On February 6th, over 3,500 people attended a Coastal Commission hearing in San Diego County to express their opposition to the building of a 6-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach, California’s 5th most popular state park, visited by more than 2.5 million visitors annually. 

Testimony was heard and debated for over 14 hours. And in the end, the Coastal Commission echoed the overwhelming sentiment of those in attendance, and voted 8-2 to deny the permit application to build the road on the basis of its failure to conform to California’s Coastal Management Program.

 

Their decision was based on an exhaustive legal and factual analysis that identified numerous violations of state policies that would result from building the toll road, including the destruction of environmentally sensitive habitat areas, fill of wetlands, damage to natural streams and watersheds, degradation of water quality, potential harm to Native American cultural resources, loss of public access, and the destruction of one of the few affordable recreation areas on the Southern California coast. 

 

The Commission heard and understood the message from thousands of users of the park and local residents – that the proposed Foothill South Toll Road would deeply impact San Onofre State Beach.

 

At a time when our state parks are under increasing threats from all sides, allowing projects like the toll road through San Onofre to be built would set a dangerous precedent for allowing California’s state parks to be wiped-out for highways or other infrastructure projects.  Today it is San Onofre, but tomorrow it could be a treasured state park in your area.

 

Unfortunately, the TCA appealed the Coastal Commission’s decision to the Federal Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez.

 

April 28th to May 28th is the official public comment period and we need you to reach out to the Secretary of Commerce and ask him to uphold the CCC decision.

Be sure to visit www.savetrestles.org to stay up to date on this issue.