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AB-2551 Carnegie Expansion Area Sellout

From the Sierra Club :mad
Next Steps in Legislative Strategy to Save Tesla Park

July 6, 2021
By Friends of Tesla Park

For months there has been work behind the scenes at the Capitol to get language into the budget to preserve Tesla Park as one part of the legislative strategy. The leadership of the Legislature included a Tesla Park item in the preliminary budget passed on June 15, 2021. At the 11th hour, the Governor rejected the Tesla language and said he would line-item veto it if not removed. In the final budget, now passed and signed, the line item about Tesla Park preservation was stricken out.

It is disappointing to know that presently the barrier to Tesla preservation is Governor Newsom himself. (Of note: while the Governor refused to protect Tesla, at the same time he did approve an additional $6.7 million to California State Vehicular Recreation Areas for ‘road construction’ over and above the usual budget allocation.) But we have more legislative options this session that are still active and need our support:

Budget Trailer Bills
Our focus now is to get the Tesla language into the Natural Resources Budget Trailer Bill. While the timing is uncertain, we have to assume the bill could be taken up any time.

We need your help to contact the Governor and his administration and urge them to support the Tesla trailer bill language in the Natural Resources trailer bill. Watch for calls to action beginning next week, send a message using our action form, and call the Governor's office at (916) 445-2841.

Assembly Bill 1512
In addition to the trailer bill process, AB 1512 (Bauer-Kahan) is moving through the Senate, with a hearing on July 8th in the Committee on Natural Resources and Water (agenda here). Please help us get as many people as possible to attend the hearing in person, or call in to support AB 1512.

If you have the opportunity, please thank the elected officials for their continued help and support to preserve Tesla Park. We need them to keep fighting. Senator Glazer and Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan have been great. Alameda County Supervisor Haubert, Senator Wieckowski, Senator Skinner, Assemblymember Ting, Livermore Mayor Woerner, the mayors of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, and Danville, EBRPD, LARPD and ACRCD, and legislative leadership have also all stepped up.

Thank you for all you did last week to call the Governor – and thank you for your continued help as we move to the next stages over the summer. If you have insight on this process, please share.

Thank you for helping to save Tesla Park.

Read more, contact, and follow Friends of Tesla Park:

www.TeslaPark.org
FriendsofTeslaPark@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tesla_park and #saveteslapark
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SaveTeslaPark
Instagram: www.instagram.com/saveteslapark
Friends of Tesla Park is an alliance dedicated to establishing Tesla Park as non-motorized nature and cultural preserve.
 
Wow, just wow. This Friends of Tesla business is disgusting. They've done a good job whipping up the environmentalist with exaggeration and outright deceit. Thanks for the post ThumperX. So ridiculous this effort to "preserve" an area of a former coal mine with piles of tailings, and that is surrounded by the Nuclear testing Lab, a police shooting range, The SRI weapons testing facilities oh, and the Connolly ranch. pathetic
 
You forgot about the dump.
 
I am sending this to my Senator momentarily:
AB 1512
Please oppose the subject legislation.
Garamendi and Connolly do not recognize Off Highway Vehicles/ OHV as legitimate recreation and want to ban it, especially from the Carnegie SVRA.

Garamendi and Connolly consider shooting indigenous wildlife as legitimate recreation, specifically, they sponsor, er sell, elk hunting. They want our state park to enhance their elk killing business by not letting the park operate as they best see fit to serve the public. They think their private interest should supersede that of the general population. Please stop them.

Some legislators have supported the repeated attempts to take this park area from the public. Garamendi and Connolly and their gang have misrepresented OHV activity and the conditions at the park. It is likely these legislators have either been fooled or corrupted.
 
I hope we can stave off yet another attempt to steal the duly acquired Carnegie SVRA expansion property. Thanks for keeping this thread alive. Please use any part of what I wrote to my State Senator and email your State Senator:

SB 799 and AB 1512
Please oppose the these bills. Note the analysis of Governor Newsom's State Finance dept of a very very similar bill SB767 in 2019...
The Department of Finance is opposed to this bill for the following reasons:
• It may result in significant loss to the state through the sale of property at less than fair market value.
• It is not consistent with the approved General Plan for the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area as developed by Parks.
• Parks receives ongoing resources starting with the Budget Act of 2018 to implement environmental standards in off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation areas and minimize the environmental impact of off- highway recreation.
Proponents of the bill argue that the Alameda-Tesla Expansion includes highly sensitive natural and cultural resources which would be damaged by OHV activity. The General Plan and associated Environmental Impact Report for Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area found 70 percent of the land within the Alameda-Tesla Expansion Area to be developable for OHV recreation. Additionally, the approval
process for the General Plan for the park involved significant public and stakeholder input....
Look up the original, it goes on. https://www.dof.ca.gov/Legislative_Analyses/LIS_PDF/19/SB-767-20190805062650PM-SB00767.pdf

