Coastal chief blames damage on the county

Nick Grube

As Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, trudged through the sand around the Pacific Shores subdivision, Tolowa Dunes State Park, and the Lake Earl Wildlife Area last week, he was troubled by the scenery.

Fresh off-highway vehicle tracks criss-crossed protected sand dunes, holes were cut in state park fences to allow vehicles to pass into environmentally sensitive habitats and tire-marks ran through threatened plant species.

The damage had obviously been caused by OHV users, but Douglas said that’s somewhat understandable considering the confusing signals they are receiving about where they can and can’t ride.

The real culprit, Douglas said, is Del Norte County for designating a number of its roads in the Pacific Shores subdivision as “combined-use” and putting up signs telling people they could ride in an area where OHVs are mostly prohibited.

“This is the most egregious violation by a local jurisdiction that I’ve ever seen in the history of the Coastal Commission,” Douglas said. “It’s going to take a long time to restore the resource damage that was done.”

Douglas said Del Norte County needed a coastal development permit to put up the combined-use signs in the Pacific Shores subdivision. He added the county also needed Coastal Commission approval due to what is called a “change in intensity” of use because the roads would allow for OHV traffic.

By not following those steps, Douglas said, the county violated provisions of the California Coastal Act, enacted rules that led to the degradation of environmentally sensitive habitat and could now face substantial fines.

“This is rogue behavior,” Douglas said. “The way I view this is like a big finger to state law.”

Without Coastal Commission approval, the OHVs shouldn’t even be allowed on county roads in Pacific Shores, he said.
Del Norte County officials disagree. Last May, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution as part of its consent agenda designating a number of roads in Pacific Shores as combined-use. Signs were placed along those roadways on Jan. 21 at a cost of $1,745.75.

The Coastal Commission sent a letter to the county Jan. 28 telling it to remove the signs. In its response, dated Feb. 9, it questioned whether the Coastal Commission had the authority over the combined-use designations on county roads and stated that the signs were placed in order to direct people to stay on the roads and not drive over the dunes.

“There was no real recreational opportunity for these ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), and there was a lot of abuse going on out at the Pacific Shores area with cross-country travel,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Hemmingsen said. “We thought if we designated combined-use roads we could keep these vehicles out of those habitat areas.”

The combined-use signs state cross-country travel is prohibited, and Hemmingsen, who provides new OHV route maps to riders at his business, said he instructs everyone to abide by the county’s rules.

“I think people are supposed to obey the law and that’s what I’ve told everyone to do is obey the law,” Hemmingsen said.

“Anybody who asked about the signs or the area out there, I’ve told them they need to stay on the designated routes within the county right of way.”

Douglas called this “disingenuous” and said the signs were “clearly intended” to open up the Pacific Shores area to OHV traffic and build a constituency of off-roaders.

“The word’s out, even in Southern California, that there’s a new riding area,” he said.

Anyone who goes off the county roads would be breaking the law, either by trespassing on private property or riding in an area, such as state park or California Fish and Game lands, where that activity is prohibited.

“You’re basically inviting people in to break the law and they won’t even know it,” Douglas said. “This is like entrapment.”

Off-road vehicles have always been a problem around the Pacific Shores subdivision, which is bordered by Tolowa Dunes State Park and the Lake Earl Wildlife Area. But California State Park officials said it has gotten noticeably worse since the county installed combined-use signs on its roads.

“Pretty much the day the signs went up we had immediate breaches in our fence lines,” Redwood State Parks Superintendent Jeff Bomke said.

Park employees have recently received a number of complaints about OHVs in Tolowa Dunes, he said.

Some of the posted park signs stating OHVs are prohibited have been torn from the ground and are lying next to deep rivets in the sand.

Bomke said he was considering diverting resources from other parks — which he added might limit public access to those areas because of a lack of staffing — to help combat the problem of illegal OHV use in the Tolowa Dunes.

The parks didn’t start to enforce its OHV policy until about 2006, Bomke said. Before then, the dunes had what the superintendent called “two-tracks” grooved into the sandy ground from heavy off-road vehicle use. As a result, he said, threatened and endangered plant species and American Indian cultural resources could have been impacted and invasive species, like European beach grass, could be spread.

“State parks does understand there is a need for the OHV community to have a place to go,” Bomke said. “But state park lands, that are protected for a reason, aren’t the place to go.”

County officials still contend the combined use designation was to keep people on the roads and off the dunes. And at this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Hemmingsen said he assessed the damage around the Pacific Shores area and it “pretty much looked like business as usual.”

On Feb. 25, the same day Douglas toured the Pacific Shores area, the Coastal Commission responded to the county’s Feb. 9 letter about the combined-use signs and directed it to remove them or face a cease-and-desist order along with possible fines.

In that letter, the commission also asked the county to rescind its combined use resolution.

While the signs were taken down that same day — even before Douglas was finished with his tour of the area — the county did not abolish its combined-use designation for the Pacific Shores roadways.

“We’re waiting to hear back from the Coastal Commission about what is the commission’s policy on the installation of signs, and if they retain authority, then we’ll put in  a coastal development permit for the signs and request a waiver,” Del Norte County Counsel Dohn Henion said.

Until then, he added, “We believe the combined use designation remains effective.”

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Source: http://www.triplicate.com/20100304108366/News/Local-News/Rogue-behavior-cited

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