The Monterey District of California State Parks will hold a public meeting on June 6, 2019 to present its’ plan for initial public tours of the Point Sur Naval Facility located within Point Sur State Historic Park.
The purpose of the meeting is to disseminate information and gather public input prior to offering the initial public tours of the facility. The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. at the Big Sur Station, Multi-Agency Facility, 47555 Highway 1, Big Sur.
Questions, inquiries and comments (for those unable to attend) may be directed to State Parks’ Supervising Ranger D.L. Kraft at dkraft@parks.ca.gov.
Mary Trotter sent me this. It was supposed to be noticed in several local media, but she was unable to locate it, so be sure to share this far and wide. Post to FB, twitter, and/or instagram so we can get the word out.
June 6th at 10 am at the MAF Facility (Big Sur Station next to Cal Trans yard.)
“This will be your chance to ask questions and make comments about viewshed issues. Eleven point 4 million dollars of the Prop 72 money went to preserve the viewshed surrounding this facility. It is therefore important that everything be done to prevent the eye being drawn to the blot in the landscape through parking lots, reflections off of cars, crowds of people milling around, additional signs and night lighting.
Self directed tours are being planned, and they speak of a visitor center. Is this what Big Sur needs now in this period of over-crowding, over-use. New easements and new roads are planned – once again in the viewshed. No water is available. Will the new ADA bathroom also be in the viewshed? Please come and get your questions answered.” Mary Trotter
Guided tours are planned. Solar powered security motion detection lights are planned. Minimal signage is envisioned. The proposed visitors center is an existing building built in 1957ish.. Water needs/supply would be similar to Point Sur Lighthouse. Roads and easements already exist since before1958. Maybe foggy days can minimize the sun glare off of parked cars. 🤞
I am thankful that our eyes can be drawn to a piece of history that assisted in the Cold War effort and provided intelligence information to our military. I look forward to visiting, and volunteering, at the Naval Facility at Point Sur.
I am grateful.
A carry with me a deep sense of gratitude each time I drive the coast along the gorgeous and iconic stretch of land from Hurricane Point to Andrew Molera State Park. It is a gratitude I believe I share with the vast majority of visitors to the Big Sur Coast. It is a gratitude I am perhaps especially conscious of during a new moon late at night! Often I will then stop at a turnout to just sit by the side of the road and enjoy it — and! — if it then also coincides with being a night of no wind so I can look to the west over what looks like a large buckled mirror reflecting the milky way and the stars I simply cannot say anything but Thanks!
I am hopeful.
Hopeful that we will continue to honor the long term preservation of this exceptional part of the California coast and that we will leave it wild and, as it now is in part, used for grazing. It is a hope I know was shared by the people who were involved in buying the development rights of the El Sur Ranch for 11.4 of the 25 millon dollar allowed for in Prop.70.
Thanks to this acquisition this piece of pristine coastline continues today to serve as a powerful reminder of the beauty of creation as well as an inspiration for all to recognize that conservation, protection and restoration can happen if there is a will.
I sometimes stand at the turnout just south of Little Sur, looking out over the pristine Little Sur Beach with the shorebirds running free up and down the beach untouched by man, no footsteps in the sand, no walkways, no turn lanes, no manmade ‘improvements,’ no expanded parking facilities, just the land itself, the gorgeous meeting of land and sea for all to see. In fact one of the images that the California Coastal Commission use on their website as an example of successful coastal preservation is this very beach! I fully understand why they do as I believe we do so along with hundreds of thousands of grateful visitors who gets to enjoy it!
But some say “If we bought it shouldn’t we have access?”
I then ask of people: “What about being able to offer this exceptional vista to your great-grand children? Do you think that would be possible if people had physical access with all that that would entail? I have yet to meet anyone who does not respond by saying in essence: “Oh! Right, absolutely, this is wonderful, let us continue to keep it wild and free of manmade intrusion – what a gift!”
So it does not take long for almost all people to quickly realize that physical access would ruin the very essence of why it is that we enjoy it so much. (And indeed why it is used as an example of successful preservation!) The essence is of course that it is untouched.
So now…on the west side, in the middle of this truly unique, world famous stretch of pristine California coastland (a stretch that the taxpayers of California bought the developments rights for in order to perserve its scenic beauty for all to see!) we are now contemplating building a visitor serving facility!
Of course we cannot do so, it goes against common sense, against the Big Sur Land Use Plan, and against the wishes (I dare to bet) of millions of visitors now and in the future.
No, instead let us take this opportunity to do something truly worthwhile. Let us work together to do remove the Naval Facility let’s do a complete restoration. This! is something that will resonate through future generations, something that will be gaining in value and importance each year (as fewer and fewer untouched coastal vistas will exist in the world). Let us extend the iconic and world famous el sur ranch scenic and agricultural easement, let us give the public an uninterrupted coastal vista from Hurricane Point to Molera. There is in mind my mind no greater use for this land than that.
If I can say to my son that his grand-daughter will be able to drive from Hurricane Point to Molera on a two lane highway in the dark I will be very grateful to the people who made that happen!
Thank you,
Magnus Torén
Executive Director
The Henry Miller Library