State Parks disputes Coastal Commission staff report, says its plan for Oceano Dunes will work
California State Parks requests the California Coastal Commission reject or take no action on the commission’s staff report that recommends Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area prohibit off-highway vehicles by 2026, according to a letter and report sent to the commission on Tuesday.
The rebuttal to the staff report was sent to the commission just days before its highly anticipated meeting Thursday. At that meeting, commissioners may revise Oceano Dunes’ Coastal Development Permit, which governs much of the park’s operations.
The Coastal Commission staff said in its report that State Parks’ Public Works Plan for Oceano Dunes — which commissioners requested be drafted in 2019 and was then released in December — did not properly consider phasing out OHVs.
Now, after nearly 40 years of allowing such activity, Coastal Commission staff recommend the commission revise Oceano Dunes’ permit to mandate OHV use be prohibited in the park by Jan. 1, 2026.
The staff report noted that by allowing OHV use on the sensitive dune ecosystem, the Coastal Commission and State Parks would be violating the California Coastal Act.
But State Parks disputes that notion, instead saying “we respectfully disagree.”
In its argument, State Parks cited a Coastal Commission action on Oceano Dunes’ permit in 2001 that said, “it is important to evaluate State Parks’ proposal for maximum consistency with the resource protection policies of the Coastal Act, while acknowledging the Oceano Dunes SVRA’s enabling legislation.”
That legislation was updated in 2017, however, to mandate that State Parks prioritize resource protection over OHV recreational opportunities.
The author of that 2017 legislation, Sen. Ben Allen, D-Hollywood, wrote to the Coastal Commission before its upcoming meeting applauding the commission’s staff report.
“The purpose (of the 2017 bill) was to ensure that (State Parks) had the statutory authority and legislative direction to better manage the state’s OHV parks in a more environmentally sustainable manner,” Allen wrote. “Throughout the 2017 session, the (Oceano Dunes) was one of the most cited parks in terms of environmental degradation, land-use conflicts and public health impacts.”
Allen also noted in his letter that “the Legislature expressed its clear intent that OHV parks management activities place a higher priority on environmental protection.”
State Parks asserted in its rebuttal that the Coastal Commission’s staff report “seeks to retract without adequate basis” the 40 years of “prior approvals and findings of consistency” of OHV use at Oceano Dunes with the Coastal Act.
Coastal Commission staff have acknowledged in their report and interviews with The Tribune that the use has been allowed to continue on the dunes for so long, but now is the time to discontinue such use because of the compounding evidence that it destroys the sensitive dune ecosystems and creates environmental and tribal justice issues.
Additionally, a recent report by the Mills Legal Clinic at the Stanford Law School said that “there is no plausible reading of the Coastal Act that would allow such destructive activities” in designated environmentally sensitive habitat areas, or ESHA, and that the Coastal Commission is therefore mandated to eliminate OHV use in the park.
State Parks, however, said that if the Coastal Commission is to take an action and revise Oceano Dunes’ permit, that will “curtail the public process of the (Public Works Plan), which is not in the best interest of the public.”
“The commission need not and should not make substantial operational changes via amendments to the (Coastal Development Permit) while the (Public Works Plan) process is underway,” State Parks wrote. “The commission has approved park operations, including OHV operations, for 40 years. There have always been competing interests, and it has always been the work of (State) Parks and the commission to find the balance among these interests that bests serve everyone.”
Continuing with the Public Works Plan process would establish a plan for Oceano Dunes that has “solutions that work for everyone and are informed by the best and latest science.”
The Coastal Commission originally determined in 2019 that the best solution moving forward on figuring out the operations at Oceano Dunes was to allow State Parks time to complete its Public Works Plan, which it had started in 2017. Once that plan was completed, Coastal Commissioners were to provide feedback and ask for any necessary revisions to the plan.
State Parks extended its public comment period on the draft Public Works Plan from March 2 to Thursday at 5 p.m.
In Thursday’s meeting, the Coastal Commission will not be able to take action on the Public Works Plan because the public comment period will still be open.
So, the Coastal Commission will instead review the Oceano Dunes’ permit, which has been a nearly annual process.
How to watch the Coastal Commission meeting on Thursday
The Coastal Commission meeting will take place virtually and be broadcast on Cal-Span.org.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m., with a 30-minute Coastal Commission staff presentation following by a 60-minute State Parks presentation. Then, elected officials and tribal representatives will be allowed to speak for up to two minutes each.
Public agency representatives, established organizations and individual members of the public will then be allowed to testify.
For more information, visit coastal.ca.gov/oceano-dunes.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
