Saving that which is sacred

Solana BeachSun
FEBRUARY 15, 2008
Saving that which is sacred
Largest turnout in Coastal Commission hearing history
By Laura Petersen
They came by the thousands.
Surfer youth, silver-haired adults, families with
babies decked out in “Save Trestles” beanies
flooded the Del Mar Fairgrounds Feb. 6, united
in a common cause: To petition the California
Coastal Commission to deny a toll road proposed
to bisect San Onofre State Beach, a 2,500-acre
state park on the northern border of San Diego
County.
The Coastal Commission hearing for the
“most significant project” to come before the
commission since 1974 drew the largest turnout
in the agency’s history.
By 8:30 a.m., the parking lot was filling up.
Busloads of opponents from San Clemente,
Oceanside and Orange County had arrived and
were busy checking in at the numerous non-profit booths outside Wyland Hall.
When the meeting began at 9 a.m., Surfrider
Foundation and Sierra Club volunteers had run
out of blue t-shirts with the slogan “Save the
park. Stop the toll road.” They had ordered over
1,000.
As the day warmed outside, tensions inside the
cavernous hall bristled between the opponents
and the several hundred toll road supporters, primarily represented by labor unions hoping for
construction jobs the road promised.
It was going to be a long day.
The issue
The proposed Foothill-South toll road would
extend state route 241 from Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County south to connect with
Interstate 5 south of San Clemente.
The 16-mile, 6-lane toll road is described as
the final link in Orange County’s toll road network to help relieve worsening traffic congestion,
and has been in the planning stages for over 20
years.
Proposed by the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), the project has undergone years of environmental review. Out of 38
alternatives considered, the alignment running
through the Donna O’Neill Land Conservancy
and San Onofre State Beach was selected as the
least environmentally damaging, feasible option.
“Our position is the proposed alternative is the
most environmentally damaging of all the alternatives,” said Mark Delaplaine, the commission’s
coastal projects manager, recommending denial
of the project.
The San Onofre State Beach is the fifth most
popular park of California’s 273 reserves. Over
2.4 million people visit each year, enjoying the
hiking trails, 3.5 miles of beach and popular
San Mateo campground.
The state park is the most ecologically intact
block of natural land along Southern California’s coast. The San Mateo Creek is the last,
untouched coastal watershed and wetlands in
the region, home to 11 endangered or threatened species.
The numerous impacts to water quality, biological resources, surfing waves, recreational
access and Native American burial grounds
were detailed by the commission staff and Save
San Onofre Coalition, comprised of 10 agencies and non-profit organizations, including the
California State Parks Foundation, National
Resource Defense Council, Sierra Club and
Surfrider Foundation.
Notably, the State Parks Department stated
the road’s noise, visual and physical impacts
could force them to abandon 60 percent of the
park, including the 161-site campground.
The 41 million cubic yards of grading required for the project could cause eroding
canyons to fill the creek with fine sediment,
possibly blocking the flow of large cobbles responsible for the superior wave conditions at
Trestles, the only U.S. stop on the surfing
World Championship Tour.
Scientists working with TCA flatly disagreed. However, acknowledging there would
be some impacts, TCA offered $100 million to
the State Parks Department as part of their request for project approval.
“You can’t buy compliance with the Coastal
Act,” said attorney Ralph Faust, the commission’s former legal council for over 20 years.
“It may be the ultimate carrot, but it is still a
carrot.”
Mobilizing the masses
As coalition leaders and experts testified, they
were backed by the public, which for most of the
day silently expressed their views by waving a
sea of hand painted signs, decorated surfboards
and printed handbills in the air.
Their whispered support spoke volumes.
“I have never seen a coastal commission hearing this big, ever,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation.
“This was more important than a day of work,
that’s an extraordinary statement for people to
make.”
Looking at the intense faces of road opponents, the passion oozed from the stadium seating, conference chairs and packed crowd ringing
the hall and seated cross-legged in the aisles.
Many came from Sierra Club and other environmental groups, but the bulk was powered by
Surfrider.
“The success of any movement or idea is how
many people embrace it and take it personally,”
said Jim Moriarty, Surfrider’s CEO. “That’s what
Surfrider is about, influencing coastal culture to
embrace an environmental ethic.”
Founded in Malibu by a small group of surfers
in 1984, the organization has grown to over
50,000 members with 80 chapters worldwide
campaigning to protect surfing resources and water quality.
“The secret to Surfrider’s success is cultural
relevancy,” said Moriarty, a Solana Beach resident. “We engage with culture, we don’t talk at
culture.”
The group’s mobilization strategies aim for the
tech-savvy, alternative-trendy youth, starting with
the t-shirts.
Surfrider used the lettering for bands including
the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, ACDC and Kiss to
create “Save Trestles” t-shirts.
“People learn from voices and speaking platforms they know and trust,” Moriarty said. “We
took all these iconic rock and roll images and coopted them into our environmental message.
“People say ‘Hey, that’s a rad shirt, where do I
get one?’ and then ‘Oh, so what’s this about?’”
