Mike Frey, A True Friend of the Coast

Greetings!

Yesterday morning, the Board of Sonoma Coast Surfriders surprised a retiring member with a presentation at the coastal town of Dillon Beach.  Mike Frey, who has spent the last 25 plus years supporting and leading efforts to keep beaches and the ocean clean, and whose clear guidance has helped his colleagues chart their way through many environmental battles, was given a custom surfboard emblazoned with the Surfrider Foundation logo and a tribute to his service.

Though Mike told me he'd still be around and helping, I know his struggle with muscular dystrophy and some serious family needs will begin to dominate his time and energy.  All of us hope to see him enjoying the board, and will make sure to circulate any advice he wants to offer.  He has and will continue to be a true friend of the coast.

To see the photos I took, click on Mike Frey.

Marin Rebels Coastwalk 2015, July 29th

Greetings!

Just returned from first three days of the Marin Rebels Coastwalk. Great group and Coordinators who since Monday have been hiking the northern Marin coast. Monday night's dinner at Audubon Canyon's Cypress Grove Preserve on Tomales Bay with Martin Griffin, introducing their film "Rebels With a Cause" has to rank among our choice Coastwalk experiences.

Last night's stay at the Point Reyes National Seashore Hostel was also a hit, after hiking up from the Estero Trailhead. Today, they are hiking from the Marin Headlands Visitor Center to Haypress Camp in Tennessee Valley, tomorrow to Alice Eastwood Camp, and Friday to the Alpine Lodge above Muir Woods on the south slope of Mt, Tamalpais. What a spectacular week

Here are some photos I took on Monday at Cypress Grove and at Tom's Point in Tomales Bay.

Park Pay Machines Research, June 10th

Greetings!

Preparing for meetings currently being organized by State Parks, with the encouragement of the California Coastal Commission, I decided to do some investigation.

In the appeal materials submitted by State Parks to the Coastal Commission for the April 15th public hearing,  the following information was provided:

"In the short time since CSP filed its original application, the available technology now employed has rapidly evolved and improved. Whereas the traditional fee collection stations were limited to a heavy metal cylinder planted in the ground, CSP now installs electronic self-pay stations or Automated Pay Parking Machines (APPM) at many of its busier parks, even in remote areas with limited infrastructure. APPMs are solar powered units which have Wi-Fi connectivity to allow for the purchase of day use access through the use of cash, debit, credit, and Pay Pass options. They are fully programmable, and can be modified to meet daily needs, allow for retrieval of data, and thus have the potential to provide for a more flexible and efficient rate schedule. Users can add time using their smart phones in locations where cell phone service is available, and CSP can alternate rate schedules to ensure maximum access is promoted.

Each APPM will have four bollards and installed to protect the machine, as well as, ADA access, and

signage to assist visitors with “Self-Pay” instructions. Signage is located on 6’ high x 2” diameter breakaway galvanized pole secured and anchored with concrete. Signage typically measures no more than 28” in width and no more than 84” above finished grade.

With the use of APPMs CSP can offer a rate structure that can be set to accept both flat rate and hourly options from the visitor. The use of the machines and a flexible and reasonable rate structure effectively manages high demand parking areas by increasing turn-over allowing for an increase in access for all visitors to these unique coastal areas.

Initially CSP proposes identical rates at each of the 14 locations, using the following general rate

structure:

Flat all-day rate $8

Hourly Up to $3

15 minute “surf-check”/sunset spaces Free

CSP will provide a 15 minute “surf-check” or sunset window for free at all times. It should also be noted, if patrons pay for a flat all-day pass, it will be good for all day use areas within the Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District for that calendar day."

There are two state parks in our area where State Parks has placed APMs of the kind described above. They are at Olompali State Park and China Camp State Park.  It appears that one is solar-powered, and the remainder are powered by underground cable.  

They are produced by a Petaluma company (Ventek International), whose representative I met yesterday.  Raymond Lucas, Director of Client Services, indicated that his machines could also transmit credit card transactions via satellite phones in areas where little cell phone capacity exists.   Issuing permits for a variety of park services beyond parking, one in China Camp allowed for charges for trail use, camping, and equestrian access.

He said that, while they are not now capable of providing parking lot use data remotely, they could be programmed to do so.  

