The towers—to be built by the California Department of Parks and Recreation Off Highway Vehicle division—will be used to collect data on sand and other particulate matter blowing off the dunes and into residential areas in Oceano and Nipomo. Residents complain dust kicked up by off-road vehicles is a health hazard. County officials from various agencies are in the early stages of studying how much dust is blowing off the dunes and whether it’s made worse by off-road vehicles.
The Board of Supervisors denied the appeals of both Terry Sweetland and Katrina Dolinsky, who claimed the state parks department has a history of breaking promises with the county, and the tower locations would encroach on a buffer zone at the dunes.
Instead, the board sided with its planning staffers, who said the parks department properly applied for a permit to build the towers and was rightly granted an exemption to intensive environmental review. They also said that the county is still working to solve the dust problem.
This article appears in Mar 17-24, 2011.
