Estimates say mitigating soil erosion affecting Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) Wreck Beach access point on Keats Island will cost $161,500, plus GST. According to a staff report for the SCRD’s May 15 electoral services committee meeting, that is $101,500 more than what was included in the 2025 budget.
The committee voted to top up that spend, with the dollars to come out of its Parks Capital Reserve. That fund has about $1.4 million available. Board is expected to vote on the committee’s recommendation on May 22.
The access point trail, which totals 0.6 acres on the island's east side, was closed as of December 2024, noted the report. The SCRD started looking at failings in the embankment above the trail in 2022, and the original budget for repairs was based on that work. Development on a private property uphill from the access may be exacerbating the erosion issues, said the report.
“Further geotechnical assessments have confirmed that with continued erosion, the embankment overhanging the pathway is at risk of failure, potentially impacting the private property above. This is identified as an immediate hazard that should be addressed without delay…the SCRD has a duty to take reasonable measures to mitigate the immediate hazard as well as the ongoing erosion,” the report detailed.
The report cited that $8,500 has been spent on site study and design work. It said the proposed construction has a design life of 20 to 25 years and will address slope stabilization, groundwater drainage, and stormwater management using a culvert, structural fill, and geotextiles.
Monitoring of the existing point of concern on the access and smaller erosion scarps, which are appearing on the site, is needed, said staffer Jessica Huntington at the meeting. The report recommended this be done three times in the first five years following project completion.
'Not an isolated challenge'
“We have a lot of park and beach accesses, this can’t be a unique situation," commented Area E director Donna McMahon. She asked staff about a “strategy to address these” on a region-wide basis.
Acknowledging this example of trail erosion is “not an isolated challenge," community services manager Shelley Gagnon explained this beach access issue was partially the result of a severe storm. She pointed to regional coastline flood mapping and parks strategy initiatives as “things that are under way that address the need” to look at erosion on SCRD public park area access paths and walkways.
Her summary was that there is “a lot of planning under way" but that at this time, they have not developed a plan to address trail erosion issues throughout the jurisdiction.
An example of a similar issue came to a December 2024 meeting of the same committee. Tidal and storm erosion at West Beach, also on Keats, was the subject of a delegation from the Keats Island Conservation Society and Eastbourne Community Association.
During 2025 budget debate that proceeded a month later, elected officials deferred a project priced at $95,000 for a detailed assessment, design recommendations and cost estimates for strategies to mitigate that issue to next year’s budget considerations.
