WiLD Blog

The proposed 241 private toll road that would have destroyed 60% of San Onofre State Beach Park was the subject of a very monumental hearing February 14. As the California Coastal Commission anticipated a colossal turnout at the very critical toll road hearing, the usual Oceanside City Council Chamber location was substituted for the huge space of the Del Mar fairgrounds. Just after 11pm and nearly 14 hours of presentations from members of the Save Trestles campaign, the TCA and personal testimonies from the public, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 against the proposed 241 Toll Road extension deciding that certain aspects of the project failed to meet California’s coastal regulations. Their vote prohibited transportation officials from creating the first toll-way to run through a state park.

It is estimated that more than 3,500 people rallied to defend the park. It was the largest turnout for any meeting in the commission’s 36-year history for what we are calling the Woodstock of our Save Our Coast movement. People of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds swarmed in and around the hall decked out with slogan-riddled t-shirts and rally signs.

Surfline quoted former world champ Pete Townend stating that it was great to see “these real people who recognize San Onfore State Park’s true value in their lives, not just a bunch of paid sign holders in orange shirts who look like they’ve never seen the beach.” Here Townend was referring to the small number of road workers that were forced to support the 241-extension by their union. Similar surf celebrities could be found scattered throughout the crowds showing their support to the park such as Greg and Rusty Long, CJ and Damien Hobgood, and Evan Slater just to name a few.

This victory is deserving of huge thanks to the Save San Onofre Coalition for doing such an awesome job in this long-time building movement to defend San Onofre’s scenic views, endangered species and world-class breaks. Partners involved include: the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Wildcoast, Natural Resources Defense Council, Endangered Habitats League and countless other magnificent organizations.

Thomas Margo, the TCA’s chief executive officer, said he will appeal the commission’s decision to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. However, this is definitely the greatest victory we have seen yet, which has provided a great deal of hope for making the park’s protection permanent.

Cory Keen

The historic San Onofre State Park is in dire need of southern California’s help as she is threatened by the continuing tug a war battle of land developers and conservationists.  However, this time, if swift action is not taken the outcome may hit closer to home than you think.  The Transportation Corridor Agency is seeking their coastal development permit to construct their toll road, which will pierce straight through the heart of San Onofre State Park, meaning complete alteration for no one’s benefit.  In their defense the TCA boasts that it will “provide improvements to the transportations infrastructure system that would help alleviate future traffic congestion and accommodate the need for mobility, access, goods movement, and future traffic demands” completely disregarding the facts of what will befall upon the state park, simply put as TCA’s “Preferred Alternative.”

Established in 1971 by Gov. Ronald Reagan, it has matured as one of the five most visited state parks in California, a gorgeous playground to hikers,campers, bikers’, and well known for its prime surf break.  The park includes thriving wildlife both on and offshore, freely roaming one of the last well-preserved ecosystems of southern California.  Gov. Reagan stated, “The greatest legacies we leave to future generations is the heritage of our land.  But unless we can preserve and protect unspoiled areas which god has given us, we will have nothing to leave them.”  Such protection calls for the whole community to unite under the flag of the earth, retaining San Onofre’ unscarred face from land development.  How will this roadwork affect Trestles?

The Transportation Corridor Agency has fought conservationists and fed misguiding information to the public in order to acquire their permit for construction. Such information fabricated San Onofre State Park being an unpopular site that will not be missed and is in call for closure, which is entirely false.  Also making petty offers of $100 million dollars to theDept. of Parks and Recreation for the beautification of other less visited parks as an elusive tactic to altar the coastal commissions decisions in their favor.  If the TCA were to win it would level sixty percent of the park’s acreage, eliminating most of the hiking and biking trails, and closing San Mateo campground and it’s one hundred and sixty one campsites.  After the toll road would be built, increased pollution will run off into the watershed of the remaining park, then in turn endangering the world-class surf at Trestles.  All this destruction to save a few minutes of drivers commutes?

Certainly such an environmental threat has to be dealt with.  Awareness needs to be spread and action is to be set in immediate motion.  As Californian’s we must work together, side by side, to preserve our land from the defilement of the TCA incursion. Involvement is relevant.  If enough of the community makes their opposition known to the Coastal Commission Office, we can put a stop to this thing.  Simply writing letters of your protest will have the greatest impact on San Onofre State Park.  Do not let developers pave over your beaches.  Nature may not have a voice to stop this, but it has mine. Why not yours?

