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Trestles saved. POLL: Did the Coastal Commission make the right call?
February 7th, 2008, 10:38 am · 16 Comments · posted by Laylan Connelly, staff writer
Wow… what more can you say than that?
All the effort–the bumper stickers, petitions, the endless fighting–and the toll road plan was shot down last night by the California Coastal Commission by an 8 - 2 vote.
While my fellow reporters Ellyn Pak and Pat Brennan did a 
great job reporting from the scene yesterday (READ FULL STORY HERE) I just wanted to take a moment to recognize what might go down in history as the biggest battle surfers have come together for.
Times have changed so much in the last few decades. I think about stories I’ve heard about the Dana Point harbor, and how no one really spoke up to fight to save one of the best surf breaks around, Killer Dana.
These days, voices are heard. Thousands of people showed up to take a stand to save Trestles, sitting through a 14-hour meeting Wednesday.
But it started years ago, with one man who knew he had to do something. Jerry Collamer showed up on the pathway to Trestles and started handing out the stickers. Then Surfrider held endless fundraisers to raise awareness. And hopefully, at least today, they can rest.
Great job to all those who joined the effort, fought hard, and knew they could make a difference - you should be proud.
- Laylan
16 Comments
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If this poll starts showin an overwhelming amount of no’s you can guarantee its someone on the TCA’s payroll hacking it, just like they tried to hack the CC meeting last night by paying all those migrant workers to show up.
Until someone presents a truly viable (defined as economically, geographically, and environmentally) ALTERNATIVE solution to what had been presented and studied by numerous agencies over the past 10 years, and was rejected yesterday, I will believe that the Coastal Commission made a mistake yesterday and that voting NO on this issue is a mistake.
As too sadly happens in the majority of our politics today, it is all about “winner take all”. It’s no longer about competing visions or alternative solutions or candidates, it’s simply about one position of one candidate versus the other, someone must win, someone must lose we achieve that outcome largely through the destruction or tearing down of the opposing position to our own. In the end, this leaves us inevitably with one group or candidate standing at the end, most overjoyed by the fact that they can claim “victory in the fight”. Rarely if ever in these sorts of political problem solving matrices are truly viable, reasonable alternative solutions created or put forward and thus, more than not of late, we wind up with “nothing” getting done, as opposed to “something” getting done. Ironically, but not surprisingly in our me centric, NIMBY world we live in….we then turn that reality on our politicians and lay blame at their feet saying “why can’t they get anything done”.
Issues and fights like this should cause us all great pause and force us all to take a look in our respective mirrors, where, if we can get past our me centric view of our interwoven society we live in, we might actually realize it’s going to take “real”, reasonable compromise and an acceptance that simply “‘wishing problems away, or wishing to a time in our long ago history before congestion, over population, over development and change” is not a solution in and of itself.
But then again, that might be too practical and unpartisan to be attractive to our general populace in today’s climate. It’s so much easier to click our heels and wish away the social and infrastructure problems of our present to such a degree that eventually they fade into the future and become our kids problems not ours.
The most recent poll, just before the meeting in Del Mar, was at 53%+ FOR the tollroad, 6% didn’t care one way or the other, and less than 41% against the tollroad.
If it was put on a ballot, like the El Toro airport was, the tollroad would WIN by an equally substantial margin.
Maybe it will have to come to that, so that the needs of the majority won’t be rammed down our throats by a well organized, but seriously misinformed and gullible band of
surfers/tree-huggers/underage drivers-voters/NIMBYs.
Why should the city of San Clemente, San Mateo State Park and the Trestles/San Onofre beach areas bear the visual blight, noise and environmental damage created by a toll-road that does very little to help with the congestion on our freeways and surface streets?
The 241-South exrension will open large areas of land for development, causing more congestion, and adding to the problem that it was supposed to fix.
As with the current toll roads, only a very small percent of commuters use them and it will be around 30 more years before they are paid off and made available to everyone.
From an economic standpoint, the 241-South will bypass San Clemente, which means that while the city is forever left with the destruction of pristine land, the noise and the ugliness of the toll road, it will profit very little from those who use it.
Look at what happens at the 241/91 merge and the 73/55 merge when there is heavy traffic. Why should we think that the 241-South/5 Fwy merge will be any better?
LA Times
The State Parks Foundation estimated last spring that there were 110 active or proposed development plans submitted by private and public interests that would encroach on 72 state parks. The plans include small takings of parkland by private property owners as well as for casinos, dairies, desalination plants, utility lines, streets and the now-rejected toll road.
This has got to be stopped.
