Life's no beach these days for some oceanfront homeowners in Ventura.

An unseasonably mild winter has left a deluge of sand along the beach, and recent high winds have driven sand dunes against their million-dollar properties and public stairways.

The weight of the dunes buckled a glass-paned retaining wall outside Ron Wilson's home, sending shards of glass and sand spilling into his yard. The same thing happened to his neighbor, Mark Smith, who has had to replace the glass with plywood.

The pair and others want to move the encroaching sand to make repairs and reduce the mounting dunes.

What the homeowners never expected, and what has triggered a volley of civil claims and threats of lawsuits, is the city's stance on a 40-foot easement outside their properties. The city refuses to move any sand on its easement or let the homeowners do it themselves.

"They gave me this baloney that I can only touch the sand that blows into my yard and nothing else," said Wilson, who has lived on Norwich Lane for nearly 40 years and has shoveled sand or hired crews to do it for decades. "I don't think I am being unreasonable."

Class-action suit considered

The city's refusal to allow the sand removal and its incomplete efforts to clear sand-covered public walkways have puzzled and incensed some homeowners who say the buildup has become a safety hazard.

"We are considering a class-action lawsuit if that is what it takes," said homeowner Rosemary Icardo, who has written to state legislators for help.

For years, the city used mechanized equipment to periodically level heavy buildups of sand, particularly those near beach stairways and storm water drains at the end of lanes in the Pierpont neighborhood. But the California Coastal Commission stripped that authority from the city in 1999, declaring the vegetative dunes sensitive habitat, city officials said.

The ruling was prompted partly by homeowners' complaints about tractors and other earth-moving equipment marring the beach environment, city officials say.

Since 2000, the city has kept its equipment off the sand, except during emergencies or to remove heavy debris.

City officials say they are sympathetic to the current complaints, but that living next to a beach, like living near a fault line or under a cliff, is unpredictable.

"Citizens keep saying, 'Do something, do something.' But it's a natural environment, and the environmental restrictions keep getting stronger," said Ron Calkins, the city's public works director. "But you can't sue Mother Nature, so you sue the city."

The storms and runoff that typically carry sand away from beachfront properties never arrived this winter, causing the buildup.

Dunes offer protection

The homeowners say they don't want the dunes removed, just relocated away from their homes. The dunes protect their properties from high tides, create a natural environment and offer critical habitat for shorebirds and other coastal species.

Part of the frustration, Icardo said, is that the rules are unclear, the government agencies are not talking to one another, and city leaders have been unwilling to take the lead on creating a dune management plan that could bring some resolution.

The Coastal Commission in its 1999 ruling urged the city to pursue such a plan and seek an amendment to its coastal program. Native grasses could be planted on the dunes to slow their movement and anchor them closer to the ocean, neighbors say.

But drafting a dune plan would be costly, require environmental study of the beach ecosystem and sand migration, and likely take at least two years to get a formal hearing. And there would be no guarantee the Coastal Commission would agree to what the city proposes, city planner Dave Ward said.

"It's an unknown outcome," he said. "We have higher priorities."

Coastal Commission officials said only the city has the authority to issue permits to move or reduce the dunes.

"Our role would be to function solely as an appeal authority," said Steve Hudson, the commission's supervisor of planning and regulation.

The city says it will grant Wilson a permit to remove his damaged wall, but he cannot disturb the dunes. All repair work would have to be done from his property, and he would have to haul sand that falls on his yard to a designated drop site near Surfers Point.

Wilson maintains the city should be responsible for its easement. He filed a claim with the city to recoup damages to his retaining wall and the $1,800 application fee he paid to get permission to move sand on the city's easement. Others have pledged to follow with their own claims.

Funds low

Funding is another issue. The city budgets about $25,000 a year to remove sand from the neighborhood's 28 lanes, officials said. That pays for 21 work days, not enough to keep the streets, stairways and storm drains clear, officials said.

More than $100,000 could be raised annually if Pierpont property owners voted to create a special district to collect an occupancy tax on short-term vacation rentals in the area. The City Council is scheduled to discuss such a district Monday.

"For now, we are following Coastal Commission direction, as frustrating as that may be," Ward said. "It's bureaucracy vs. bureaucracy, and residents are stuck in the middle of it."