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COMMISSION DENIES RESORT PLAN In a historic decision, the California Coastal Commission voted 7-5 to reject a proposal by the Hearst Corporation to build four resorts and a golf course along the coast of San Simeon in northern San Luis Obispo County. The vote was the culmination of more than a year of work by environmentalists, ranchers and farmers, small business owners and native Americans to prevent the destruction of one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. Hearst, which owns 18 miles of coastline below the famous Hearst Castle, had proposed to build a dude ranch, a castle resort, resorts on San Simeon Point and in the Cove, and a mile long coastside golf course. More than 1,100 people opposed to the project attended the meeting (and more than 10,000 people wrote letters of support) and contributed longer than 12 hours of public testimony on the matter. Journalists from around the country covered the meeting, which was broadcast on television. In all it was one of the most dramatic, most well attended and most important meetings ever held by the Commission. The Hearst Corporation actually doomed its own developments. Lawyers representing the corporation stated, "...we will not accept less," in referencing their demand to convert agricultural lands, destroy significant cultural and sensitive environmental resources, suck water sources dry and eliminate historic public-access trails. The demands and unwillingness to compromise offended the public and Commissioners alike. 2002 Update: Unfortunately the heady days of 1998 gave way to the dog years of foot dragging by the County of San Luis Obispo and the Hearst Corporation. The County (on behalf of Hearst) rejected the Coastal Commission's 1998 decision, about a year after the Commission's decision. Today a number of studies and negotiations are under way. SLO County and Hearst are at work on a new environmental analysis designed to somehow try to justify and legitimize the same old resorts they sought to build in 1998. Meanwhile the Coastal Commission has concluded a vastly superior environmental analysis of the entire SLO Coast in the form of a Local Coastal Plan (LCP), which recommends that the entire Hearst Ranch be updated and rezoned to permit only agricultural operations. In addition, the Hearst Corporation is currently negotiating with the Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund for sale of some or all of the ranch. While the negotiations are being conducted in secret, the Sierra Club has created a mailer that allows members of the public to contact the two environmental conservancies to urge that they only agree to participate in a deal with Hearst under the condition that no resorts be constructed. Join thousands of other people across the United States who have sent letters and postcards to these land trusts urging that the Hearst Ranch be permanently protected. Up to Top |