Really what is happening...
CarnegieSVRA neighbors, Celeste Garamendi and Mark Connolly, own a sizable property next to the Carnegie SVRA and have for decades misrepresented OHV activity and the conditions at the park. The Connolly Ranch didn't like the results of the approved General Plan and their "friends" put these bills similar to SB799 and AB1512 before our legislature nearly every year. These bills would have the State sell the expansion property (3100acres) for 9million dollars. The same amount that it was purchased for in 1998!!! Of course Celeste Garamendi and Mark Connolly have their priorities but I'll bet they aren't the same as most of your constituents. I understand there needs to be OHV regulation, OHV doesn't deserve to be banned. In California, of the 288 State Parks, 8 allow for OHV activity. Obviously OHV is extremely regulated. Please be reasonable and oppose SB-767 and AB-1015. BTW I consider myself a responsible environmentalist.
Thank You,
 
.:cool

Steal a bit and email my fun loving Government emissary tomorrow. Thanks for the passion Butch.
 
From the ORIA…

CORVA has testified in the legislature against the Carnegie bill, AB 1512 numerous times. Our latest testimony:

Good afternoon Chair and Committee members:
the simple truth to AB 1512 involves those with wealth and political connections seeking to take away land and opportunity from everyday Californians. Contrary to what had been said, research has shown that many of the participants in motorized recreation who travel to Carnegie come from the Central Valley, from traditionally less advantaged communities, with over 40 % between the ages of 25 and 48 identifying as Hispanic. This issue is no different from those with wealth and power who seek to privatize an adjacent beach to their beachfront homes to deprive access to average citizens. We’ve all heard and been appalled by those stories. The wealthy, politically connected individuals local to Carnegie initially signed off on the purchase of the land by the OHV Trust Fund with the understanding it would be used for OHV recreation, using the money in the trust fund derived solely from fees paid by the off-road community.

Now these wealthy and powerful individuals are seeking to take advantage of the off-road community who paid for this park. AB 1512 proposes to create a’de facto’ exclusive preserve, solely to fulfill a private agenda by the wealthy and powerful. This act will deprive children and their families, who paid for the park with their hard-earned money, the opportunity to have fun and enjoy a day in a state park doing what they love to do.
These same local individuals have the money to constantly file lawsuits costing Californians thousand of dollars in order to hamstring State Parks in the management of this area. Simply put, they’ll do anything to get their way. But average Californians can’t file lawsuits year after year seeking their rights to enjoy state parks in the manner everyday, hard- working Californians may choose. The wealthy and politically connected should not have the power to usurp the rights of everyday Californians, but this is exactly what the subtext of AB 1512 accomplishes.

As tough as it is to speak truth to power, AB 1512 isn’t about the environment and isn’t about endangered species because we have an amazing Department of Parks and Recreation that could not, and would
not allow any species or artifacts to be destroyed. Quite the opposite, they protect natural and cultural resources in all state parks regardless of allowed activity. The projected use of this park with its current designation would take up approximately 10 percent of the total land mass while allowing children and families from the Central Valley and Bay Area to have fun in a safe environment. With further environmental protection measures unnecessary, AB 1512 exists solely as an avenue to hurt the people who paid for the purchase and have continued paying for 20 years of management of this property because these people, like me, have been deemed by wealthy and powerful people to be extraneous, unnecessary and unimportant. While the needs of the wealthy take center stage in AB 1512, the needs of the everyday Californian have been discarded.

https://corva.org/resources/Documents/ORIA-Summer-2021-Web.pdf
 
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in the newz today:

Thousands of acres of East Bay wilderness to be preserved under agreement
written by ECT Sep 7, 2021
eastcountytoday.com, 09/07/2021

Thousands of acres of East Bay wilderness threatened by the expansion of an off-highway vehicle park will instead be preserved under an agreement reached Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature, state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Contra Costa) and Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) announced.

The agreement, if approved by the Legislature next week, will end plans to expand the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area into the 3,100-acre Tesla parcel in the southeast corner of Alameda County, which scientists have described as a biologically unique habitat and Native Americans have long considered to be a sensitive historical site.

