22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY november 21-27, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com difficult to see an approval path here,” adding: “MST’s evaluation of potential alternatives seemed to be flawed as they had funding only for their specifically proposed project, and not funding for any other project that might be able to meet project objectives.” Yet as they had for the past five years, MST staff kept the project rolling, trying to get the Coastal Commission’s approval—and all the requisite permits—before a change in the White House come January 2025. That meant bringing the matter before the California Coastal Commission. On Friday, July 26, Coastal Commission staff published a blistering report regarding Monterey-Salinas Transit’s proposed SURF! busway from Marina to Sand City, saying the project was not approvable under the Coastal Act, due to environmental concerns. “While staff believes that [MST] should have opted to not pursue this project as soon as they were informed by staff over five years ago that it was unapprovable, staff also notes that this is a classic symptom of the way transportation project funding in California often works, where funding tends to be allocated for projects well in advance of serious environmental analysis and entitlement processes,” the staff’s report to commissioners stated. The report landed with impact, and the next morning, a Saturday, State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, called Sedoryk to convene a meeting with Coastal Commission staff, along with TAMC, to try to hash out some sort of compromise. A compromise was found: Instead of building the busway adjacent to the rail tracks—sometimes east, sometimes west—Sedoryk agreed to redesign the project on the fly by paving over the rail tracks, per the Coastal Commission’s request, to preserve more dune habitat. That change required approval from TAMC’s board, which unanimously approved it when promised SURF! wouldn’t preclude future rail projects on the easement. With that major realignment in the works, Coastal Commission staff did a 180, or maybe more like a 120-degree turn, and came back with a new report in August that recommended the commissioners approve the project. “This is at least partially because the applicant indicates they have obtained some $92 million in funding for this project,” the Aug. 30 report states, “where most, if not all, can only be used for this particular proposed project, and not for an alternative project.” The momentum was real—like a wave, if you will—and on Sept. 12, when the Coastal Commission convened at the Portola Hotel in Monterey, it seemed going in like an approval was fait accompli. Laird, among others, spoke in support of the project, and several SURF! supporters, some of whom are MST employees, sported white T-shirts MST staffers were giving out in the lobby that read, “I [heart] SURF!” The Commission approved the project with a slew of conditions, with only one dissenting vote, from Dayna Bochco, who bristled at the price tag, among other things. After the vote, MST staff huddled for a picture in the lobby with their T-shirts on, celebrating a hard-won achievement. During a late afternoon break after the vote, several Coastal Commission staff members gathered on the patio at Peter B’s Brewpub, just outside of the meeting room. They exuded a palpable relief for having put the project behind them. Dan Carl, the commission’s director of the Central Coast District, said that while his agency might get sued over the approval, that was nothing new— the Coastal Commission gets sued all the time. But he added that his staff repeatedly told MST they might get sued too. That has not yet happened. But it might. On a sunny Saturday afternoon on Nov. 2, riding a bike north from Sand City to Marina, there are just a handful of people—some walking, some riding—on the Rec Trail east of the railroad tracks. But the Rec Trail is not the name the Coastal Commission has for it—it’s the California Coastal Trail—except that it’s east of the rail tracks, with a chainlink fence in between the two, and Highway 1 to the east. If one were to read a glossy brochure, perhaps advertising real estate, one might get the idea that the trail offers some sort of escape into nature. But that’s not the vibe—the highway is just yards away, and the din of traffic drowns out any birdsong, and dispels the notion of escape. The dune habitat is largely iceplant, an invasive succulent from South Africa brought to California a century ago to help stabilize soil along railroad tracks. In Marina, at the Handcar Tours headquarters west of Del Monte Boulevard and Palm Avenue on the railroad tracks, a dozen-plus people depart southbound on pedal-powered cars along the tracks. Handcar Tours had a lease with TAMC to use the tracks until Oct. 31, but TAMC declined to renew it with the SURF! project on the horizon. But for now Todd Clark, the owner of the company, is still keeping business going as usual—there are certainly no trains on the tracks. As he drives a motorized car down the tracks to give a lay of the land (and the rail), Clark laments that the tracks are going to be paved over for a busway. At various places, he points out the condition of the rail, noting that in one section—in Fort Ord Dunes State Park—the track was built in the 1960s but appears nearly as good as new, capable of carrying a train. He also notes the undulation of the rail line as it carries south down the dunes—it was graded in 1874, and not intended to move trains at a high speed. “It’s like a rollercoaster,” he A view of the Monterey Branch Line tracks looking north toward the 8th Street overpass in Marina. MST staff pose for a celebratory picture after the Coastal Commission approved the SURF! project at a meeting in Monterey on Sept. 12. “This is a classic symptom of the way transportation project funding in California often works.” David Schmalz David Schmalz
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