Matt McClain From Surfrider Foundation Speaks Out About Save Trestles Victory

josh hunter

• December 18 2008
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The Department of Commerce today upheld the California Coastal Commission’s objection to a proposal to construct a 16-mile toll road connecting California state Route 241 to Interstate 5 in southern Orange and northern San Diego counties. More details HERE.

The landmark decision all-but-seals the fate of the toll roads alignment, which threatened the San Mateo Creek Watershed, State Park lands, and of course the world-class surf break, Trestles.

Transworld Business got an exclusive interview with Matt McClain, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Surfrider Foundation just moments after the announcement. Here’s what McClain had to say:

Congrats on today’s victory! What’s going on over at the Surfrider office this morning?

We’re trying to make sure our messaging and media are really tight and then we’re just going to move forward from there.

A lot of work went into this over the last few years, and the funny thing is that it’s never really over. If it’s not the TCA, then somewhere, someone down the road is going to have some stupid idea to put another toll road or something in there, and we just kind of have to stand our ground.

For right now, I’d say it’s about as close to impossible for the TCA to get this project pushed through.

So this was kind of the final nail on the coffin?

I think so. They have an opportunity to appeal this decision. If they appeal it then it goes to the 9th district court, but the chances of them winning that are pretty slim. And those things take years. Plus, that would be one more lawsuit on top of two pending lawsuits they have right now with California Environmental Qualities Act (SEQA), and they are also facing probably insurmountable loses on their bond issues.

I don’t know if you saw that, but there was an article going around this morning from the OC Register that all the bonds they would use to pay for this road are gone because the bottom fell out of the market. So they literally have no money. So I think between all the road blocks that we’ve thrown up there combined with the money issues, and this ruling from the SOC, there’s probably no way that they can get this thing through.

So naturally it’s time for them to start and look for other options; not just the TCA, but certainly our state and federal officials, to try and deal with some of the traffic solutions that more effective and less environmentally impactful.

If I understand the whole thing correctly, the toll road was never really the issue, rather the specific alignment of the road that they proposed was the problem, right?

Exactly, it’s always been about the alignment. It’s not necessarily the toll road. We’re not pro or con toll road. Our problem is the alignment, which takes it through the San Mateo Creek Watershed and through the State Park. Had this road gone down the Pico alignment or gone through another place that didn’t have negative impacts you wouldn’t have heard a single “boo” from us.

Why was the TCA so adamant about that particular alignment?

The thing to remember about the TCA is that they like to position themselves like they’re the answer to traffic solutions, and they’re not. If they were fully and honestly focused on traffic solutions then they’d be putting in HOV lanes, they’d be looking at light rail, they’d be looking at municipal transit solutions, like buses. They don’t do that. All the TCA does is build toll roads. That’s their job, that’s what they do. So they want to put those toll roads in whether they are needed or not.

I think they chose this particular alignment because they thought it’d be the easiest one to get through. They were wrong. They sorely underestimated the will of the people and the effectiveness of the non-profit’s abilities to rally people.

Could this decision be considered a landmark? Could it potentially set a precedent for future cases?

Absolutely. If the ruling had gone against us it would have set a dangerous precedent in that it would allow the federal government to trump state’s abilities to manage their own recreational, economic, and environmental resources.

How are you guys feeling right now after hearing the outcome this morning?

We’re ecstatic and elated. It’s incredibly validating, partially for the work we’ve put into it and all the people that came down to the hearings put in. But, in a larger sense it’s incredibly validating for grassroots activism.

There has been a lot of cause and opportunity for people to be cynical and pessimistic over the last eight years. There’s been a lot of stuff where we’ve seen our environment and our freedoms eroded, and sometimes that makes you feel like you don’t have a leg to stand on or an avenue to fight back.
In this situation, this was a grassroots victory. This is something where the people came in and took a stand.

I think that when people look back at this they’ll say ‘Hey, maybe if we do turn out and support grassroots efforts we actually can make a difference and change our world.”

Things have been pretty quite since the hearing. Have you guys been kind of in the dark since then? And if not, what steps have you been taking since the hearing?

No, not at all. Actually, in September we knew that the hearing was expressly to get comments in front of the Secretary of Commerce. What we’ve been doing since then is preparing ourselves for this decision.

Fortunately for us it went in our favor, but if it didn’t we were fully prepared to take on that appeal, and like I said, we have three other pieces of litigation that are pending against these guys.

We were ready five, six, seven steps down the road. It was almost a no lose proposition for us today because since we won today it’s pretty much it for the TCA. But if we lost today we were ready to continue this fight and drag this thing out for years. It was a long road for them either way.

It really speaks to the sophistication of this campaign. We weren’t pinning our hopes on any one thing. We really had a depth to this campaign that is really, quite frankly, what has allowed us to win.

So where does the focus shift now? What are the immediate next steps?

The next steps are to try and put the pressure on the TCA and our state and local officials that supported this toll road and trying to get them to realize that it’s time to start looking at alternatives, and start embracing alternatives.

These alternatives are better suited to deal with traffic problems and they’re not going to have anywhere near the environmental damage that this toll road project presents. So they need to get onboard with that. So, what we’re going to be doing right now is trying to get them to embrace this.

What if the TCA appeals the decision?

Regardless of what options the TCA decides to pursue, if they are contrary to our goals then we are going to fight them the entire way down the line. So we’re not holding back. We’ve got these guys in a hammerlock, and we’re going to make them tap out!