A High-Water Mark in Coastal Preservation

The state of California and environmental groups acquired nearly 14 miles of beaches, bluffs and scenic watersheds in 1998, the most successful year for coastal preservation in a quarter-century.

The purchases at four separate locations--from dramatic bluff-top farms near Half Moon Bay to the grassy knolls of Carpinteria--mean that an additional 1% of the state’s 1,120-mile coast should remain open and free of development forever.

But while the last year stood out as a beacon of coastal preservation, it also illuminated the enormous challenges that remain if Californians hope to keep open hundreds of miles of coast that remain subject to development.

Environmentalists concede that even last year’s brisk pace of preservation shrinks in significance when measured against the threat of future development, particularly home-building. California is expected to add enough new residents in the next 30 years to fill five cities the size of Los Angeles.

“It was a landmark year for the coast. The public and future generations will be the beneficiaries,” said Peter Douglas, executive director of the state Coastal Commission. “But the coast is never completely saved. It is always being saved.

“We have a lot of work left to do.”

A little less than half of California’s rugged boundary with the Pacific Ocean, an estimated 503 miles, remains in private hands and potentially subject to development. But activists said they are hopeful the legacy of 1998, the arrival of a new governor in Sacramento and the emergence of new private funding may speed efforts to protect the shoreline from the advance of homes and businesses.

To build on the current momentum, environmentalists are pushing for the state’s first open space and park bond measure in more than a decade. They also are lobbying for continued stringent regulation to curtail growth on properties they can’t buy.

A confluence of events keyed the achievements of 1998. Increased funding became available from the Coastal Conservancy, a state agency. At the same time, the nation’s third-largest philanthropic organization--the David and Lucile Packard Foundation--committed $175 million to protect open space on the Central Coast and elsewhere. Meanwhile, developers, thwarted in their plans for two key properties, agreed to sell their land at discounted prices.

By the Numbers

From north to south, the properties preserved for open space were:

* A total of about 1,600 acres, or 2 linear miles, of coast south of Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County. The nonprofit Peninsula Open Space Land Trust bought two properties for $6.25 million; a third was donated. Fields of artichokes, Brussels sprouts and leeks overlook the ocean atop spectacular 90-foot bluffs, which descend to a beach that is a harbor seal birthing ground.

* The San Francisco-based Save the Redwoods League spearheaded the purchase in late October of nearly seven miles of coast surrounding the Santa Cruz County town of Davenport. The 7,500 acres were the third-largest privately held piece of coast between San Francisco and Tijuana. A $20-million donation from the Packard Foundation and anonymous contributions totaling $15 million keyed the $43 million purchase, protecting redwoods, oaks, pastures and crop land, as well as pocket beaches popular with surfers.

A Nevada developer had applied to build as many as 139 homes on the so-called Coast Dairies property.

* The Trust for Public Land in late December announced the purchase of property at Estero Bay near the tiny San Luis Obispo County community of Cayucos. The $7.5 million for the bluffs along California 1 came from the state Coastal Conservancy, the Packard Foundation, the county and other sources. The sale protects the most thriving tide pools along the Central Coast, as well as the region’s most productive seal-birthing ground. A long-running development dispute once included plans for a hotel and more than 100 homes.

* The Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs succeeded in purchasing 52 acres in the community south of Santa Barbara, just before a year-end deadline. The nearly $4-million deal was unique among 1998’s successes in that local donations--$765,000 from a community of just 15,000 people --were crucial in closing the deal.

The purchase finally laid to rest development proposals that have fractured the beach town and triggered political upheaval for decades. The half-mile-long property’s grassland and eucalyptus stands will remain almost entirely intact, with a little more than six acres to be reserved for playing fields.

The Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs came up with a series of inventive ways to attract donations. One appeal by local activist Bob Needham to other “Bobs” and their admirers brought in $10,000 in donations as small as $10. Organizers “divided” the land, determining the actual cost of $1.74 per square foot for the entire tract, then sold honorary “deeds.” The documents included a watercolor of the bluffs by Whitney Abbott--one of several local artists whose work helped inspire admiration for the area’s beauty.

“It’s kind of a miracle, this small town with a big dream,” said Ted Rhodes, president of Citizens for the Carpinteria Bluffs. “Adults and kids for generations will be able to stand out there and have an experience with nature and of an older California.”

