More time needed to decide which parks to close

By: Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Neighborhood watch-style groups will have to do the work of rangers to prevent illegal activity in closed state parks unless voters approve a vehicle license fee or some other method is found to save the beleaguered park system, officials and park supporters said Tuesday.

California State Parks officials – who had planned to tell the public this week which state parks were going to be closed this year due to budget cuts – admitted Tuesday that the job of determining which parks to shutter is more complicated than they thought it would be.

As a result, they indefinitely delayed naming the 100 parks to be closed. They also said they did not know when the closures will occur.

“We are involved in a process we didn’t understand was as complicated as it is,” said Roy Stearns, spokesman for the park system.

One big problem, officials said, is that they don’t know exactly how they’re going to keep the public out of closed state parks and beaches. Officials fear a free-for-all among squatters and ruffians for dibs on thousands of acres of unpatrolled parkland.

Hard to fence in

“That’s the difficulty and also the worry as we try to come up with a list of closures,” said Stearns. “It’s pretty impossible to close (many of the beaches and parks) or put a fence around them. People are probably going to go there. We hope they are careful and don’t put themselves at risk.”

Stearns said local sheriff’s deputies will primarily be responsible for patrolling the closed parks, but many state beaches and remote wildland areas will be impossible to supervise adequately.

“We hope there is a kind of statewide neighborhood watch where people make a call if there is something that shouldn’t be there,” Stearns said. “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of our visitors are very watchful of these places and are as disappointed as we are that they are closing. I would suspect people will be eager to be watchful and report unscrupulous activities.”

2010 ballot measure

Stearns said the final list, when it is released, will be a working document that may change if funding changes or if there are new ideas to keep parks open.

One idea is to put a $15 vehicle license fee on the ballot in November 2010. The initiative, being considered by a coalition of environmental groups, would raise about $400 million a year and eliminate entrance fees for motorists at all state parks. . . .

But a ballot initiative is not a sure thing. Legislation for such vehicle fees failed in 2008 and 2009 after Republican lawmakers opposed new taxes. Despite initial support in polls, it is unclear whether cash-strapped voters would agree to another Department of Motor Vehicle fee. . . .

Read the full article in the Chronicle here.