Removal of Tern Nests at Fair Questioned

Two powerful governmental agencies have joined the small city of Del Mar in questioning the Del Mar Fair Board’s removal of a least tern nesting area in San Dieguito Lagoon estuary to make room for more parking.

Fairgrounds officials said, in a report Tuesday to Fair Board members, that they are negotiating with both the state Coastal Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to resolve “misunderstandings” about the bulldozing of a small least tern nesting area for use as an overflow parking lot during this summer’s Del Mar Fair.

Fairgrounds crews removed a berm and fence that had protected the nesting area from adjacent parking a few days before the fair opened June 15. The nesting area was required in 1985 by the Coastal Commission in return for allowing the Fair Board to build a tunnel allowing race track fans to go from the grandstand area to the infield, increasing the track’s capacity.

The Corps of Engineers has said grading of the riverbed requires a federal permit. The Coastal Commission has said removal of the nesting area violated the Fair Board’s development permit.

Andy Mauro, fairgrounds administrative officer, and Patricia Butler, consulting planner for the Fair Board, said Tuesday that fair officials are providing both agencies with “proper and full information” about the situation.

Fairgrounds officials are developing an alternative nesting site at the mouth of the San Dieguito River, on land the fair board acquired two years ago, Butler said.

She said the new site, chosen in cooperation with state Fish and Game authorities, will require a Coastal Commission permit. The new, permanent nesting site must be prepared and protected by next April--the start of the endangered bird’s nesting season.

Del Mar officials and environmental groups, who have long battled the Fair Board over its plans to expand into the wetlands, charged that the bulldozing of the least tern site was done on the weekend to prevent protests that might have stalled the project.

However, fair general manager Roger Vitaich said that “it took us eight months to figure out just where Fish and Game wanted the permanent nesting site,” and the memorandum of agreement was signed just in time to convert the site to parking for the fair.

Mauro, in a letter responding to the Corps of Engineers’ letter citing fair officials with a violation of the Clean Water Act, said that the former least tern site had been a temporary solution while a larger, permanent nesting site was found and developed.

“The (Fair Board) believes that it acted in good faith and caused no violation of the applicable sections of the Clean Water Act,” Mauro told Corps officials. He said that fairgrounds officials will continue to negotiate with the federal authorities “and give them the information they require.”