Win for off-roaders: Judge won’t let environmental groups intervene in Oceano Dunes case
Off-roading advocates won a round in their legal fight to preserve vehicle use at the Oceano Dunes on Monday when a judge refused to let several opposition groups join the case.
The ruling was on a motion in one of the lawsuits challenging the California Coastal Commission’s March 2021 decision to ban most vehicle use in Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area within three years.
Six environmental and community groups — the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Oceano Beach Community Association, Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation and San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper — were requesting to intervene in the case on the side of the Coastal Commission.
Superior Court Judge Tana Coates denied the motion.
“The court finds that allowing the applicants to intervene would not promote fairness, and that any reasons for intervening are outweighed by the rights of the original parties to conduct their lawsuits on their own terms,” Coates wrote in her ruling.
There is “no evidence that the (Coastal Commission) is not vigorously defending its decision, or that it is considering a scaled-back amendment at odds with applicants’ interests,” Coates wrote.
The ruling essentially means that the Coastal Commission must battle the Friends of Oceano Dunes, EcoLogic Partners Inc. and Specialty Equipment Market Association — the off-roading advocacy groups that filed the lawsuit — in court without the six other groups.
The off-roading groups originally filed five separate lawsuits against the Coastal Commission regarding the agency’s March 2021 decision. Four of those were consolidated into one lawsuit due to overlapping legal claims.
A second lawsuit still resides in San Luis Obispo Superior Court and is scheduled for a trial beginning on March 13, 2023, according to court documents.
What Oceano Dunes off-roaders say in their lawsuit
The first lawsuit alleges that the Coastal Commission exceeded its authority and did not conduct a proper environmental analysis in amending the coastal development permit for the Oceano Dunes SVRA to prohibit most off-highway vehicles (OHVs) in the park by 2023. The motion to intervene filed by the environmental and community groups was an attempt to further defend the Coastal Commission’s permit amendment.
“The underlying issue in this litigation — the California Coastal Commission’s protection of Oceano Dunes and phase-out of OHV use — presents a vitally important matter implicating species conservation and environmental and tribal justice for the applicants, who live, work, recreate and hold sacred the resources at stake in this matter,” the groups say in court documents. “Permitting petitioners the exclusive forum they see on the underlying issue while denying applicants their right to be heard on their protected interests would be manifestly unjust and contrary to law.”
The environmental and community groups argued in their motion to intervene that they should be allowed to join the lawsuit against the off-roading groups because they hold certain legal interests in the dunes that will be impacted depending on whether the court overrules or sustains the Coastal Commission’s permit amendment.
Judge Coates agreed in her ruling that the groups “demonstrated a direct interest in protection and restoration of the dunes and eliminating OHV recreation at the dunes, and that the disposition of this action would impair or impede their ability to safeguard their interests.”
However, she noted that the basis of the lawsuit is not necessarily about the protection of the dunes — but rather the Coastal Commission’s authority in approving the park’s amended permit, for which the environmental and community groups “have no special expertise.”
Coates, therefore, found that the environmental and community groups’ “interests are adequately represented” by the Coastal Commission.
“It is disappointing that advocates for conservation, public health and tribal justice at Oceano Dunes were not allowed to intervene in the off-roaders’ baseless lawsuits against the Coastal Commission,” Jeff Miller, senior conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in an emailed comment to The Tribune. “We’ll continue to fight for protection of endangered species and wildlife habitat and support the Coastal Commission’s decision to phase out destructive off-road vehicle use at Oceano Dunes.”
In a news release sent out on Monday, Friends of Oceano Dunes celebrated Coates’ ruling.
“Friends will continue to pursue all legal remedies to protect beach driving, camping and OHV recreation at Oceano Dunes SVRA the way it has been occurring for the last 100 years,” the organization’s president, Jim Suty, wrote in the release.
