Friends of Arana Gulch
IT'S THE LAW, DON. In a misinformed editorial in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Don Miller, Sentinel Editor, completely missed the point of the recent California Coastal Commission decision regarding the City of Santa Cruz's application to build a paved bicycle route through critical habitat of an endangered species, the Santa Cruz tarplant, Holocarpha macradenia. The editorial is incorrect in several respects. The City of Santa Cruz did not argue that "paving two trails" in Arana Gulch "would be the greater good, publicly and environmentally." Rather, the City proposed a transportation project in an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area, which is not allowed under the California Coastal Act. It doesn't matter that the City worked on the flawed plan for over 15 years. It doesn't matter that the inadequate alternatives proposed in the Arana Gulch Draft Master Plan Environmental Impact Report were defended in court. It doesn't matter that a recently proposed alternative route is not considered "safe and accessible" by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. The Broadway-Brommer bicycle route with paved trails and two bridges across critical habitat for the tarplant, is simply illegal under state law. What matters is that the City has for years failed to manage Arana Gulch, resulting in eroding paths, illegal campers and endangered species. This is no excuse for the California Coastal Commission to bail them out by approving an illegal project. The City of Santa Cruz should do the right thing, finally: manage Arana Gulch for the tarplant and all other species, and look elsewhere for their transportation project. |
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COASTAL COMMISSION VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO CONTINUE DECISION ON ARANA GULCH MASTER PLAN! Commissioner Mark Stone made the motion, saying, "We would like to give this project another shot and look to see if there is any alternative that satisfies the commission." Stone and a majority of other commissioners indicated they would vote against the project as proposed because they believed it was clearly a transportation project made to look like a conservation plan. |
Center for Biological Diversity Writes to the California Coastal Commission
