Article taken from the
Santa Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Abandoning
seashore plan disheartening
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a Letter to the Editor
Voice From Santa Barbara: Antonia Robertson
03/18/04
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The East Coast has nine national seashores and the West Coast, much longer, has one. Anyone who has driven from Los Angeles to San Diego and seen the urban sprawl all along the coast will share my disappointment that the National Park Service has abandoned the proposal to designate the Gaviota coast a national seashore.
Although Gaviota was deemed a national treasure, the abandonment was due to opposition by local landowners who didn't want the public in their neighborhood. Thus, the best interests of the environment, recreation and the majority of citizens are tyrannized by a selfish minority who put up $300,000 to defeat preservation of this gorgeous stretch of coast.
The Gaviota coast is the last sizable coastal open space left in Southern California, and opponents said just leave it the way it is. But without protection there is tremendous pressure for development, which already happened at the Bacara Resort, and is threatened at Naples and Dos Pueblos, the choicest spots.
We must all support the Sierra Club, Gaviota Coast Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, Surfrider and local groups that work to protect our coast. We must also demand that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointment of new California Coastal Commission members be not just politically expedient but people who are dedicated to the mission of the commission: the protection of our coast.
We need all the help we can get to save what's left in Gaviota and elsewhere for our kids and their kids. Once it's gone it doesn't come back.
Antonia Robertson lives in Santa Barbara.
Debate has raged over plans for the National Park Service to take over the Gaviota coast.