Who’s flipping out about the California Coastal Commission’s upcoming July 11 meeting concerning the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area? I know, I know. It’s everyone!
Environmentalists are beside themselves because commission staff is finally recommending that the state regulatory body quash those dangerous, oil-spewing, sand-spinning off-roaders from messing up an ecological paradise! It’s about time we shut the whole damn thing down, people like Andrew Christie from the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club are crying out into the universe. Those off-roaders are a menace to society!
So dramatic. They’re just, like, people too, man.
Meanwhile, the basket of menaces from the Central Valley are beside themselves believing that the Coastal Commission is going to shut everything down the day after the meeting. As of July 11, the Friends of the Oceano Dunes off-road group is shouting, if you have a campsite reserved on the dunes, it’s going to be gone—kiss your Labor Day plans goodbye ATV enthusiasts! Be ready to fight, the group’s president Jim Suty pleads into a camera—all of those little whiny old liberals on the Mesa complaining about dust have done this to you!
Stop freaking out people. California isn’t trying to kill your fun times out on the dunes where you try not to be killed.
I’m pretty sure the Coastal Commission isn’t going to make a decision on July 11 that will go into effect on July 12. First of all, government doesn’t work that fast. Second of all, it’s taken 40 years for commission staff to actually make the recommendation that it did. And there’s probably going to be at least one lawsuit filed against at least one state agency over whatever gets decided, and those take years to conclude.
If off-roading gets shuts down at the dunes, there’s going to be a riot. And nobody wants that.
Meanwhile, the city of Lompoc swayed the big, bad state regulatory body to think twice about a snowy plover management plan! What? I don’t believe it. City officials are attempting to get Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Coastal Commission to come up with a plover plan that includes human access to more of Surf Beach and less full beach closures—and the commission actually thinks that’s a good idea.
Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne showed up to the commission meeting where Vandenberg was pitching the status quo plover management plan that’s been in place for almost 20 years with a letter in hand questioning why things had to be the way they were. Why are the restrictions at Surf Beach so much more intense than at nearby beaches? The commission didn’t have an answer—so it’s going to find one! Ooh. Democracy in action!
But before you people get too excited, you know what the Sun found out?
It might not actually matter what the commission thinks should happen.
Vandenberg’s jurisdiction over its beaches—and its plover paradise—trumps (no pun intended?) the Coastal Commission’s.
What? The commission isn’t an all-powerful monstrosity of liberal agenda-setting. California, come on, you need to get it together!
The Canary might be a liberal freedom-taker, but likes to keep you guessing. Send thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 4-11, 2019.