On Sunday, May 24, 2026, a Friends of Windansea work crew climbed onto the old surf shack at the foot of Neptune Place and patched a hole in the northwest side of its roof. The hole dated back almost three years. The fronds were replaced in March 2023, and a storm tore a few of them several months later. Jim Neri and Kip Ives trimmed the damaged pieces then to keep the hole from spreading, and the real repair waited.
The holdup was the material itself. To keep the shack historically accurate, the patch had to use Canary Island date palm fronds. Those were hard to find after the South American palm weevil left San Diego with what La Jolla Parks & Beaches called "a graveyard of infested date palms" in 2023. The crew eventually found fronds the weevil hadn't reached.
That small repair shows how WindanSea works. The shack, the stairways and the parking area have long depended on people who live nearby. For the belvedere rebuild, the City of San Diego wants that arrangement put on paper, and in 2026 the paperwork reached the point of naming who will be responsible.
A City Landmark With a Volunteer Roof
The shack carries an official designation. The City of San Diego's historical resources register lists the Surf Shack as Landmark 358 at 6800 Neptune Place, designated May 27, 1998, with a construction year of 1947. Friends of Windansea's own history credits Don Okey and friends, surfers just back from military service, with building it. The San Diego Union-Tribune gives the year as 1946, "though some say 1947."
The structure itself is simple. In the Union-Tribune's description, eucalyptus trunks serve as posts under a roof of Canary Island palm fronds. The shack has been moved twice and knocked down by storms. The paper says Friends of Windansea and the Windansea Surf Club have repaired, rebuilt and rethatched it over the years. The sources give different years for when the ocean took it down.
- The Union-Tribune dates a storm rebuild by Friends of Windansea to 2015.
- Friends of Windansea says large waves destroyed the shack in 2004 and 2016.
- La Jolla Parks & Beaches says the shack "has been destroyed by nature not once, but twice."
The sources agree on who did the rebuilding. The city gave the shack its landmark number, and neighbors with palm fronds have kept a roof on it.
Stairs, a Parking Lot and a Cleanup Schedule
The shack is the part of WindanSea that ends up on postcards. Most of the volunteer work goes into things that get less attention. In a September 10, 2026 appeal, La Jolla Parks & Beaches says the community has built and maintains five beach-access stairways. It also credits donations with improving the WindanSea parking area to address erosion and make access safer and easier. Friends of Windansea lists maintaining beach amenities such as stairs as part of its regular work, done by local volunteers.
The upkeep runs on a schedule. In April 2026, Friends of Windansea volunteers pulled weeds, picked up trash and trimmed plants around the parking lot. La Jolla Parks & Beaches says that cleanup comes around roughly every three to four months.
New access projects come from the same group of people. Friends of Windansea says its Winamar public-access stair project was designed under landscape architect Jim Neri and submitted to the city in 2017. Neri also helped trim the torn fronds on the shack in 2023. The design work, the permits and the date palm fronds all come from a small, overlapping group of names.
La Jolla Parks & Beaches says the work covers "public safety and erosion to planning, design, permitting, construction, maintenance," along with working through the city's approval process. It notes that donations "from $10 to hundreds of dollars" have paid for much of it.
The Belvedere Comes With a Contract
The next project is a structure WindanSea has been without for more than four decades. A city hearing officer report from 2022 describes a former belvedere between Rosemont and Kolmar Streets that served from 1925 until vandals destroyed it in 1982. Elsewhere, the same report says the original was built in 1912. Both accounts agree on how it was lost. The replacement belongs to the Windansea Barrier project, number 666879, which runs along Neptune Place between Westbourne Street and Palomar Avenue.
What sets the belvedere apart from earlier volunteer projects is the paperwork. The 2022 city report already said the applicant would enter an Encroachment Maintenance Removal agreement to maintain the privately funded improvements, though it doesn't say one was signed. In January 2026, La Jolla Parks & Beaches reported that the city was reviewing that maintenance agreement. At the group's March 23, 2026 meeting, members discussed it at length. The minutes add a detail the 2022 report didn't include. The city requires that responsibility for the project be "assumed by designated individuals."
