In a historic, unanimous decision, the California Coastal Commission voted Thursday night to prohibit off-highway vehicle use at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area in three years.
The commission’s decision comes after nearly 40 years of uncertainty from the agency regarding whether to allow OHV use at the park, and implements the Coastal Commission staff’s recommendation to discontinue OHV use at the Oceano Dunes.
“I just don’t think there is any dispute,” said Commissioner Dayna Bochco. “There is no way to support OHV activity in (environmentally sensitive habitat areas) … so we have no other recourse.”
The 10-0 vote mandates that California State Parks end OHV use at the Oceano Dunes by 2024. The agency may choose to phase out the use, or prohibit it all at once.
Commissioners noted that the decision was not an easy one, but said it was essential that they act immediately rather than delay any further.
“Some of you saw my son walk in earlier — he was a baby when we first started talking about this and I don’t want him to be a middle schooler by the time we actually make any change on that site,” Commissioner Sara Aminzadeh, who made the motion to approve the Coastal Commission staff report, said.
Commissioner Steve Padilla added to Aminzadeh’s sense of urgency that the commission had to act on prohibiting the OHV use at the Oceano Dunes.
“The fundamental question that has been in play for 40 years and really grappling with directly … is there is existing large swathes of environmentally sensitive habitat where historically we have allowed an intense use, including this particular vehicle recreational use, for many, many years and absolute failure over those decades to deal with that fundamental threshold question as to whether or not that was lawful,” Padilla said.
Putting environmental justice ahead of allowing a recreational activity was paramount in making their decision, commissioners said.
Citing the Northern Chumash people’s concerns that their homelands were being destroyed by OHV use and the disproportionate air pollution impacts on the low-income and majority Hispanic communities downwind of the Oceano Dunes, commissioners said discontinuing OHV use is necessary.
Something that is “very important is focusing on equity, which to me means both purposefully dismantling inequities in power and money, and access to those, as well as doing no harm to people whose voices are drowned and yet are most impacted by all of the land-use decisions that the state makes, including the commission,” said Commissioner Linda Escalante.
Commissioner Donne Brownsey said that OHV use at the Oceano Dunes “is not consistent with the Coastal Act” and is detrimental to the environment.
“When I think about sea level rise and climate change, how threatened our beaches and our dune ecosystems are today, I believe that they deserve our highest protection,” she said.
Some commissioners suggested the OHV use be discontinued within three years, rather than the five years that Coastal Commission staff recommended.
Aminzadeh said that discontinuing OHV use at the Dunes must be done as soon as possible.
“If we all are seeing the environmental injustices that occur in this area, we’re all recognizing those and saying that they’re patently inconsistent with our own environmental justice policy,” she said. “If we really feel that way to an environmental crisis, we will not wait five years to act.”
Brownsey, however, said that three years is too fast “in bureaucratic time,” a sentiment reflected by other commissioners.
Commissioners settled on requiring the phase out of OHV use at the Oceano Dunes in three years in a 6-4 vote. Commissioners Brownsey, Padilla, Roberto Uranga and Mike Wilson voted against the amendment.
The commissioners also discussed loosening the staff’s recommendation on nighttime riding at the Oceano Dunes, saying that a strict prohibition to driving all vehicles after dark would create operational issues. For example, commissioners were concerned that if a family were stuck in traffic and arrived at the dunes after dark, that the family would then be barred from driving to a beach campsite and setting up camp.
So, commissioners voted to allow some nighttime vehicle driving in camping areas of the park.
Additionally, commissioners voted to extend the closure of the Pier Avenue vehicle access entrance to the Oceano Dunes from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022.
Mark Gold, who is a non-voting member of the commission, said that the working relationship between State Parks and the Coastal Commission during the planning process and permit review processes for the Oceano Dunes was simply non-existent and was “beyond disappointing.”
Padilla agreed, in part, with Gold.
“Communication has not been better for a variety of different reasons,” he said. “(State Parks) has steadfastly refused to grapple with this difficult question for a variety of reasons, and frankly, in fairness, in many years past, the commission hasn’t addressed it, either.”
The Coastal Commission’s decision was acclaimed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit conservation organization.
“We applaud the California Coastal Commission’s long overdue action to phase out destructive off-road vehicle use at Oceano Dunes,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, in a prepared statement. “This reprieve for endangered wildlife and coastal dunes habitat will allow the non-motorized public to enjoy our beach and dunes as well as reduce greenhouse gas and dust pollution.”
Public Comment on Proposal Showed Clear Divide in the Community
Thursday’s meeting lasted nearly 11 hours, with three and a half hours of comments from members of the public, government officials, tribal officials and public agency leaders.
There was often a clear divide among public commenters who called into the meeting: those who wanted OHV use to continue, and those who did not.
Some commenters did not want the Coastal Commission to move forward with a decision on the future of Oceano Dunes until there was proper representation for the Central Coast on the commission, or before a proper economic impact study was completed.
Many of the public comments focused on environmental concerns, as well as tribal justice issues.
Gary Willey, San Luis Obispo County air pollution control officer, said that he believes that Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area can remain open to off-highway vehicle use and still meet air quality requirements.
“It’s going to require some significant changes in acreage and riding area, but we feel that most of the park can remain open and meet the air quality requirements,” Willey said.
Willey noted that State Parks’ plan for Oceano Dunes will require some more work to properly address all the air quality issues present, but he said it is a good start.
Kimberlina Whettam, vice chair of the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission, said that the commission strongly opposes the Coastal Commission staff’s report to discontinue OHV use at Oceano Dunes.
On the other side, Charles Varni, vice chair of the Oceano Advisory Council, supported the Coastal Commission staff recommendations.
“Oceano has been called the poster child for environmental injustice on the California coast,” Varni said. “We need a vehicle-free beach to grow an equitable economy and improve the quality of our community life.”
After Varni’s testimony, Fred Collins, tribal chair for the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, addressed the commission.
“It is with great heart and a sad heart, that I come here to speak,” Collins said. “In the State Parks presentation, it was the same old story: lacking feeling, lacking caring and lacking understanding for the tribal community that have (shouldered) the burden of the worst toxic waste in Oceano Dunes, and we support the commission’s staff report.”
Friends of Oceano Dunes President Jim Suty said that the Coastal Commission “has no jurisdiction” or authority to ban OHVs from Oceano Dunes.
Suty has previously indicated that Friends of Oceano Dunes, a nonprofit organization that advocates for about 23,000 off-road enthusiasts who use the park, could sue the Coastal Commission if it initiates the staff’s recommendation to end OHV use at Oceano Dunes.
Before Suty gave his remarks, however, Mikaela Pyatt, a certified law student at the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, said that “when there is damage to natural resources (from OHV use) … the (Off-Highway Motor Vehicle) Act mandates permanent closure for restoration.”
“There is no conflict between what the Coastal Commission staff is recommending today and what the Legislature intended when it passed the OHV Act,” Pyatt said.
Mackenzie Shuman is a reporter for the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Contact her at mshuman@thetribunenews.com.