Current Events
Feb. 21, 2008
Sierra Club Will Sue to Get Cars off County Land at Oceano Dunes
Action would place 584 acres off limits to vehicles
The Sierra Club today sent a notice of intent to sue the California
Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) for allowing vehicles on a
parcel
of County land in the Oceano Dunes where vehicles should not be.
"Today we are acting on behalf of our coastal dunes, one of the
rarest
and
most fragile ecosystems in the world, of greater ecological value
than
Yosemite Valley," said Karen Merriam, Chair of the Sierra Club's
Santa
Lucia
Chapter in San Luis Obispo. "For 25 years, the County's Local Coastal
Program has said that cars are not allowed on the land the County
leases
to
State Parks. For 25 years, State Parks has ignored its responsibility
to
operate the Park in a manner consistent with the LCP. We are asking
the
court to compel the County and the State to abide by the Local
Coastal
Plan."
Local Coastal Plans are the basic planning tools used to implement
the
partnership between the State and local government as stewards of
California
's spectacular 1,100 mile coastline. LCPs constitute the ground rules
for
land use in the coastal zone portions of the 73 cities and counties
along
the coast. San Luis Obispo County's LCP designates the County-owned
"La
Grande" tract in the Oceano Dunes as a "natural buffer area," but
State
Parks' General Development Plan for the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular
Recreation Area (ODSVRA) opened the La Grande tract to off-road
vehicle
recreation, inconsistent with the LCP.
The Sierra Club's letter to the Department of Parks concludes "Unless
we
receive your firm commitment to revise the General Development Plan
in
compliance with the County's LCP by February 29, 2008, the Sierra
Club
will
have no choice but to secure DPR's compliance with the LCP by filing
a
lawsuit."
In January 2007, the Sierra Club supported a County Planning
Commission
appeal against the proposed sale of the La Grande Tract to State
Parks.
The
Chapter pointed out, and the County agreed, that the sale would not
be
in
conformance with the county's General Plan due to conflict with the
Local
Coastal Plan.
"We simply pointed to the provisions of the County's Local Coastal
Plan
as
certified by the Coastal Commission in 1983," said Andrew Christie,
director
of the Santa Lucia Chapter. "Throughout the LCP, as incorporated in
the
County's Coastal Plan Policies, the county land in the ODSVRA was
repeatedly
designated as 'buffer' between the dunes preserve and the riding
area.
Twenty-five years later, the ORVs are still riding in the buffer
area."
The County upheld the appeal on the basis of the Sierra Club's
argument,
but
was sued for doing so by the off-road vehicle lobby and has since
been
in
closed-door negotiations with State Parks over the proposed sale of
the
property. The county property constitutes about one-third of the
total
area
of the ODSVRA.
"State Parks wants to buy the land to secure insofar as possible a
claimed
right to run vehicles across that property forever," said Merriam.
"If
it
takes a judge to enforce the terms that were laid down 25 years ago,
so
be
it. It's time to remove the off-road vehicles from this land."
The Sierra Club sued State Parks in 2001 over its management of the
habitat
of threatened and endangered species at Oceano Dunes. In the
settlement
of
that suit, the Club won $500,000 in funding directed to additional
protection and research of the Western snowy plover, and the closure
of
a
half-mile of beach to provide expanded nesting habitat for the
threatened
species.
The Center for Biological Diversity, "Nature's Legal Eagles," have sued the State of California Park and Recreation Department for allowing motorized events in the Oceano Dunes without adequate attention to environmental impacts. Read the press release.
Letter to the Editor, Emily Slater
Times Press Recorder
Dr. Nell Langford
P.O. Box 27
Pismo Beach, CA 93448
805 773 4771
January 2, 2008
Your Jan 2, 2008 article on the "South County's biggest controversy
in 2007"
is correct in that the ODSVRA is controversial and that the future of
our
beach and dunes is at stake. The time has come for us to take a more
critical look at the tactics used by the OHV, and the motive behind
its
expansion in our county.
