Lighthouse trail, beach access permitted

"I think the environment got worked over today, but it wasn't a complete loss," said San Gregorio rancher Ron Sturgeon who was hopeful the chair of the Coastal Commission will look into resolving what Sturgeon describes as a conflict between agricultural and recreational use.

He had appealed to the Coastal Commission when San Mateo County approved plans for four hiking trails, a seating area, an informational kiosk and an overlook to Whaler's Cove just north of Pigeon Point Light Station. Sturgeon has 60 days to appeal the Coastal Commission's decision and file a civil lawsuit - but he said he won't sue.

"I want to see that the right thing is done. You don't get anywhere forcing people to do what they don't want to do," Sturgeon said.

Peninsula Open Space Trust, a nonprofit land conservation organization, had purchased the three-acre property adjacent to the lighthouse and hostel for $2.65 million in 2000 and had conveyed it to California State Parks. Sturgeon had hoped that the deed of conveyance would contain a restriction allowing trail closures of up to 15 days a year to conduct farming operations and pesticide applications by a tenant farmer.

An agreement

Instead POST, the state of California and San Mateo County will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding that would allow trail closures of up to 15 days. The MOU would be recorded against the title in perpetuity regardless of ownership, said POST Vice President Walter Moore who attended the Coastal Commission meeting in Costa Mesa.

However, Sturgeon said farmers have little ability to invoke the MOU as tenants of a landlord who is an operator of trails.

"The deed restrictions would have run with the land forever to the extent we can't see into the future. The land around the lighthouse is some of the most valuable agricultural land on the face of the earth. It's a deplete-able resource if you don't take care of it," he said.

The commissioners found no substantial issue with regards to adequate public parking, trespassing in agricultural fields, public safety during pesticide applications, theft of produce and harm to rocky tidal areas.

The contentions raised in the appeal were also a non-issue to Joe Muzzi, who leases the land from POST and has farmed next door to the world-famous lighthouse for 50 years. According to a Coastal Commission staff report, the crops grown in the field have typically required no more than five pesticide applications per year and were usually applied late in the day or during early-morning hours when winds were light and visitors to the lighthouse were few.

"It's come down to we have to share open land and open space. People want to use the place. The ocean, the fields; It's beautiful. They're confined in offices all day long. As long as they don't interfere with me, I won't interfere with them," Muzzi said.

Trails will link

Across the road from where Muzzi raises artichokes, leeks and pumpkins, the former owner had erected the cyclone fence around the property which will remain until the trails are completed. The trails will eventually link with the California Coastal Trail. In the coming months, POST will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars removing a partially-built, nine-unit motel and tin warehouse, re-seeding the lot with native plants and building the trails, seating area, kiosk and overlook.

"It was a great outcome to what would have been there," said Lennie Roberts, a volunteer and legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, a land preservation group. "It's a little beach, but 10,000 school children used the tide pools to study marine science before the former owner fenced it off."

The motel project was too large for the site and would have to be over-engineered with a filtration system, a sewer system, a desalination plant, parking and a criss-crossing field of drains, but the most egregious aspect of the project was to block access to Whaler's Cove.

Katie Sanborn, a former docent at the Pigeon Point Light Station said it was beyond comprehension that someone would object to a trail that would provide access to Whaler's Cove. In the late '90s, she and fellow docents watched as the land was transformed from a trashy, weed lot with decaying structures into a construction zone for the poorly-located motel.

"We were thrilled to get rid of an eyesore, then the cyclone fence went up and motel construction stopped. It was another eyesore. Tourists would ask about the construction and the fence and ways to get to the beach. When POST acquired the property and turned it over to the public, everyone was ecstatic," Sanborn said.

Through the years, Sturgeon said POST has had many good projects, but he feels the organization has taken too much land out of agricultural production for easements to build trails. POST will maintain a 10 to 12 feet easement through the three-acre property to build Mel's Lane, an access trail to Whaler's Cove and three other hiking trails that will eventually connect with the California Coastal Trail. He also likened the tide pools in Whaler's Cove to the tide pools in Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, north of Half Moon Bay.

"The tide pools at Whaler's Cove are exquisite, the same as Fitzgerald to north. The people have loved it to death. The county has spent a great deal of money to restore the tide pools that have been trampled and pilfered. I wished I didn't have to go through this with POST and wished there was a satisfactory way of preserving the trail and agriculture and the biotic resources," he said.