For the last week, a popular beach access point in Encinitas has been closed. According to the city of Encinitas, it was made aware that a portion of the bluff Grandview Beach, just north of the staircase, collapsed on Sept. 18. Earlier this year, a nearly $1-million project refurbished the stair s, but after the most recent collapse, they closed again, catching locals and visitors by surprise Friday. “It’s my first time coming and actually seeing the fence all locked up,” Jason Parks, an Encinitas resident, said Similar reactions were echoed by others trying to take in the ocean view from the Grandview Stairs. “I understand why the city is doing it, but kind of a bummer. But you know, gotta be concerned for the residents,” Parks said. “I understand why.” The area is a premier coastal entry point for sightseers and surfers, but it’s now blocked by a chain-link fence. “Oh, I’m disappointed,” Dough Barkett, a local surfer, said. After engineers inspected the crumbled side of the coast, there’s concern additional bluff failure could happen again within 300 feet, north and south, of the staircase. The city says California State Parks is responsible for the north side, while they cover the south side.  In a statement to NBC7, a spokesperson from California State Parks advised anyone visiting state beaches should time visits at low tide when there is more sand between the cliffs and waves to maintain a safe distance from the bluffs. “I think closing the access to the surfers only inhibits our ability to do what we enjoy doing and I think the chances are slim of something happening that I think it’s an overreaction,” Barkett said. San Diego State University Geology Professor Emeritus Dr. Pat Abbott says he’s recorded five sea collapses that have resulted in one or more deaths, including the 2019 bluff collapse at Grandview Beach that killed three people. “When you look at that beach cliff from where we are at, the stairs looking northward along there, you can just see this nicely cleaned off area where the 2019 fall area is now adjoining the one that just happened to make one long, continuous cliff,” Abbott said. After an active summer of warmer-than-normal-sea-surface temperatures and elevated surf, plus with bigger waves on the way this weekend, Abbott calls the conditions primed for what could be an eventful fall and winter, which could impact coastal erosion. And although he says these collapses are unpredictable, they will happen again, he says. “Ultimately, we’re going to get surprises like we just had a few days ago,” Abbott said. While the city continues to monitor the beach, they say access to the coast from the Grandview Stairs will be closed for an unknown amount of time, but they ask visitors to avoid the area. Beach access is still available at Beacons Beach and Ponto Beach. ...read more read less