The defeat of the toll road extension is a victory for all of south Orange County. Many were fooled into believing the original 241 would alleviate traffic. It did nothing but open up previously undeveloped lands for high-density housing, resulting in more cars being dumped onto already overloaded freeways. The sad aftermath was added loss of habitat for our local wildlife and resultant carnage involving mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, and deer that didn’t know how to traverse the constructed “wildlife corridors”. I’m grateful to the Coastal Commission and the Arroyo Toad and Pacific Pocket Mouse for squelching this disaster-waiting-to-happen. Bravo to you all!
The Coastal Commission stood for all people of California yesterday to stop save our California State Parks. Mitigated land cannot be unmitigated as the cheap way to build more roads. A promise is a promise. They also debunked the TCA claims of no harm to the watershed or surf break. Imagine three football fields end to end. Picture the quarter back running all three. That is the width of the grading the road and its 13 retension basins would require. Imagine those giant bull dozers crushing the aquafer in a path that wide for sixteen miles in what is now a pristine valley that runs to the ocean at Trestles. That’s the improved enviroment the TCA planned with its toll road. Yesterday eight Commissioners did their job and voted against special interests and for the future generations of Californians.
I want to thank the California Coastal Commission for making the right choice. It may not have been the most popular choice, the most economic choice, and definitely not the easiest choice, but it was the proper one.
This decision will reverberate throughout business, politics and history. It stands to let the self-indulged (another term for corrupt) politicians, pro “unchecked-growth” cities and their “profit-minded” developer sugar-daddies know that the citizens of California will not lay down and let their public lands be taken, destroyed, and turned for profit.
While the county as a whole was divided on this issue, it was the residents of San Clemente that would bare the immediate consequences of allowing the TCA and Rancho Mission Viejo to provide the access to the destruction of one of our areas last wilderness strongholds. For the rest of Orange County, the eventual added traffic (yes, added traffic) from 40,000 new homes and the overpopulation of our school’s, hospitals and government resources would have been to their embarrassment and expense, from which the Coastal Commission has saved us all.
In response to Mr. Ryan, we have just given an “alternative solution” a chance. If the TCA had won, then there would be no possibility for a better alternative. We fought for life, and of course there is only one winner in this battle; but the war is not over. If the TCA had won, then the war would be over, and life would be destroyed. The TCA will be back, they have the money to return, and the greed to make more money at our, and the environment’s expense. We will be waiting. In the meantime, our “infrastructure” has been given some room to breath before the next attempt to overwhelm it by over-development ensues.
And to Mr. Sighburrdood; yes, I am a surfer, a tree-hugger, and especially a NIMBY. Do you even know what a NIMBY is? It’s someone who seeks to keep dangerous or unpleasant features out of his or her own neighborhood. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. We could have used some NIMBYs before Dana Point Harbor and S.O.N.G.S., that’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to those of you who don’t ever make it down to the beach that you wanted to destroy. Yes we have a nuclear power plant in our back yard, and we don’t even benefit from its output! You want a new highway and the overpopulation that it brings? Let’s put it through your back yard this time.
“The most recent poll, just before the meeting in Del Mar, was at 53%+ FOR the tollroad, 6% didn’t care one way or the other, and less than 41% against the tollroad.”
Oh, you mean the hacked “poll” the OC Reg had on here? The one that had hundreds of votes being added instantaneously and at regular intervals…even at 3am?? Haha, nice try!
Almost all other polls (ya know, legitimate ones?) indicate that those opposed to destruction of state parks at the hands of the toll road agency vastly outnumber those in favor, approximately 70% vs. 30%. Heck, the OC Reg even had a poll a while back that had vitually identical results.
However, if this did go to ballot the toll road proposal would go down like the Bismarck! Part of the road passes throught, and would ruin, a STATE park, making it a STATE issue. This same portion of the road also runs through San Diego County. The vote would, therefore, most likely be state-wide, or dual county (SD, OC) at the least. It wouldn’t stand a chance on the ballot.
Even in OC it would probably lose, albeit by a much closer margin. It’s not like all the people in OC are stupid. They’ve seen what a mess the 73 made of the local environment. They’ve seen what a financial disaster the 73 has become. They’ve seen how little the 73 has done to solve our traffic woes. They don’t want to pay tolls for something their tax dollars and Measure M should already be taking care of. And they’ve seen how the 73 jumpstarted tons of new development and urban sprawl in the adjacent area, resulting in…yup, you guess it: more people, more cars, and more TRAFFIC. Suggesting that they’d fall for the same bogus TCA sales pitch yet again is a bold claim indeed. No, I have the TCA and their obsolete transportation proposals are on their way out. Wave goodbye, bon voyage…
Dear Sighburrdood,
Yes I’m a surfer and could be called a tree hugger but in addition I have a college degree in accounting and am a home owner in Mission Viejo. I find it extremely disturbing that we are expected to sit back and allow development to go seemingly unchecked. Extending the toll road was never really about alleviating traffic, it was about allowing the contruction of 1,000’s of additional homes, businesses etc. which would have added that much more to the already congested freeways and streched the limited natural and human resources to their max.