Their machines are currently operating in Point Reyes National Seashore and Sequoia National Forest, as well as hundreds of other national, state and regional parks.

From Big Stump to the Stumptown Days Parade

Greetings!

Last week, a group of staff and board members from Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods traveled to Calaveras Big Trees State Park to meet with their counterparts. We have ambitions of remodeling the Jenner Visitors Center, and building a new facility at Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve.  With one-fifth of our million park users, their new Visitors Center generates five times our current gross revenue.   Their capital campaign dwarfed even our most optimistic goals.

I was very impressed by the quality of the sharing and organizational connections.  Key personnel, with decades of experience supporting educational and resource protection programs in a park containing a huge concentration of California's largest and oldest trees, talked all afternoon and evening about what lessons they had learned.  The combined personnel are responsible for almost three thousand trees which were alive when Sir Francis Drake arrived on California's coast.  The combined height of these trees in these two parks would reach four times beyond the orbit of GPS satellites, and they'd weigh more than all the whales in the world.

But volume is not the value of these giants.  The experience of walking among them gives us an incomparably important environmental perspective, and brings to our understanding our impact on the world.  One example is a six foot high stump near the entrance to the North Grove at Big Trees, upon which was once constructed as a dance floor.   It has been postulated that had it not been cut down early in the last century, that it would have grown to become the tallest tree in the world.  Walking along the length of its supine trunk, and in the caverns of its fallen body, few cathedrals which man has built can compare to its reverence.

Our group gained valuable perspectives from the extended conversations that day.  In these times of state budget cuts and the feared abandonment of California's natural and cultural resources, it is crucial that those working to reverse the tide communicate well together.  We will continue our discussions long after our return to Sonoma County, and our actions on behalf of the resources under our care will be improved as a result of the interactions.  Our thanks to the Calaveras Big Trees Association Board and Staff for opening their hearts and home to us.  They are welcome in ours anytime.

Today, the work of Stewards continued with our participation in Guerneville's Annual Stumptown Days Parade.  Board, staff, community members and their children marched beside our new StewardShip, puppets and drums in hand, and passed out flyers describing our upcoming programs and events.  As I waited at the front of the parade line watching our own Mother Nature, Elizabeth Vega, rehearse the volunteer children in their drumming routines, I wondered about how many dance floors in San Francisco were born from trees that once surrounded this town.

April 17th, Sonoma Coast Parking Research Web Forum

Greetings!

Now that the California Coastal Commission has taken control of the proposal by the State Parks Department to install Automated Parking Pay Machines at 15 parking lot locations along the Sonoma County coast, I think that it is important that we all start an online group of discussions about all of the ideas.

Here is a Google Web Forum I have established for us to do so:

Locations of Proposed Coastal Pay Parking

Blue icons are proposed sites, yellow are suggested alternative parking.

Monday, March 30th, Iron Rangers Appeal

Greetings!

At a meeting on April 15th in San Rafael, the California Coastal Commission will be told by the California State Parks (CSP) that new technology, active monitoring, and site mitigation will increase access to the Sonoma coast and improve protection of its resources.  Item 17A on the Agenda for Wednesday, April 15th,  states:

Appeal No. A-2-SON-13-0219 (California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sonoma Co.)
Appeal by California Dept. of Parks and Recreation of Sonoma County decision denying coastal permit for installation of signs and self-pay fee collection devices ('iron rangers') for charging new fees for parking at 14 locations across 35 miles of Sonoma County coast (at Stump Beach in Salt Point State Park, Russian Gulch, Goat Rock - Blind Beach, Goat Rock - South Lot, Goat Rock - North Lot, Goat Rock - Arched Rock, Shell Beach, Portuguese Beach, Schoolhouse Beach, Salmon Creek - North Lot, Salmon Creek - South Lot (Bean Avenue), Campbell Cove, Bodega Head - Upper Lot, and Bodega Head - Lower Lot), Sonoma County. (EL-SF).

In a letter to the Commission, the Department indicates:

"CSP will demonstrate pay station installation will not result in damage to coastal resources, and will actually enhance public access to the coastline within Sonoma County, consistent with both the Coastal Act and the LCP. CSP will also demonstrate that the proposal retains affordable, low cost recreation, as well as free recreation, and that there is no public safety or environmental impacts associated with the proposal that are not present now, or cannot be reconciled with active management and monitoring as proposed. " 

How will CSP accomplish this?

