DNCA/FONC/RBDA Preferred Northern Entrance Package
Since 2018, DNCA (subsequently joined by FONC and RBDA) has been fighting for the sole (non-emergency) Northern Trailhead and Parking Lot to be the Mocettini Barn Alternative at the foot and immediately north of the knoll on which BLM’s Warrenella Road Gate Parking Area was proposed. See Mocettini Barn Alternative - 3/18/2022 Preliminary Plan and supporting Notes of RRM (the Landscape Architect).
On 7/21/2021 DNCA, FONC, and RBDA appealed BLM’s decision to place the Northern Entrance at the intersection of Warrenella Road and Cement Plant Road, as well as the Warrenella Top Parking Lot about a mile up Warrenella Road. On 8/31/2022 the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) rendered a Decision in Appellants favor setting aside Implementation Action MA-REC-23 (all north of Davenport parking) and found that Implementation Action MA-REC-24 (Marina Gate Parking Area) is impossible to implement.
The basis of the IBLA order to set aside was “the importance [in the RMPA] of concurrently building both the Warrenella Road Gate and the Marina Ranch Gate Parking Areas and the potential environmental impacts of building only the Warrenella Road Gate Parking Area.” Even though BLM is not in position to build both areas concurrently at this time, it has now started a new environmental review process toward adoption of an Implementation Action for the Northern Entrance. In the interim there is new information or changed circumstances which warrant consideration:
- Warrenella Road Gate Parking Area was rough graded commencing about 13 days prior to the IBLA Decision and while a Petition for Stay had been pending for approximately 100 days. As a result of the Decision, further grading work had to cease.
- Video https://youtu.be/6wGkWoxGxpw of recreation vehicles simultaneously attempting to traverse the Cement Plant Road in opposite directions in a narrow stretch up to 300 feet long commencing about 150 feet south of Mocettini Barn shows that travel by visitors and others to or from an entry/exit adjacent to Warrenella Road is not feasible. See Statement of Don Curfman. Widening is not proposed by either the County or BLM and would not be feasible economically or environmentally.
- The Mocettini Barn Alternative has become even more logical as BLM has received a $2.5 Million Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund Grant for Restoration of Mocettini Barn and that project includes funding to “improve recreation access” and was described by the BLM Field Manager as a Living History Center/Event Center needing parking in the location generally shown in DNCA’s 3/18/2022 Preliminary Plan.
The DNCA/FONC/RBDA “Preferred Northern Entrance” addresses all of the above issues in the Conceptual linked Schematic and Topographic. It would allow the already graded knoll site to be used as Mitigation until the Southern Entrance is implemented (accessed ONLY from the inland end of the Mocettini Barn Parking Area along the inland side of the knoll and up an already-graded access to the graded knoll top); and/or restored or partially restored based on parking demand.
The Southern Entrance must be processed concurrently and constructed within a limited agreed upon time by using the Yellow Bank South Gate Alternative already supported in concept by BLM. See RRM Preliminary Plans.
The way forward should include BLM collecting a baseline inventory as legally required.