I attended the hearing on Wednesday and was there at the end when the council gave their decision. THE RIGHT DECISION. And I’m laughing at those of you who say you were for the toll road and seem to have assumed it was a done deal and didn’t attend the hearing and listen to all the information before making your decision. As those of us who are against the toll road going thru OUR state parks have proven money doesn’t always talk and in this case we told the TCA where they could put their told road and their money.
For future generations.
I just wanted to thank the coastal commission for making the right decision and proving to us that not all public officials can be bought !Yes Sighberbob I was there when the decision was made but it was painful listening to all of the city council members from orange county who were obviously there because their lobbyist told them to Loved the woman from Villa Park who said she was for the toll road and her 16 year old son had to make his own breakfast because she had to leave so early to make it to the meeting .The way they tried to portray all surfers as bums that live in a vw bus and just want the beach to themselves was a pathetic & desperate gesture to try to get the toll road passed Time to move on Bob and do something productive Sighburdood I have a feeling that you had a girlfriend or two taken away by a surfer because your labeling shows your lack of class .Go to the beach on any morning (doubt you ever leave your computer ) and you will see all kinds of business men & women changing out of their wetsuits and into business attire . Have a nice life !
Californians need to get out of their cars and onto mass transit. The real problem is the lack of affordable housing. IMO, affordable housing doesn’t mean 2500 sq ft houses for 3 people. South Orange county residents should not pay through the destruction of their local environment for the choices of those who live more than an hour away from where they work etc. If they choose to live that far away, then one of the consequences of *their* choice is spending time in traffic. They might start by talking to their local county planning agencies about traffic solutions within their own counties.
As for TCA, their ability to effectively and cost-efficiently provide a transportation “solution” is abysmal. Selecting the extension of the 241 instead of widening I5 based on economics was a blatant sham that didn’t place appropriate economic “value” on the ecosystem. Humanity wants to use the road, then their homes should be the price that’s paid - not the rapidly shrinking habitat of endangered species like the California gnat catcher and the Pacific pocket mouse.
Sighburrdood — yep, i’m a tree-hugging, over 40, college grad, homeowner in San Clemente and i work within 25 miles of my home and i couldn’t surf to save my life. i can however, look at the bigger picture and recognize the need for transportation infrastructure. Which is why turning the El Toro Marine Base with its lake of jet fuel into a commercial airport made sense. Turning some of the last habitat for endangered species, a landmark surfing location, and a popular campground into more asphalt covered roads for gas-guzzling SUVs doesn’t make any kind of sense except to the raze-em, “it’s all about me” crowd.
Yes, the Coastal Commission made the right decision.
Interesting note on the Toll Road folks: They paid local union members, “fair wage” to stand there, and waive signs.
I saw one of the pastey looking TCA Chronies, talking to the union empolyees. He told them to ‘not speak to any of the others,’ directing them to not speak with the 3000 other people at the hearing to oppose the toll road.
WHAT A SHAM!!! I feel sorry for the people who buy into the TCA lies.
Kudos to the California Coastal Commission. They made the right decision by overwhelmingly rejecting the proposed Foothill South Toll Road extension—morally, ethically, and above all, LEGALLY!
The proposed Foothill South Toll Road extension—aside from violating federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act, and illegally encroaching on a California state park—is a sham and a fraud being perpetrated on South Orange County residents.
The proposed toll road extension would do NOTHING whatsover to alleviate traffic congestion. It would instead facilitate MORE DEVELOPMENT in South Orange County, and thus create MORE traffic congestion and gridlock.
If we are truly interested in relieving traffic congestion in Orange County, what we need is to develop rapid mass transit, such as has been done in Northern California and other urban and suburban areas. With the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, commuting to and from work by automobile is becoming less and less desirable, and rapid mass transit is becoming the only sensible option. Unless we are the CEO of a major oil company, or a big stockholder in one, there is absolutely no rationale whatsoever for helping maximize already outrageous oil company profits.
The Honorable Eddie Rose
Former Laguna Niguel City Councilman
Do supporters of the 241 extension understand that it will lead to higher tolls? The toll fee is based on traffic volume. If the extension goes through, and traffic increases, tolls will go up just like they have on the 91 freeway. Someone who is good at spreading information via the internet needs to get this information out ASAP