"In the short time since CSP filed its original application, the available technology now employed has rapidly evolved and improved. Whereas the traditional fee collection stations were limited to a heavy metal cylinder planted in the ground, CSP now installs electronic self-pay stations or Automated Pay Parking Machines (APPM) at many of its busier parks, even in remote areas with limited infrastructure. APPMs are solar powered units which have Wi-Fi connectivity to allow for the purchase of day use access through the use of cash, debit, credit, and Pay Pass options. They are fully programmable, and can be modified to meet daily needs, allow for retrieval of data, and thus have the potential to provide for a more flexible and efficient rate schedule. Users can add time using their smart phones in locations where cell phone service is available, and CSP can alternate rate schedules to ensure maximum access is promoted."

The appeal of Sonoma County's denial of CSP's original proposal now hinges on CSP convincing the Commission that "substantial issues" exist in the appeal which require that they hear it.  The support of three of the twelve Commission members are necessary to force a vote of the Commission on whether to have a hearing on the appeal.  Unless a majority of the Commission present finds that the appeal raises no substantial issue, the Commission moves to the de novo stage of the appeal hearing.   If the Commission finds that the appeal does not raise a substantial issue, then the local government's action is final, and there is no de novo phase of the appeal hearing.  

The de novo stage of the appeal hearing may occur at the same Commission meeting.   Anyone may testify on the merits of the merits of the proposal during the de novo phase.  People wishing to testify on this matter may appear at the hearing, or may present their concerns by letter to the Commission on or before the hearing date.

The following information is provided by the California Coastal Commission, in a Public Hearing Notice, dated Mach 27 2015.

AVAILABILITY OF STAFF REPORT: 

A copy of the staff report on this matter is available on the Coastal Commission's website at http://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports/2015/4/w17a-4-2015.pdf. Alternatively, you may request a paper copy of the report from Ethan Lavine, Coastal Program Analyst, at the North Central Coast District Office, 45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105-2219.

SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN MATERIALS: 

If you wish to submit written materials for review by the Commission, please observe the following suggestions: 

We request that you submit your materials to the Commission staff the week before the scheduled Commission meeting (staff will then distribute your materials to the Commission). 

Mark the agenda number of your item, the application number, your name and your position of support or opposition to the project on the upper right hand corner of the first page of your submission. If you do not know the agenda number, contact Ethan Lavine, Coastal Program Analyst, at the North Central Coast District Office, 45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105-2219.

If you wish, you may obtain a current list of Commissioners’ names and addresses from any of the Commission’s offices and mail the materials directly to the Commissioners. If you wish to submit materials directly to Commissioners, we request that you mail the materials so that the Commissioners receive the materials no later than Thursday of the week before the Commission meeting. Please mail the same materials to all Commissioners, alternates for Commissioners, and the three non-voting members on the Commission with a copy to Ethan Lavine, Coastal Program Analyst, at the North Central Coast District Office, 45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105-2219.

You are requested to summarize the reasons for your position in no more than two or three pages, if possible. You may attach as many exhibits as you feel are necessary. 

Please note: While you are not prohibited from doing so, you are discouraged from submitting written materials to the Commission on the day of the hearing, unless they are visual aids, as it is more difficult for the Commission to carefully consider late materials. The Commission requests that if you submit written copies of comments to the Commission on the day of the hearing, that you provide 20 copies. 

ALLOTTED TIME FOR TESTIMONY: 

Oral testimony at the substantial issue stage is limited to 3 minutes combined total per side to address the question of substantial issue. Oral testimony at the de novo stage may be limited to 5 minutes or less for each speaker depending on the number of persons wishing to be heard. 

ADDITIONAL PROCEDURES: 

No one can predict how quickly the Commission will complete agenda items or how many will be postponed to a later date. The Commission begins each meeting session at the time listed and considers each item in order, except in extraordinary circumstances. Staff at the appropriate Commission office can give you more information prior to the hearing date. 

Questions regarding the report or the hearing should be directed to Ethan Lavine, Coastal Program Analyst, at the North Central Coast District Office, 45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105-2219.