On a recent foggy afternoon by San Clemente Pier, Meyerhoff looked on from a picnic bench as a handful of families similarly walked along the beach while others carried boogie boards into the ocean.

In recent years, the city’s eroding beaches have been a far cry from the wide, expansive sands of Meyerhoff’s Santa Monica memories.

But a year into her role as San Clemente’s coastal administrator, stretches of the south Orange County city’s shores are in much better shape, thanks to taking a cue from Santa Monica’s sand pumping past.

“She’s been nothing short of extraordinary,” said San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral. “We desperately needed someone like her with her qualifications, experience and connections to move the city forward, particularly with the enormous problems we have with sand and protecting our coastal infrastructure.”

The initial phase of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sand replenishment project has pumped a fresh batch of beige sand that has stretched the coastline further out toward the ocean. Crews are due back in November to finish the job of bringing 251,000 cubic yards of sand around the pier.

San Clemente also just announced the completion of an emergency project to repair North Beach with 37,000 cubic yards of sand trucked in from Orange County’s Santa Ana River stockpile site.

More than beautifying the beach for recreation and tourism, San Clemente’s sand projects are intended to protect infrastructure like the Lossan train tracks that coil by the coast to the picnic table Meyerhoff sat on as she discussed her “sand czar” role.

“We can’t wait for Mother Nature, because she’s not able to do her job, at least for this stretch of coast,” she said. “That’s why we’ve had to restore the beaches ourselves…”