For a while 87-year-old O’Neill brand founder Jack O’Neill was worried that a new seawall being built by the County of Santa Cruz, California would cause the land in front of his Pleasure Point home to erode away even more that it has, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News. So he was asking for the County to extend their wall past the front of his home.
I was satisfied with my house the way it was,” O’Neill said Wednesday, looking out at the emerging seawall that runs up against his property. “But the wall creates a little hurricane when the sand and sea get washed down, and it eats out what’s at the end.” . . O’Neill’s seawall plans call for expansion of the county’s concrete seawall around his property. The work, which he says will cost him at least $1 million, involves removing the rock and riprap that now offers him protection from the waves and replacing them with a sturdier wall contoured around his home.
Last week, the California Coastal Commission approved O’Neill’s plans for the wall as long as he didn’t develop the property next to him. Looks like Jack will be on the point for a few more years.
[Link: Mercury News]
I’d think even w/hard economic times the Mega-O’neill Brand could help out it’s founder? Where’s his residual payments/licensing fees or just a nice kick back from the company who I thought still had family members in the corp office?
If he’s cut all ties financially, I’d be surprised if the sea wall construction company and the planning board of SC would not be liable for some if the naturally occurring side-effects to a legal residence?
Then again, I’d always laugh as hurricanes tore up the east coast and leveled trees and houses. People seemed shocked when that happened. You want to live in “beauty” and on the edge of nature, that’s part of the high price of the benefits to the view(s) you reap?
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