1 Moss, Julia
From: City Clerk General Email
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 7:42 AM
To: Scollick, Phil; Moss, Julia
Subject: FW: Public Comment, Oral Communication
From: Camilla Rang <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 9:37 PM
To: City Clerk General Email <CityClerk@san‐marcos.net> Subject: Public Comment, Oral Communication
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear City clerk of San Marcos,
Please read the following General Public Oral communication aloud at your next city council meeting on Jan 11, 2022.
"Dear San Marcos City Council,
I am a very concerned California citizen. On Jan 20, NCTD will vote on whether they should forego the Coastal Act and go after sole decision-making power over the bluff and beach of Del Mar and, against the rules of the Coastal Act and the wishes of Del Mar, install a 1.7 mile long ecologically and geologically destructive fence. This is not only about Del Mar.
This is about NCTD not ever having to go through California Coastal Commission again, whose mission it is to protect our coastline, therefore the Coastal Act. If NCTD never again has to negotiate with any city on whose land the NCTD has laid their tracks, there will be no more protection of public access, no more environmental or geological reports. There will be no more negotiations about height or placement of fences, nor construction. They will get free reins and I can guarantee that your town will be next. Please advice your NCTD board member to vote No on Jan 20. NCTD should have to follow the same rules as everyone else and go through the California Coastal Commission for constructions.
Yesterday, I sent you an email where I have attached the bullying and truth-twisting letter from NCTD to Del Mar where they said they will proceed with their decision to fence Del Mar. I also attached the very concerned letter that the California Coastal Commission sent to SANDAG in regards to NCTD’s action, pleading with them to stand up for the Coastal Act as co-applicants to the fencing grant that NCTD is relying on. I hope you have had the opportunity to read them both. This is a very urgent matter for our whole region.
In my letter yesterday, I also attached a graph that shows where on the 1.7 mile bluff stretch the accidents happen and where a fence is needed. Not along the whole bluff. 2 The coastal act needs to be followed with an Environmental Impact Report and an independent geological report.
Please, advice your NCTD board member to vote No on Jan 20 for the sake of all of California and to protect the Coastal Act! Don’t be the ones approving NCTD to become the dictators of our coast.
Thank you so much.
Camilla Rang"
159 10th Street, Del Mar, CA 92014
Cell: 858 353 1948
1 Moss, Julia
From: City Clerk General Email
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 10:16 AM
To: Scollick, Phil; Moss, Julia
Subject: FW: Public Comment - Oral Communication
From: Richard Olson <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 10:04 AM
To: City Clerk General Email <CityClerk@san‐marcos.net> Subject: Public Comment ‐ Oral Communication
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
I write to you as a retired train service employee of 32 years in regards to the San Marcos and the NCTD upcoming vote on fencing off a portion of the coastal train right‐of‐way as there are other avenues to consider, such as. 1.) Reduce the train speed through this area, the train could easily make up speed once out of the proposed fencing area. 2.) Create a rail pedestrian crossing gate with lights on the most pedestrian walking traveled areas, for example at the Del Mar 8th Street area of the bluff. As a retired locomotive engineer myself I feel the pain for the train crew traveling this route, but fencing would do more harm than good to the environment and to the people transversing this area. I urge the City of San Marcos NCTD Representatives to re‐consider other options to fencing the area and vote “NO” or table the NCTD January 20th vote on this issue.
Respectfully yours,
Richard Olson
3857 Pell Place, Unit 107
San Diego, CA 92130
760‐310‐0179
[email protected]
Sent from Mail for Windows
1 Moss, Julia
From: City Clerk General Email
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 5:36 PM
To: Scollick, Phil; Moss, Julia
Subject: FW: Public Comment, Oral Communication
From: John Stahl <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 5:14 PM
To: City Clerk General Email <CityClerk@san‐marcos.net> Subject: Public Comment, Oral Communication
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
I’m John Stahl and I live in Del Mar and am speaking with you today to urge you to get in the fight to save not only a regional asset, but a national treasure.
NCTD is holding a vote on January 20th to approve fencing off the entire upper bluff in Del Mar and additionally adding fencing at the track level for 1.7 miles that will eliminate beach and recreational access to the million plus visitors that come to Del Mar every year to enjoy the beach,
the birds, the scenic views and the sunsets.
Using NCTD’s own data, one can easily see that the issues are from Coast Blvd to 2 tenths of a mile south of that crossing.
Any fencing south of there is merely bureaucratic overreach
Drilling 2,000 fence post holes that are 3 feet deep and filled with concrete will only allow more water intrusion into an already fragile bluff.
This makes absolutely no common sense
The California Coastal Commission issued a letter to SANDAG dated January 5th that calls the NCTD plan disjointed and inefficient. The letter goes on to say that the NCTD plan has the potential to result in significant adverse impacts to both coastal access and recreation.
The Commission letter adds that the NCTD stabilization plan will prevent the natural erosion processes that nourish the beaches.
