle was put in 20-plus years ago by the developer, it wasn’t a true funicular — a funicular runs on ropes or cables — and instead was more of an inclined elevator that runs up and down tracks.

“They agreed that the language was too prescriptive and that we needed an option to get people up and down,” he said ahead of the commission’s review.

Now that the wording is cleared up, the city is evaluating other “inclined elevator” options, Killebrew said.

“The options are U.S.-based and maintained,” Killebrew said, adding that there will be a focus on something that can withstand a constant sea air environment.

Killebrew said an engineering study will still need to be done before any vehicle is installed and that could include improvements to the track area where it operates.

“Until we get that done,” he said, “we can’t put a price tag on it.”