Taking full advantage of digital tools to spread
the word, Surfrider emailed over 100,000 members and interested individuals the week before
the hearing, explaining its crucial importance and
means to coordinate rides.
“You can write a letter or send a fax,” said Stefanie Sekich, the Save Trestles campaign coordinator. “What gets elected officials is the public
showing up at the hearing.”
The project hearing had been postponed from
last October. In those intervening six months,
over 5,000 emails were sent to the Coastal Commission and over 555 You Tube videos recorded,
prompted by Surfrider emails. More than 20,000
emails total were sent to the commission about
this project.
During the hearing, Surfrider officials narrated
blow-by-blow updates via twitter.com to supporters following along via their cell phones, email
and the Internet.
However, the nonprofit does not rely solely on
high-tech tools, also mailing postcards and
newsletters to its membership, who are not exclusively young surfers.
“There’s no single way to rally a community,”
LAURA PETERSEN
More than 3,000 toll road supporters and opponents packed into Wyland Hall at the Del Mar
Fairgrounds for the 14-hour hearing.
Moriarty said.
“You need to find an onramp for every single
person.”
Along with the sexy slogan, the Save Trestles
campaign relies on plain old activism.
In the past six months, the group trained over
80 volunteers for this cause, Sekich said.
Equipped with knowledge about the issues, volunteers in turn educate the community at bleach
cleanups or farmer’s markets.
“We have reaped enormous awareness from
trained volunteers,” Sekich said.
Interest is widespread throughout coastal communities from San Francisco to San Diego, including Solana Beach.
“What happens at Trestles ultimately impacts
us here,” said Ira Opper, a co-founder of the
Solana Beach Surfing Association.
Opper, a surf filmmaker, helped a budding
Surfrider gain national exposure by including
them in his television show, “Surfer Magazine,”
the only form of mass communication along with
print magazines at the time.
Opper filmed “Big Wednesday,” as Surfrider
dubbed the Coastal Commission hearing, documenting “a significant time in the history of the
sport.” He and others agreed the massive
turnout reflects 25 years of hard work.
“I think we’ll be taken more seriously,” said
Marco Gonzalez, a Surfrider attorney and
Solana Beach resident. “If we can mobilize this
many people, it means we can mobilize people
to vote, and that’s real power.”
Elected officials
While activists tout the power of one, they
also lobby elected officials to lend their political muscle to seal the deal.
Over 40 state representatives and local
council members testified, supporters from
Orange County outweighing local opponents
two to one.
The Solana Beach City Council unanimously voted to oppose the road in October 2007.
Two council members expressed concerns
about allowing construction in parkland set
aside by President Richard Nixon and thenCalifornia Governor Ronald Regan as mitigation for other development in 1971.
“To undermine this decision would not only
have enormous consequences to this area,”
said Council member Lesa Heebner, “but
would set a potentially catastrophic precedent
of making state parks mere place holders for
future infrastructure projects.”
“Approving this project not only erodes
soils of the pristine canyons in this natural
preserve,” said Council member Mike
Nichols, “it erodes the public’s trust in government in our duty to protect these precious
coastal resources.”
Thank you! Thank you!
After 10 hours, the crowd of over 3,000 had
whittled down to 500 diehards. It wasn’t until
after 7 p.m. that they had their turn to speak.
Over 50 individuals expressed their opposition
or support for the road.
There was the mom who wanted her children
to enjoy the state’s natural legacy, the college
student who wondered why more resources
were not used for improving public transit.
Opposition organizers encouraged speakers
to cede their time, in favor of the commission
making a decision. Over 150 people, including
Moriarty, filed past the podium.
When Commission Chair Patrick Kruer, a
Rancho Santa Fe resident, closed the public
hearing at 9 p.m., lobbyists believed the vote
would be close, split between the 10 present
commissioners.
In two hours of deliberation, many commissioners documented their varied concerns about
the project, from pushing an endangered
species to the brink of extinction and disregarding sacred Native American grounds, to social
justice issues of a private road through a public
park.
“A state park was created 36 years ago for all
Californians,” Commissioner Larry Clark said.
“This is a defining moment for California’s
coast. We need to seize this defining moment
and clearly articulate this project is dead.”
When the vote was called after 11 p.m., the
room held its breath as each commissioner
voiced ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ The final tally of 2—8, an
overwhelming denial of the toll road, took a
second to sink in.
Then, a soul-shaking cry of joy burst through
the hall and the crowd exploded in thunderous
cheers and applause.
One female supporter jumped victoriously
up and down on her chair, waving her “Save
Trestles” sign, shouting over and over, “Thank
you! You saved lives!”
Not dead yet
TCA is appealing the Coastal Commission
decision to the Secretary of Congress because
the land is leased from the U.S. Marine Corps
at Camp Pendleton. There are another eight
state and federal permits required for the project. TCA can move forward in applying for
them, but the Coastal Commission’s denial,
with their substantial political clout, is a major
setback.
Opponents know the fight isn’t over. They’ve
been battling this for the last 10 years, they
said, and have the stamina and resources to
continue for as long as necessary.
“Grassroots movement reflects a community
groundswell,” Moriarty said. “The community’s
engaged.”