Trestles Saved
Forever!
Landmark Lawsuit Settlement Protects Trestles And Ends 15-Year Dispute
Over San Onofre State Beach
It’s hard to believe that 11 years ago, in November 2005,
the first throng of Save Trestles supporters showed up at a Parks and
Recreation Commission hearing to speak out against a six-lane toll road that
was proposed to cut through San Onofre State Beach—irreparably harming the park
and surrounding watershed.
That particular meeting kicked off what later became a historic
campaign.
That fateful Parks and Recreation hearing brought together
many different local and national organizations, and, as serendipity would have
it, those groups officially started organizing and formed the Save San Onofre Coalition
(SSOC). The 12 organizations that make up SSOC represent millions of people who
cherish the park and the surrounding watershed.
Over the course of a decade, the SSOC would create
history. This formidable coalition
organized the largest public turn out in Coastal Commission history. In 2008, nearly 4,000 people attended the
Commission hearing where the road was unanimously rejected. Following the Coastal
Commission vote, the Transportation
Corridor Agencies (TCA) appealed to the Bush Administration to overturn
the Commission decision. But the TCA’s
appeal decision didn’t stop our activists. Once again we organized! More than 3,500
attended the Department of Commerce hearing to voice strong opposition to the
toll road that threatened San Onofre State Beach.
SSOC continued our winning streak in 2013, 2014 and 2015, when
both the State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards rejected TCA’s attempts
to build the road in “segments.”
These victories, over the course of a decade, helped us
arrive where we are today – achieving a landmark settlement that forever saves
Trestles!
This agreement settles five
lawsuits brought by the SSOC and the California Attorney General and requires
the TCA to rescind its 2006 approval of the so-called “Green Alignment” that
would have run through San Onofre State Beach (SOSB) and its 2013 approval of
its Tesoro Extension project, the first segment of the Foothill South.
The most
significant and most hard-fought aspect of the settlement carves out “avoidance
areas” that requires TCA to refrain from building or funding a road project
within an area that includes San Onofre State Beach, the Richard and Donna
O’Neill Conservancy and other critical open space, wildlife habitat and
cultural resources in the San Mateo Creek watershed.
In addition to
the avoidance areas, the settlement establishes a $28 million conservation fund
to help preserve and restore San Mateo Creek and its watershed. View a summary
of lawsuit settlement here and a joint public
statement here.
The word “historic” is often over-used, but in light of this
settlement, today truly is a historic day.
This settlement culminates a decade of hard work to save San Onofre and brings
an end to one of the most hard fought, long-lasting environmental battles in
California history.
This victory would have not been possible without the
thousands of passionate and motivated advocates who stood our ground to FOREVER
save Trestles.
For
over a decade, Surfrider Foundation has been opposing the ill-conceived
plan to build the Foothill-South Toll Road, which was originally
aligned to go straight through a senstive watershed and bisect a state
park. Surfrider objects to the toll road's potential harm to water
quality, endangered species and habitat, loss of state park land, and
impairment to coastal recreational resources. In February 2008, the
California Coastal Commission ruled that the toll road was unacceptable
for these reasons under the Coastal Act, after thousands of concerned
citizens voiced opposition at the Commission hearing. The U.S. Secretary
of Commerce also upheld the Coastal Commission’s decision after the TCA
appealed in 2008. However, in 2013, the TCA approved proceeding with
the first 5.5-mile segment of this toll road, which does not enter the
Coastal Zone (yet). The environmental groups believe this is just the
first part of the full toll road and that the TCA would like to start
building now so they can gain political momentum for the full road.