REDWOOD NEEDLES Presented by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter Newsletter, The REDWOOD NEEDLES Return to Article Menu Redwood Needles April 1999   Coastal Commission to consider Gualala Town Plan By Julie Verran The California Coastal Commis-sion will meet at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa in mid-May, in response to environmental concerns about the Gualala Town Plan (GTP), which affects the estuary/lagoon of the Gualala River at the Sonoma-Mendocino county line. This will be an unusual opportunity for the Commission to hear from southern Redwood Chapter members about other coastal issues as well. Drivers who head north on Highway 1 past Salt Point State Park and Sea Ranch come to Gualala Point Regional Park, which extends along the bank of the Gualala River on both sides of the highway. This park was proposed for addition to Salt Point State Park by the 1998 Sonoma County Grand Jury. Local people worked hard thirty years ago to preserve the Mendocino County bank of the river as well but the county Board of Supervisors declined. Views from the park looking toward the town of Gualala across Gualala River estuary/lagoon are classic. The Coastal Commission can approve the Gualala Town Plan, which allows the Mendocino County bank of the river to be developed, or can return the GTP to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors for more work and public hearings. The Gualala Town Plan would allow Gualala Redwoods, Inc., to build a large resort with limited public access and a possible marina on the Mendocino County side of the Gualala River, which still supports native steelhead and coho salmon; and to log, over time, 480 acres of the timber within the town for conversion to a "Residential Reserve." Residents of Sea Ranch and Jenner are currently opposing proposals by the same company. Almost 150 years ago, lumbermen from New England discovered redwood trees larger than they could have imagined in the Gualala River watershed. To get them out they built a railroad up the river and loading chutes for timber schooners on the coast. Logs shipped out of Gualala built the city of Berkeley and the early buildings of the University of California. No archaeological or historic preservation element is included in the town plan for the remnants of the railroad, or of a historic Chinese village at China Gulch. The Coastal Commission Resource Guide published in 1987 lists Robinsons Landing, with remains of timber chutes and the old railroad, as the principal coastal resource in Gualala. It is just across the county line from the park. Around 1990, the coastal railroad easement was subdivided into large lots through certificates of compliance. Develop-ment of this land is also threatened, including the scenic Robinsons Landing headland at the river mouth. Zoning changes in the GTP increase the allowable density. The Gualala Town Plan would revise the Mendocino County Local Coastal Plan to allow 100 second residential units to be built on lots east of Highway 1. Second units are now prohibited in the LCP. North Coast river activists believe there is not enough water in the Gualala River for development allowed in the GTP. The Gualala is one of the North Coast streams listed as impaired as salmonid habitat under the federal Clean Water Act. Activists also contend that sewer and road capacity is not adequate to support development allowed in the GTP. Local activists asked that a geologic hazards element be added to the GTP, but this was not done, although a series of landslides has damaged at least 14 parcels west of Highway 1 within the GTP area, which is about 1.5 miles square. Gualala is sand-wiched between the San Andreas Fault on the ridge and a near-offshore fault-see the seismic column on the weather page of the Press Democrat on Saturdays. The downtown appears vulnerable to a tsunami, but no tsunami plan was included in the GTP, though Point Arena and Fort Bragg do have such plans. What you can do. Write to Jo Ginsberg, California Coastal Commission, 45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105-2219. Contact Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Reilly who is also a Coastal Commissioner, asking him to support addition of Gualala Point County Park to Salt Point State Park as recommended by the 1998 Sonoma County Grand Jury. Plan to attend the Coastal Commission meeting at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa in May. The exact date of the Gualala Town Plan hearing is not yet set. There will be oppor-tunity for public input every day on any coastal subject. The Commission usually hears from the public before lunch, which can be any time from 11:30 to 1:30. People are usually allowed two to three minutes each to speak. For more information call Julie Verran at (707) 884-3740. Julie Verran was editor of the Redwood Needles in the early 1980s.   Return to Article Menu Last updated on 3/02/99 Comments or suggestions? Drop us a line at heyneedles@aol.com