Article taken from the Santa
Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Deadline looms as
board OKs bridge
March 15, 2006 8:03 AM
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The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve a $3.9 million plan for a new bridge and entrance road at the Gaviota State Park, saying any more delays would jeopardize emergency federal and state funding for the project.
"It's been languishing for years," said Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who represents the Gaviota coast and 170 Hollister Ranch members who use the park road to get in and out of their gated community. "This creek could be cut off at any time."
County Public Works officials said they must break ground on the bridge by this August to meet a Federal Emergency Management Agency deadline of August 2007 for project completion.
"We need two summer seasons to get the proposed project in and built," said Dace Morgan, a county engineer. "If we redesign the project, it could jeopardize the entire funding package."
Three environmentalist groups -- the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, Urban Creeks Council and Citizens Planning Association -- said Tuesday they would appeal the board's decision to the state Coastal Commission. They contend that the dirt embankment for the entrance road, which is proposed to be 70 feet wide and 780 feet long, would create a dike in a protected wetland, violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Naomi Kovacs, executive director of the Planning Association, suggested that a private developer would never get approval for such a project. Mike Lunsford, the conservancy president, asked the board instead to consider building a raised causeway through the marsh or moving the bridge half a mile north, where the creek passes through a narrow gully.
"The main problem with the proposed project is the raised roadbed," Mr. Lunsford said. "It isolates and removes several acres from the coastal wetland."
In a national competition, the Public Works Department won FEMA funding for the project after the floods of 1998 clogged up a bridge that the county had built out of two abandoned railroad cars. Like many other seasonal crossings in the county, it is usually underwater in heavy rains. When that happens, the park closes and Hollister residents are blocked for hours or days.
But in a Dec. 19, 2005, letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal Environmental Protection Agency opposed issuing a permit for the bridge project, saying it would damage the marsh and channelize the meandering waters of Gaviota Creek. The EPA noted that the creek is located on some of the last remaining rural coastline in Southern California and that it is a habitat for the Southern California steelhead trout, an endangered species.
Two letters, from the state departments of Fish and Game and of Parks and Recreation, questioned the county's calculations of floodwater flows under the proposed bridge.
To allay fears of a bureaucratic tangle, Mr. Firestone announced Tuesday that Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, has arranged an April 14 meeting of officials from Public Works, FEMA, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the project.
"We need to pass this to the agencies who need to work it out," Mr. Firestone said. "If the EPA and Coastal Commission deny the project, then they bear responsibility for it."
Mr. Firestone and North County Supervisors Joni Gray and Joe Centeno voted in favor of the bridge plan on Tuesday. South Coast Supervisors Susan Rose and Salud Carbajal voted against it, saying it should be redesigned.
"Can't we delay this a little bit?" Mr. Carbajal asked. "We have to treat ourselves as we treat private interests. I think it's really important that we not falter in that."
Mr. Carbajal suggested that Hollister Ranch should participate in the cost of redesigning the project. The county has spent $880,000 to design the present plan and perform the environmental review; officials say FEMA is not likely to pay for another design.
Andy Mills, a spokesman for Hollister Ranch, said residents would prefer "a more environmentally friendly alternative" for the bridge project.
"The ranch needs a solution there and is willing to discuss participating in any way possible to get it done," he said.
Mr. Centeno asked what the chances were, if the EPA and Fish and Game opposed the project, that the Coastal Commission would approve it.
"Zero," said Public Works Deputy Director Scott McGolpin.
Nevertheless, he said, the important thing now is not to lose FEMA support.
"Time is not our friend at this point," Mr. McGolpin said. "We really do need to move this on."