Kayla Swartwood remembers waking up to banging on her front door telling her she was being evacuated from her apartment on the 6700 block of Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista. She and her housemates were some of the 45 residents evacuated early in February after a building’s balcony and the cliffs collapsed.
For Swartwood and her housemates, the balcony was a step away from their living room and provided a much-needed retreat from their cramped apartment. Now, there is a chain-link fence against the back doors and windows with green mesh blocking the views.
Before the balcony collapsed, Swartwood said she spent most of her time out there, eating breakfast in the morning and doing homework — and now, that escape is gone.
“I feel like I’m feeling the effects because I’m forced to be inside more because it was so convenient to go out there,” Swartwood told Noozhawk. “I genuinely went out there every morning.”
On Feb. 6, 45 residents in four buildings on Del Playa Drive were evacuated for four hours after the bluff collapsed, taking part of the balcony with it. Building inspectors responded and later allowed residents to return to their apartments.
Since then, communication from property managers and Santa Barbara County to tenants has been little to none, some residents said.
“I definitely don’t feel safe, and I think that communication from our landlord would really help that if they were to tell us what’s going on,” Swartwood said.
Residents told Noozhawk that they’ve called their landlord every day since that balcony collapse. When they call property management, their calls are ignored, they’re transferred or are told that the property manager isn’t there after already being transferred several times. The residents don’t know when or if the balcony will be fixed and don’t feel reassured about the safety of their building.
“We don’t know anything, which I understand to a certain point,” said Lola Watts, one of Swartwood’s housemates. “The county does have to tell them what to do, but it’s been two weeks, and they said the county was going to come last week and we still haven’t heard anything.”
Swartwood and Watts also said they were disappointed by the response from law enforcement personnel who responded to the bluff collapse call, and said they were making jokes during the evacuation. Watts said one officer joked that the residents wouldn’t get their security deposit back.
Since the incident, they’ve received multiple visits from strangers — well, what’s left of the balcony has received visitors.
“It feels like it’s a zoo,” Watts said. “People are just coming, and random people are screaming outside looking through our fence.”
Watts and Swartwood said they haven’t been notified when county inspectors come to look at the properties and haven’t heard anything from the county about the status of their building.
Swartwood said she wished she received more support and resources from the property manager and the county.
“I know that I don’t feel secure or safe here,” Swartwood said. “I think with resources like other places to live or a support system from our landlord or something, that would help.”
Swartwood and Watts told Noozhawk that they haven’t hosted any large gatherings on the balcony since they’ve lived in their apartment.
Rhonda LoPresti, a parent of a student who was evacuated, said her daughter and her roommates haven’t been given any information about the safety of their building besides the notice that it was safe for them to return on Feb. 6.
The buildings were determined to be safe by the county after the balcony collapse. County Planning & Development Director Lisa Plowman told Noozhawk that the county inspected the properties as recently as Feb. 22 and is monitoring them weekly.
Residents who feel unsafe in the buildings or who want more information about the geotechnical studies conducted on the bluff-top properties can contact Carl Lindberg, building inspector, or Craig Johnson, building official in the county’s Building and Safety Division, Plowman said.
LoPresti said her daughter and other tenants haven’t received any documentation or site inspection results from the county. There also hasn’t been any communication from property managers or landlords following the balcony collapse.
Property managers of the properties that were evacuated on Feb. 6 did not respond to Noozhawk requests for comment for this story.
Ongoing Bluff Safety Concerns
Each year, the bluffs recede 8 to 23 centimeters and have been doing so for thousands of years, said Alexander Simms, a sedimentologist and earth sciences professor at UC Santa Barbara.
“We’re seeing a faster sea level rise than we’ve seen in the last couple thousand years, and that’s probably contributing to accelerating rates of cliff retreat,” Simms said.
Simms explained that studies have been done on other coastlines showing that an increase in sea level rise increases cliff erosion, which is believed to be what residents are seeing in Isla Vista. However, even if the rapid rate of sea level rise stopped, the bluffs would still be naturally receding.
Heavy storms also contribute to the bluffs receding faster, according to Simms. In a year like this year, or last year, the bluffs could do five years worth of retreating in just one year.
During storms, the bluffs are facing two points of attack. The rain contributes to the top of the cliffs retreating and the waves at the bottom of the cliffs.
“There are big waves that come at the same time as all the rain,” Simms said. “Those waves pick up the debris at the base of the cliff and smash it against the cliffs, which drives the cliff erosion.”
The debris smashed into the cliffs can be anything from fallen balconies, concrete or even rocks that were already on the bluffs.
“It’s a natural process. We’re exacerbating it as we see the acceleration of the sea level rise,” Simms said. “I don’t think it’s anything we can stop. We can try to mitigate it, but it’s going to happen.”
The early February balcony collapse joins a long list of bluff failure and cliff incidents.
Since 1994, there have been 13 known victims who have died after falling off the cliffs of Isla Vista. The most recent victim was Benny Schurmer, a 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student who fell during Labor Day weekend in 2023.
Following Schurmer’s passing, residents, UCSB students, the Isla Vista Community Services District and county Supervisor Laura Capps have been working to address bluff safety concerns.
The county approved an eight-point plan for bluff safety in November that includes raising fences along the bluffs to 6 feet, adding bathrooms along Del Playa Drive, increased signage, more landscaping blocking cliff edges, and a memorial for fall victims.
“I do live in daily fear that we’re not moving fast enough before another tragedy occurs,” Capps said at a bluff safety community gathering on Friday.
The county recently installed 6-foot fences to Sea Lookout Park at 6787 Del Playa and will be adding fences and horticulture to other parks along Del Playa Drive. The previous fences were 4.5-feet tall, which made them easier for people to climb over.
Property managers have been encouraged to raise their fences along bluff properties as well, and the county has waived permitting fees to make it easier to do so. The county also requires 6-foot fences for any new fences in the bluff area of Isla Vista.
Many of the falls have happened on weekends during parties when college students or visiting young adults climb over the fences on the bluffs.
On Saturday, firefighters rescued a woman stuck on the cliffs and three men who attempted to rescue her but became trapped by the rising tides. No one was injured in the incident.
Click here to read how the county monitors bluff erosion.