That land will now become a new state park closed to motorized recreation.

The state will reimburse the Off-Highway Vehicle fund for the purchase price of the land, its appreciation in value, and the money spent planning the expansion, which was opposed from the start 20 years ago by nearby residents and public agencies. That money will go toward the purchase and development of an off-road park at another location.

“This is a win-win for all involved,” Sen. Glazer said. “Our community and region gets to preserve this natural and cultural treasure while the off-road enthusiasts will keep their current park and receive funding to develop another park on land that’s more suitable to that kind of recreation.”

Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan said she was pleased that the agreement will end years of doubt about the fate of the area’s rich biological and cultural resources.

“We are incredibly thankful that the governor has seen Tesla Park’s value and included it in the ongoing protection of critical natural resources,” Bauer-Kahan said. “It has been my great honor to fight alongside Senator Glazer, the Sierra Club, Friends of Tesla Park and countless organizations and individuals to ensure this land will be protected and enjoyed by all of California’s citizens.”

Preserving the Tesla land was a major priority for environmentalists, including the Sierra Club.

“We applaud the decision by the California Legislature and Administration to preserve the important ecological value and biodiversity of Tesla Park by banning off-highway vehicle recreational use,” said Brandon Dawson, director of the Sierra Club California. “Sierra Club California and our local allies have advocated for decades to protect Tesla Park. This agreement represents a major victory for environmentalists across the state.”

“I want to thank Senator Steve Glazer and Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for their persistence to protect this valued land,” Dawson said. “This would not be possible without their championing of the area.”

Nancy Rodrigue, a leading member of the Friends of Tesla Park steering committee and Livermore resident, said she was proud that years of hard work and persistence paid off.

“Tesla Park will now forever be protected with no motorized recreation. The future holds Tesla as a protected native landscape for hikers, history buffs, nature lovers, research and education,” Rodrigue said. “Saving Tesla Park has been a long, difficult, and now rewarding journey. We want to thank the many local officials, public agencies, community organizations and citizens who saw Tesla’s true value – its irreplaceable biodiversity and cultural riches. We are grateful for the tremendous work of so many, including Senator Glazer and Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan, for saving Tesla Park as a legacy for future generations.”

Senator Glazer has been a leading voice in the Legislature to preserve Tesla and turn it into a park for non-motorized use. He has carried legislation every year since 2018 to allow or require the Department of Parks and Recreation to end its plans to expand the Carnegie off-road park and instead preserve the Tesla land, either by selling it to a third party or keeping it under state control.

That effort began as a partnership with former Assembly Member Catharine Baker of Livermore. Baker helped rally local officials to the cause, but Glazer’s early bills, while passing in the Senate, were blocked in the Assembly despite Baker’s support.

Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan joined the battle to save the Tesla parcel after her 2018 election and was able to persuade her fellow Assembly members, including the leadership, to join the Senate’s effort to preserve the land.

With both houses of the Legislature united, Glazer and Bauer-Kahan were finally able to convince the Newsom Administration this year that the idea of expanding the Carnegie park was doomed to failure.

Their argument was bolstered by a Superior Court judge’s ruling that the State Department of Parks and Recreation’s 2016 environmental impact report and general plan for Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area, which included opening the Tesla land to off highway vehicle (OHV) recreation, was legally invalid.

“I want to thank Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for their vision in seeing that this land was not appropriate for off-road vehicle use and for finding a way to preserve it,” Glazer said. “I also want to thank Gov. Newsom for taking a fresh look at this issue and agreeing to move in a new and better direction.”

The agreement will repay the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund $18.3 million for the estimated current value of the land plus $2.4 million that the fund used for planning the current park’s expansion. Another $11.5 million will be set aside for planning and construction of an alternative off-road park, while $1 million will go toward turning the Tesla property into a non-OHV park.

The Tesla land offers rare and valuable diversity such as Blue Oak woodland, mountain savannah grassland, scrub sage, and riparian woodlands. It is a richly biodiverse area that has drawn naturalists, ecologists, zoologists, and other scientists to that land for more than 100 years to study nature and natural systems.

It has been known by generations of scientists for its extraordinary biodiversity, including numerous threatened and endangered species. It is a critical linkage wildlife habitat corridor, a California Native Plant Society botanical priority protection area and Audubon important bird area. Native Californian archaeological and ceremonial sites and the historic town site and coal mine of Tesla are also located on the 3,100 acre Tesla site.
Click to expand...

tl/dr: so, there you go ... :dunno
 
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The article is still greatly distortrd, but yeah, a deal was struck on Friday afternoon. Our pals at CORVA were largely involved. If “Another $11.5 million will be set aside for planning and construction of an alternative off-road park…” happens as hoped we might all be happy.

