By Steve Pezman, San Clemente
The letter from Peter Cassimatis in the April 21-27 edition of the San Clemente Times with a list of San Clemente City Council faux pas over the years reflects a personal slant. Perhaps it would be fair to also include a list of their positive actions, to offer a balance of good vs. bad? Then, in my opinion, the letter stated The Toll Roads project would have provided a community service. As I recall, the City Council majority was in support of that project. Lucky for us, it was defeated by a broad coalition of surfers, naturalists and environmentalists who found greater value in maintaining aesthetics and quality of life for generations to come than in supporting a convenience for that small portion of the traffic on I-5 heading towards the 241, and to larger extent developers, land owners and adjacent cities who stood to gain financially along the proposed route. Also, the claim that Trestles is an exclusive domain for local surfers is naive. The breaks there are frequented somewhat equally by both locals, by more distant but drivable round-trippers and by surfers from all over the surfing world, collectively constituting approximately 250,000 visits a year, with an average duration of about four hours per visit, which equates to that resource providing about a million hours of accessible, affordable, high value recreation per year at a very low cost. In my opinion, it’s an asset worth protecting from any form of degradation.
Editor’s note: The 241 Toll Roads extension project planned for south of San Clemente was rejected by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board on March 16, 2015.
Good points Steve. There were clear frustrations in that letter that spanned a timeline of issues that began from before the turn of the century. It was more about a frustration with a macro level mindset of conservation, than about our city residents or leadership.