Del Mar Fair’s Quick Grab of Tern Nesting Site Chided

Del Mar Fairgrounds operators “jumped the gun” by bulldozing a wetland area previously preserved as a nesting site for the endangered California least tern before an agreement could be signed with state officials to do the work, state Department of Fish and Game official said Wednesday.

Kurt Taucher, a spokesman for the regional Fish and Game office in Long Beach, said the agency may seek damages because of the parking lot project, possibly by suing.

“As far as seeking retribution for what’s been done, we’re still trying to decide that,” said Kurt Taucher, a spokesman for the regional fish and game office in Long Beach. “We may seek damages. And it could come by way of a lawsuit.”

The controversy revolves around a parking lot expansion project being hammered out between Fish and Game officials and the 22nd Agricultural Assn., the state agency that operates the fairgrounds.

In 1984, in order to build a tunnel from the Del Mar Racetrack grandstand to the infield, the Fair Board was required by the State Coastal Commission to set aside a least tern nesting area on the fairgrounds.

Since October, Fair Board officials have been seeking permission to expand an overflow parking area into the least tern habitat--located next to the San Dieguito River--in exchange for dedicating an alternative plot between the Santa Fe Railroad tracks and Old Highway 101.

Although a tentative agreement had been reached, Taucher said, “there were still some minor issues yet to be resolved, some rewording of the agreement.”

On Friday, Fish and Game Deputy Director Mike McCollum received a faxed copy of the tentative agreement at his Sacramento office, Taucher said. Within hours, bulldozers began regrading the lease tern’s designated nesting area, prompting many calls to Del Mar city officials from nearby residents.

“They were coming down to the wire with their fair and they evidently wanted to get started with building a bigger parking lot,” Taucher said.

“But, as far as we’re concerned, we had no agreement with them because all we had was a fax copy of the accord. They definitely jumped the gun.”

Jan Anton, Fair Board president, said a staff representative had talked with McCollom in Sacramento on Friday and received his OK before the bulldozing began. “We said ‘Look, we’ve got to get going. We’ve got a fair to do.’ We got a verbal OK.”

Anton said the area regraded over the weekend was a parking lot before being designated for the least terns. No terns have nested at the spot for the last four years, he said.

“If they want to go ahead and sue another state agency, go ahead,” he said. “But we consider the matter closed.”

Anton said an official agreement over the new parking lot was reached Tuesday with state Fish and Game officials.

Del Mar Mayor Jan McMillan, who sent a curt letter to Fair Board officials, complaining that the city was left in the dark about the project, applauded the agency’s decision.

“We’re encouraged,” she said. “We just couldn’t see the Fair Board’s justification for moving ahead so fast on that property.”