More than one-third of the California coast, 353 miles, is now parkland; 155 miles are harbors and other “granted tidelands,” and nearly 73 miles are controlled by the military. The rest is largely agricultural.

But each year, growing population ratchets up the pressure to build. The state Department of Finance projects that 18 million residents will swell the state’s population over the next 30 years.

“The pressures for development, especially on the coast, are enormous,” said Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek), the Santa Cruz-area representative who has helped lead the push for coastal conservation. “And the opportunities to save those resources are fleeting.”

Critical to further acquisitions will be the passage of a statewide bond measure to pay for purchases and easements, many activists say. Voters have not approved bonds for open space or parks since 1988. Environmentalists complain that more than weak economies in the early 1990s prevented the passage of such a bond. They blamed former Gov. Pete Wilson for failing to push aggressively for more spending to buy open spaces.

Since this year’s legislative session began, lawmakers from both parties have proposed four bond measures--ranging from $500 million to Keeley’s $1.5-billion proposal--to fill what is seen as a tremendous backlog of park and open space needs. The bonds, which would be repaid out of the state’s general tax revenues, could be placed on the ballot as soon as March 2000.

Vulnerabilities Abound

Still, hundreds of miles of coast north of San Francisco remains largely agricultural, but with no ironclad protections to keep them so.

The seven-mile stretch of coast around Davenport in Santa Cruz County was saved last year, but only after a Nevada developer used a legal maneuver to seek development rights, a threat that some fear will become increasingly common on farm lands.

The original Swiss dairymen who had owned the land sold an option to the developer, who proposed building as many as 139 homes. Despite agricultural zoning, the builder cited historic leases, old photographs and other evidence in arguing that the government implicitly had approved parceling the dairy land.

That claim, for so-called “certificates of compliance,” was never tested in court, but conservationists said it might have permitted development, even without approval from the county or Coastal Commission.

Coastal Commission director Douglas said he expects numerous attempts by developers to build under such historic claims.

But most development applications would still face daunting land-use regulations currently in place in the five counties between San Francisco and the Oregon border. Sonoma County, for example, typically allows one home per square mile on coastal agricultural land.

But “all you have to do is change the Coastal Commission or a local Board of Supervisors and those rules can change,” said Douglas. “Zoning and regulation are a thin reed on which to rest the future of the coast.”

The most ironclad guarantee for conservation is the sort of outright purchases completed in 1998 by the government and land trusts. But even the current wave of enthusiasm seems unlikely to raise the money necessary to protect that vast expanse of shoreline.

A cheaper alternative might be the purchase of easements, an approach pioneered by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. Since 1980, the nonprofit group has purchased 39 easements, totaling 26,000 acres, in which Marin County farmers and ranchers essentially agree to deed restrictions that limit use of the land to agriculture.

Such an approach has been discussed in regard to one of the jewels of the California coast still subject to development, the 12-mile-long, 77,000-acre Hearst Ranch property in San Luis Obispo County.

The Coastal Commission last year rejected a plan that would have accommodated the Hearst Corp.’s proposed 650-room resort, oceanside golf course and other building projects not far from William Randolph Hearst’s legendary castle at San Simeon.

Although Hearst Corp. plans to press a revised plan before officials in San Luis Obispo County and on the Coastal Commission, the media conglomerate has also had quiet discussions over other options.

The state Coastal Conservancy and land trust activists have raised the possibility of paying for an agricultural easement that could keep open at least the bulk of “this incredible piece of old California,” as one participant said.

“If there has ever been a time when the Hearst Corp. might entertain options other than development,” said the official, “that window of opportunity might be in the next few years.

“It would be thrilling and tremendously significant to assure the protection of that property.”

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Coastal Preservation

Environmental groups, private foundations and the state of California helped purchase nearly 14 miles of California’s 1,120-mile coast in 1998. Four parcels are designated for preservation.

Two miles of coastline, including 1,600 acres, south of Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County.

Seven miles of coast--about 7,500 acres--sur-rounding the Santa Cruz County town of Davenport.

Four miles of coastline--275 acres--north of Cayucos in San Luis Obispo County.

A half-mile of coast--52 acres--in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria.