Significant changes to bluff safety in Isla Vista have been made in the past year, including higher fences, new lighting and public restrooms.  

Community members and leaders met Tuesday afternoon to share safety efforts in the year since 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student Benny Schurmer fell from the bluffs and died.

Santa Barbara County Second District Supervisor Laura Capps and other community leaders highlighted Richard West, who was the first to go through the process of raising the fence height to 6 feet for a property he manages on the 6700 block of Del Playa Drive.  

West and the property owner jumped to get a new fence on the property after four people were rescued from the bluffs there. A woman fell over the edge and got stuck, and three men got stuck themselves trying to help her.

West said the process was challenging to get through and took awhile, but that the county helped guide him through the process.

“Anytime you can do something that’s safer for the residents that live in the house, you gotta take advantage of that,” West said. “Hopefully people see that it doesn’t really block the view, and it’s really safe. That’s the No. 1 thing.”

Capps said eight other properties are going through the process to raise fence heights. Her office is paying for the permitting fees.

“The hardest piece of this has been working with private property owners to actually do the right thing,” Capps said. “If it were me, I would do anything I could if I owned one of these to make it as safe as possible.”

The county already has raised fence heights to 6 feet on most public properties along the Isla Vista bluffs, and added lighting to the area. There are plans to build a permanent restroom at a park on Del Playa Drive.

Spencer Brandt, director for the Isla Vista Community Services District, said they have been working to educate residents about bluff safety and to move Isla Vista’s social scene away from Del Playa and into the commercial district. 

“Since last September, we’ve had over 100 nighttime and evening events, and this is everything from live music dancing, fashion shows, stand-up comedy — it’s all the kind of stuff that you’d associate with entertainment and nightlife,” Brandt said. 

The Community Services District also has given grants to small businesses to throw alternative events, so residents are having fun in a safe environment with food where alcohol is being safely monitored, he said. 

“These things are all important to making sure we have a safer nightlife in Isla Vista that doesn’t just revolve around packing in as many people as possible on our bluff sides,” Brandt said.

Grace Wilson, a friend of Schurmer, said it is important to continue the conversation around bluff safety. Wilson started a petition after Schurmer’s death calling for increased safety measures to be taken, many of which became part of the county’s eight-point safety plan.

“We have to continue the conversation because it’s a new year so there are new students who are like me and my friends last year, not everyone knows,” Wilson said.

Along with mandating that any new fences be 6 feet tall on bluff property, the county also implemented a rule that property owners conduct a field measurement and report to the Santa Barbara County Building Safety Division twice a year if they have a property where a portion of the structure is within 20 feet of the bluff’s edge.

Bluff Erosion Study

The Isla Vista Recreation and Park District just concluded a study examining bluff erosion that found significant retreat at park properties in recent decades.

Mike Phipps, a principal engineering geologist at Cotton, Shires and Associates, an engineering and geology consultant firm, told the district board last week that rainfall, specifically atmospheric rivers, are big contributors to bluff failure and retreat. 

Essentially, rainfall adds weight to the soil and creates a buildup of pressure that reduces the strength of the soil and bedrock material, Phipps said.

Another natural phenomenon that contributes to bluff retreat is low beach width and waves hitting the bluffs. 

Phipps explained that during the summer, sand builds up at the beaches but then retreats during stormy winter months. That is when the bluffs are the most vulnerable because the waves end up breaking into the bluffs because of the depth of the water. 

The study focused on Camino Pescadero Park at 6607 Del Playa, Window to the Sea Park at 6691 Del Playa and Rottappel Park at 6753 Del Playa, all of which are owned by the Recreation and Park District. Other parks on Del Playa Drive are owned by the county. 

Out of the three parks, Rottappel saw the most bluff retreat in the past eight years at 22.8 feet. Camino Pescadero had 18.4 feet in bluff retreat, and Window to the Sea had 11 feet of bluff retreat.

Phipps recommended that IVPRD move fences back at least 10 to 15 feet from the bluffs’ edge and plant drought-tolerant plants along the fence to prevent people climbing over. He also recommended that IVRPD monitor the bluffs semi-annually and after major storms and move the fence back once the bluff’s edge is within 10 feet of the fenceline.