More later as it becomes available.

Though Celeste and the Haters may never be happy, bless them.

And that article is full of the same bullshit Celeste has been spewing for years.

Please join CORVA https://corva.org/
They are really doing a lot for the OHV community.
 
Better than the 9 million they previously proposed..still got screwed.

Wonder where the "land more suitable to that kind of recreation" is....we were already riding an area with munitions testing and old mining drag out. The new place will be a de-activated nuclear waste site? Naw, too many endangered species (abeit mutated ones) in that environment, maybe East Oakland.

The real benefits of a plated enduro are clear, may the Conolly ranch burn to ash in the next big complex fire.
 
Brought to us by the same folks that have sold out PT. Reyes National Seashore and who implemented the slow slaughter by starvation and dehydration of the Tule Elk. I swear I want to stop eating beef and dairy.
 
And furthermore, those same representatives are the ones touting immediate behavior mods to combat climate change but cattle and single crop ag are exempt!!! :rant

Ooooooo I get so angry at the hypocrisy!
 
Well that's incredibly disappointing. No mention of who will be administering the new Park. State, East Bay Parks... Doubtless the 18 million will evaporate and we will see nothing new for OHV recreation in the Bay Area. That was a lot of work by a lot of people and a special interest group with connections overturns all. Id sure like more info on how all that General Plan work was illegal. Seems hard to believe that so much money and professional effort would make mistakes like that. I wonder if the judge was picked that would agree to change the rules of the game in the 4th quarter. Thanks for all the work Butch, ThumperX, et al keeping the community appraised of what do do and what was going on.
 
:wowSounds like it is officially dead...
 

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It looks like the final use of the land is not determined, other than "no OHV".

AB155 said:
SEC. 21. Section 5090.42 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
5090.42.
(a) For purposes of this section, “land” means the land known as the
“Alameda-Tesla Expansion Area,” which encompasses approximately 3,100
acres in the County of Alameda and is currently part of Carnegie State
Vehicular Recreation Area.
 (b) (1) The department shall use the
designation process, pursuant to Article 1.7 (commencing with Section
5019.50) of Chapter 1, and planning process, pursuant to Section 5002.2,
to determine the best use of the land. The land shall not be designated
as a state vehicular recreation area, as defined in Section 5090.14.1.
Click to expand...
 
 
I’m having a hard time understanding the ultimate fate of Carnegie SVRA from reading these two articles:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/article/Off-road-state-park-near-Livermore-debated-4008139.php

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loc...ace-to-become-state-park-in-31m-deal/2652345/

The NBC article states “The deal would to keep the area from becoming part of a neighboring off-road vehicle park.” implying that Carnegie will remain its current size even after the deal passes (about 4000 acres) instead of expanding into the Tesla parcel, which would’ve added 3100 acres to a grand total of 4000 +3100 = 7100 acres.

Is this understanding correct or will they simply remove Carnegie SVRA altogether and build a new OHV park as the OHV “receive funding to develop another park on land that’s more suitable to that kind of recreation” (NBC article).

Seems like the quote from Sen. Glazer in the NBC article “the off-road enthusiasts will keep their current park” means Carnegie will remain at 4000 acres after the bill passes.
 
The comical article is way old.
The NBC one is the same twisted Celeste crap.

As far as the existing SVRA, no changes. We don’t get to develop the 3100 acre expansion area for OHV. It’s gonna be kinda regular state park.
 
Coe developments:

Join CORVA for a "First Look"
Visit at Henry Coe State Park
Members, Member Clubs, Business Sponsors and CORVA Friends are invited to join us for a “First Look” and visit.
Henry Coe State Park
Please register for the visit at:
www. Corva.org
Friday April 29th, 2022 Starting at 9:00am Bring supplies and dress appropriately for walking
Map to Bell Station
From SB 155 (2021):
When considering acquisition and development of properties to expand off-highway vehicle recreation opportunities, the department may prioritize properties that have potential to serve large urban areas such as the Bay Area and Central Valley, offer potential recreational opportunities for off highway vehicle recreation, and potential opportunities for motorized access to nonmotorized recreation. Properties for consideration may include areas within existing State Parks and State Recreation Areas, including, but not limited to, Henry Coe State Park.
For more information, contact Amy Granat at info@corva.org
 
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