For example, why did the article say that we who want a safe beach
"used"
children to protest the lack of access for pedestrians, especially
children
on Oceano Beach? We applied for a permit from OHV for kids to play
on the
beach on "Children's Day", assuring safety of the children by
confining them
to the surfline surrounded by a human shield. We have an audio tape
of
ODSVRA Asst. Sup. Monge saying the OHV would "protect the kids in the
surfline like they we do the plovers to the south". The OHV failed to
keep
our agreement, and refused to comply with our citizen requests to
arrest a
mad ohv'r who deliberately drove through the sufline at the perimeter
of the
safety zone. Then Zilke, Monge's boss, falsely stated that we put
children
in front of traffic, and the paper printed it. The OHV public
relations firm
managed the story. The traffic was not endangering children....we
were.
The first Town Hall Meeting mentioned in the article can still be
viewed on www.slospan.org.
The meeting starts with SLOBOS Katcho saying the beach is supposed
to be
a highway, as he waved a 1937 document that says just the opposite.
He
later retracted his statement, but all who attended that meeting were
misled. There is no document that justifies the use of our beach as
a
highway.
The article repeats the baseless and widely held myth that the ODSVRA
brings
in 200 million a year. This fiction is based on fraudulent
manipulation of
data that conflicts with all other economic studies done in the
county. It
also includes estimated gasoline purchases, which do not benefit our
county
since only four cents on a dollar for gasoline stays in the county.
Just
the pollution stays, and the health costs to us for bad air are
inestimable,
especially in the areas directly downwind of the ODSVRA such as
Nipomo.
When other costs are considered; including pollution,
infrastructure,
emergency services, and displacement of regular tourism; we subsidize
the
ODSVRA. OHV collects a percentage of the rent from the hundreds of
off-highway vehicles that are lined up in row after row at a half
dozen
rental concessions on the beach south of the creek, and keeps all of
the
toll from the kiosks.
The OHV is rich with our taxes paid at the gasoline pump. This
clever
legislative coup in Sacramento was backed by Honda in the 70's. The
amount
that has been skimmed off was recently found to be overestimated by
fifty
percent.
With the Board of Supervisors still in closed session to decide
whether to
sell our county land to OHV for peanuts, in November the OHV obtained
county
staff approval to develop six additional restrooms (to be added to
the
existing six). That is being appealed to the BOS on Jan 15, 2008.
While the
OHV claims that construction of bathrooms will not have an
environmental
impact, the construction will invade a habitat exclosure, a creek,
and a
beach which is the ecological system of the Pismo Dunes Natural
Preserve.
The staff decision to approve the development was made after the
application was approved by SLOCO Environmental Health who signed off
because the reviewer was misinformed that there is a sewer system on
the
beach. There is no sewer system, though the population of Sand City
is
greater than than the city of Pismo Beach. Also, the restrooms are
in an
area that is not in the ODSVRA as advertised, but in a buffer zone
according
to our general plan and a clam preserve according to a county
ordinance.
The OHV claims the state trumps local control.
The controversy will continue until the misinformation is defeated
and we
take our beautiful beach and dunes back from the multinational off-
road
industry.
Times Press Recorder
Biggest controversy: Oceano Dunes sale splits community
Taking top honors for the most controversial issue in 2007 was the
state's
proposal to buy the county-owned portion of the Oceano Dunes State
Vehicular
Recreation Area.
The issue first surfaced in 2006 when the state Department of Parks
and
Recreation approached the county about buying the 29 parcels. The
state's
lease of the site expires in June 2008.
But in January, the County Planning Commission ruled the proposed
sale
wouldn't conform to the General Plan, although the land - 44 percent
of the
off-roading park - could be sold.
In February, about 150 people who packed a meeting in Oceano were
evenly
split and equally passionate about whether the 584 acres should be
sold to
the state.
Opponents of the off-road park wanted the county to let the lease
expire,
preventing the land from being used by off-road vehicles under the
terms of
the General Plan.
Others supported the sale, saying the park's 2 million annual
visitors
generate $200 million for the local economy.
In early April, the Grover Beach and Pismo Beach city councils and
Oceano
Community Services District directors voted to support the proposed
$4.8-million sale.