Friends of Windansea had already committed to taking on that responsibility. The minutes say La Jolla Parks & Beaches held "a robust discussion about the nature of this liability" before settling on a structure, which passed 14-0 on a motion by Melinda Merryweather, seconded by Alexandra Corsi:
- La Jolla Parks & Beaches accepts the City of San Diego maintenance agreement.
- Acceptance depends on a separate document assigning maintenance and repair to Friends of Windansea.
- La Jolla Parks & Beaches members draft that document as a memorandum of understanding.
- The agreement runs three years, with a possible two-year extension.
For decades, WindanSea's upkeep depended on goodwill and whoever showed up. For the belvedere, once the memorandum is signed, it will depend on an agreement with the city that names a responsible party and sets a term.
The project hasn't been built yet. La Jolla Parks & Beaches' August 24 and October 5, 2026 agendas both list the Windansea Slope Barrier & Belvedere as a working-group update. Neither gives a construction schedule or a budget. The September appeal ties future donations to controlling erosion and to "rebuilding the historic belvedere destroyed by vandals in 1982."
Down the Coast, a City-Led Stairway Moves Slower
Farther south along the coast, in Lower Hermosa, a similar problem went the other way, with the city in charge. The Camino de la Costa beach-access stairway sits beside 5990 Camino de la Costa. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in December 2025 that the stairs had been "falling apart for years," with crumbling concrete and rusted rebar. The project had received more than $2 million in state funding over the previous three years.
Some of that money paid for a feasibility study of more than 400 pages by the engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol, which cost about $330,000. The study recommended tearing out the stairs and building a new concrete stairway set farther back, with concrete barriers, at an estimated $1.195 million and at least 70 days of construction. According to the same report, the working group's chair, Tim McConnell, said the remaining state money would cover only the stairs under the concrete plan. That would leave the parking area unleveled and the planned ADA-accessible overlook unbuilt. "The community wants the whole area done, not just the stairways," he said.
The working group's proposed fix pointed back toward WindanSea. It asked the city to evaluate five nearby coastal staircases built with wood or hybrid systems, which the Union-Tribune noted can be found in and near WindanSea Beach. The idea was that a cheaper stairway would leave money for the rest of the site.
Here is what the record shows since then:
- February 23, 2026: La Jolla Parks & Beaches minutes describe a state-funded project with the city wanting concrete stairs. It is still in planning, with no estimated construction dates, competitive bidding planned for later, and "no timeline from city for a response."
- April 27 and May 26, 2026: Camino de la Costa updates appear on the group's agendas, with Diane Kane, Patrick Ahern and Tim McConnell listed on the working group in May.
- FY2027 draft budget: The city's capital improvements draft converts "Camino De La Costa Stairs," P24012, into "Camino De La Costa Stairs Replacement," S26002. That is a change in how the project is tracked. It doesn't mean the work went to bid.
- August 24 and October 5, 2026: The item no longer appears on the agendas.
No source from this year shows a decision on materials, a bid or a construction date. The comparison with WindanSea is uneven. Camino de la Costa is a full replacement under public engineering standards, and the WindanSea stairs are smaller volunteer projects. Still, WindanSea's wood stairways are the examples volunteers pointed to when they asked the city for something cheaper.
How the Next Round of Work Gets Done
La Jolla Parks & Beaches is a registered California public benefit corporation. Its regular meetings are on the fourth Monday of each month at 4 p.m., and its minutes and agendas are where the belvedere and the Camino de la Costa stairs show up first. Friends of Windansea handles the work on the ground: the cleanups every three to four months, the rethatching, and, once the memorandum is signed, the belvedere.
Neighbors have also had a say in what doesn't get built at WindanSea. When plans would have added bathrooms and showers, residents pushed back in what became the "Ban the Can" movement. La Jolla Parks & Beaches calls it a symbol of the community's determination to keep WindanSea's character. Both organizations accept donations, and the September appeal links new support to erosion control and the belvedere rebuild.
As approved in March, the belvedere agreement runs three years with a possible two-year extension, and the memorandum would assign its maintenance and repair to Friends of Windansea.
WindanSea's upkeep has always been a local effort. If you'd like to talk about life near Neptune Place, or what owning near a landmark the community maintains involves, The Daniels Group is glad to share what we've learned in decades of working along this stretch of La Jolla. Contact Us whenever you're ready.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