Nathan M. Clower

Even with the polluted water last week, beach conditions have been calm in Imperial Beach with looping hollow lefts off the North Side of the pier, and a hardcore group of groms and early risers taking advantage of the best south swell of the season. Despite the idyllic conditions on the beach, things are far from serene at the Imperial Beach City Hall, where Mayor Jim Janney and the City Council have ignored the growing community concern over the lack of public involvement in the planning of large capital improvement projects. On Sept. 19, the City Council approved a policy banning council members from “attending city sponsored public workshops,” in a move that appears to violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. (What is the punishment for a council member who violates the ban — a waterboarding session at Ye Olde Plank Inn?)

The bizarre ban on council members meeting with the public was most likely influenced by a July 11 meeting in which more than 25 residents met with Janney and City Manager Gary Brown, to discuss the $56 million dollar dredging project proposed by the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the meeting concerns were raised by longtime residents, many with professional and technical expertise in coastal engineering, about the viability of the project, the incompetence of the corps, and the enormous expenditure of public funds on what is a public subsidy for wealthy beachfront property owners. Meeting participants became alarmed when Janney informed them that the city of Imperial Beach might have to use redevelopment funds to provide up to over $1 million in required local matching funds for the project.

After the meeting, Janney promised to hold a full public hearing on the dredging project. Unfortunately, after being pressed for a date for the forum, the Mayor backed away from his commitment. In a August 27th letter he stated that a public hearing would only “be held after funding had been granted to carry out the project” and only if he believes it is necessary to be “open to suggest to the Council” that we have a hearing. Janney also wrote that it is a “waste of the community and City Council’s time” to hold a public hearing (the last one was held in 2002) on the most expensive project in the history of Imperial Beach. Within a month of his letter had had banned any council involvement in public workshops. So much for democracy in Imperial Beach.

Generally an attempt is made by elected officials to listen to the concerns of residents regarding expensive taxpayer-funded projects prior to having them approved. Instead Mayor Janney will solicit public input on the sand project only after the Army Corps and the lobbying firm of Marlowe & Company (who according to the Center for Responsive Politics earned close to $1.6 million last year from Imperial Beach and other cities) design and approve the project themselves. More recently, City Manager Gary Brown promising to spend an additional $31,000 on a new SANDAG study for a proposed $22 million dollar sand countywide sand replenishment project.

It is unfortunate that Mayor Janney and the City Council trust the Army Corps to carry out a viable cost-effective project in Imperial Beach. Surf City, New Jersey, learned the hard way about the trustworthiness of the federal government’s most incompetent agency. The corps carried out a $71 million dredging project in Surf City that dumped more than 1,100 WWI-era explosives on the beach. As a result Surf City had to close its beach for three months over the spring to remove them. Despite the cleanup effort, more than a dozen explosives were found in the sand over the summer. The corps has proposed closing Surf City’s beach over the winter to search for additional explosives. As a final insult, the Army Corps billed Surf City for the cost of removing the ordnance (the city has refused to pay). Mayor Janney and the City Council are unconcerned that the corps has proposed dredging in an area that according to the city of Imperial Beach’s own website was used as a WWI bombing and gunnery range.

The blind support for the seriously flawed and costly dredging project is an excellent example of how Mayor Janney and the City Council no longer consider the residents of Imperial Beach to be their primary constituents. Instead the Mayor and Council members appear to be concerned first with appeasing the interests of city staff, government agencies and private lobbying firms who have little interest in the future of our town. The council’s disregard for the public is highlighted best by the expenditure of $415,000 to remodel the council chambers with flat-screen TVs while delaying a popular initiative to provide a skateboard park for Imperial Beach’s growing population of at-risk and low-income children that would be an ideal and well-justified use of redevelopment funds.

The top priority of Mayor Janney and the Council should be to build a healthy and sustainable city that reflects the diversity of Imperial Beach. For now, under the leadership of Janney and the City Council, our elected officials have retreated into a bunker and cut themselves off from the voters who elected them. It is time to for the mayor and council to return to the real world and embrace the needs, concerns and dreams of the people who make Imperial Beach such a cool place to live.

– SERGE DEDINA

Originally published in the Voice of San Diego