But just two weeks later, OCSD directors reversed their decision,
instead
backing a lease renewal if the county dedicates the revenue to
mitigate the park's impacts.
A few days later, off-road park opponents upped the ante by staging
two
protests that used children playing on the beach to demonstrate the
danger
to pedestrians posed by vehicles.
At the end of April, after two marathon public hearings, the Board of
Supervisors decided to make the decision behind closed doors.
After a June 30 funding deadline passed without a word from the Board
of
Supervisors, the state indicated it still intends to pursue the sale.
Why is it important?
The future of the off-road vehicle park could rest on whether the
county
decides to sell the land.
Regardless of whether the land is sold, the decision will have far-
reaching
and long-lasting impacts on the South County.
"Ride the Deadly Dunes," Special to BlueEdge Magazine
by Joey Racano
The Oceano Dunes seem a relic from another age, where one almost
expects
a herd of Camels to appear just over the next dramatic rise. But of
late,
the drama at Oceano doesn't end with the scenery. Where winds drive
sandy
squalls that twist like miniature tornados, visitors numbering in the
tens
of thousands on a single day drive off-road vehicles and are causing
some
squalls of their own.
From the borders of Mexico to Oregon, Oceano is unique for more
than its
biodiversity- it is the only beach habitat in California where off-
roading
is now permitted. There is a race event held there that has
benefitted
charity. But that race recently produced a fatality. And several
weeks
ago, a child was killed under the wheels of a pickup. And the deaths
just
keep coming. A 24 year-old mother of two was run down and killed only
a
week ago and alcohol is a suspected factor.
There is also a pitched battle for water-quality on the so-called
'Dunes
of Death'. The State Water Resource Control Board recently mandated a
program of testing for contaminants in the sandy soil in response to
activists concerns that a large number of dunes visitors are draining
their sewage and oil into the sand. Indeed, a video circulated on
YOUTUBE
showed what appeared to be just that.
The State Department of Parks and Recreation (formerly known simply
as
'State Parks') has been in no great hurry to change things, despite
the
onslaught of fatalities. With 1.4 million visitors having almost
doubled
to 2.5 million visitors in just the past four years, revenue has been
enormous.
Drunken visitors recently used an accelerant to blow up one of the
few
restrooms available, to which State Parks responded by attempting to
replace the porta-pottys with more and permanent structures. Because
of
existing ordinance to protect the much-loved but seemingly doomed
Pismo
Clam, construction of such structures may prove to be illegal.
There are also huge concerns among area residents of the large
amount of
air pollution generated at Oceano as well as apparent damage to area
creeks and their wildlife.
These issues were the topic of discussion at the most recent
meeting of
the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors, where an appeal of
the
construction of permanent restroom structures was brought by a group
of
activists. Further legal challenges remain, including an appeal to
the
California Coastal Commission.
While some activists on both sides of this competing-use issue seek
a
compromise, such as construction of a trail system for off-roaders
that
might spare the Dunes, her marine mammals, water quality and the
Pismo
Clam, further conflict -and human fatalities- seem sure to continue,
as
long as people ride the deadly dunes.
Joey Racano, Director
Ocean Outfall Group
www.stopthewaiver.com
Letter to the Editor in the Telegram-Tribune, 1/19/08
Criteria for closing parks
I read the news today, oh boy. Two headlines:
"Governor proposes closing state parks"
"Another death at Oceano Dunes"
Sometimes the poignancy is startling. Each time someone dies at
Oceano
Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, supporters say they will
police
themselves and things quiet down for awhile.
The freedom afforded at the Dunes also requires more responsible
behavior. Who is responsible and who is to blame for allowing
drunkenness, unsafe practices and irresponsible behavior in the urban
atmosphere of the Dunes?
If park rangers police the area, supporters complain their freedom is
being curtailed. Supporters of this "family activity" must step up
and
take care of their own.
Comparing vehicular deaths at other state parks with those at Oceano
would be enlightening. Maybe the value of a human life and/or public
safety should be the criteria used for closing state parks.
Nancy Graves
Grover Beach