Lastly, the letter states that he proposed improvements and/or fencing would significantly disrupt or eliminate pedestrian access on existing,
informal access trails along the bluffs and down onto the beach that have been heavily used by the public for decades to traverse the blufftop,
enjoy scenic coastal views and access the beach and ocean. Together, these projects could have very significant impacts to existing and
historic public coastal access and recreation.
2 I am calling on you to influence anyone who sits on the NCTD Board and have them vote NO on this ill conceived fencing plan on January 20th.
Thank you for your time and Happy New Year
From: Drew Cady
To: City Clerk General Email
Subject: comment regarding NCTD plan to fence the Del Mar Bluff Date: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 12:36:44 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear City Clerk:
Please submit my comments below for today’s City Council meeting, Item 21-1766, North County Transit District Report.
Thank you very much,
Drew Cady
Dear City Council Members of San Marcos:
NCTD’s determination to move forward with full height fencing along the entire railway on the Del Mar bluff, is being falsely presented as an issue of pedestrian safety, when in fact it is abundantly clear that this is being forced upon Del Mar for one purpose only: NCTD intends to double the number of trains/day and increase their speed by 20 miles per hour. Those of us who live nearby, have witnessed a tremendous acceleration in bluff erosion in these past few years, with several major bluff collapses. Though SANDAG has done periodic work to try to protect the train line from this erosion, no amount of armouring of the bluff is going to insure that a train won’t fall in these next two decades. And the destruction of natural habitat, left in the wake of this work has been abysmal. It is unthinkable that NCTD is systematically shutting off coastal access to one community after another while simultaneously coercing these cities to accept liability for any accident or other issue that occurs on this train line, in exchange for a lower more aesthetically pleasing barricade. This bullying tactic, of eliminating all local voice of the City of Del Mar and openly defying the very mission of the California Coastal Commission is a dangerous precedent and I implore you to reject this fencing plan on the Del Mar Bluff. Look at the real facts here: the vast majority of accidents and fatalities have occurred within 2/10ths of a mile of the one regulated surface crossing at Coast Boulevard. That is where additional safeguards need to be created, including a better barricade at the car cross and fencing on either side of the track leading away from this crossing along that portion of the bluff. Why has NCTD ignored all of the scientific evidence that clearly shows that fencing will further weaken the bluff? It is also clear that seawalls along the beach will disrupt the natural replenishment of sand and lead to further bluff erosion without a beach to buffer sea rise.
Threatening coastal cities with legal liabilities is a treacherous tactic which abandons good governance in favour of an extortion-like tactic which has no place in our democracy. PLEASE~! Vote no on fencing the Del Mar bluff! Sincerely,
Drew Cady
Del Mar resident for 34 years
From: Moss, Julia
To: Moss, Julia
Subject: FW: Please oppose fencing on Del Mar Bluff
Date: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 2:41:13 PM
Julia Moss | Deputy City Clerk |
T: (760) 744-1050 x3100
Begin forwarded message:
From: Drew Cady <[email protected]>
Date: January 11, 2022 at 12:12:59 PM PST
To: "Jones, Rebecca" <[email protected]>
Subject: Please oppose fencing on Del Mar Bluff
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear Mayor Rebecca Jones :
NCTD’s determination to move forward with full height fencing along the entire railway on the Del Mar bluff, is being falsely presented as an issue of pedestrian safety, when in fact it is abundantly clear that this is being forced upon Del Mar for one purpose only: NCTD intends to double the number of trains/day and increase their speed by 20 miles per hour. Those of us who live nearby, have witnessed a tremendous acceleration in bluff erosion in these past few years, with several major bluff collapses. Though SANDAG has done periodic work to try to protect the train line from this erosion, no amount of armouring of the bluff is going to insure that a train won’t fall in these next two decades. And the destruction of natural habitat, left in the wake of this work has been abysmal. It is unthinkable that NCTD is systematically shutting off coastal access to one community after another while simultaneously coercing these cities to accept liability for any accident or other issue that occurs on this train line, in exchange for a lower more aesthetically pleasing barricade. This bullying tactic, of eliminating all local voice of the City of Del Mar and openly defying the very mission of the California Coastal Commission is a dangerous precedent and I implore you to reject this fencing plan on the Del Mar Bluff. Look at the real facts here: the vast majority of accidents and fatalities have occurred within 2/10ths of a mile of the one regulated surface crossing at Coast Boulevard. That is where additional safeguards need to be created, including a better barricade at the car cross and fencing on either side of the track leading away from this crossing along that portion of the bluff. Why has NCTD ignored all of the scientific evidence that clearly shows that fencing will further weaken the bluff? It is clear that seawalls along the beach will disrupt the natural replenishment of sand and lead to further bluff erosion without a beach to buffer sea rise.
Threatening coastal cities with legal liabilities is a treacherous tactic which abandons good governance in favour of an extortion-like tactic which has no place in our democracy. PLEASE~! Vote no on fencing the Del Mar bluff!
Sincerely,
Drew Cady
Del Mar resident for 34 years