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SB-1338 Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.(2003-2004)

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Amended  IN  Senate  April 16, 2004
Amended  IN  Senate  April 21, 2004

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2003–2004 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1338

Introduced  by  Senator Morrow, Hollingsworth
 (Principal Coauthor(s): Assembly Member La Suer)
 (Coauthor(s): Senator Ashburn, Johnson)
 (Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Benoit, Maddox, Pacheco, Plescia, Samuelian, Wyland)

February 18, 2004

An act to add and repeal Section 5012.3 of the Public Resources Code, relating to parks, and making an appropriation therefor.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1338, as amended, Morrow. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: road Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation to grant permits and easements, on terms the department may prescribe, to a public agency for public roads.
This bill would require the Director of Parks and Recreation to maintain a described road in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The bill would provide that this requirement shall remain in effect only until a new, described street is completed by the department and notification is submitted by the director to the Secretary of State. As of that date, the provisions of this bill would be repealed.
This bill would appropriate $100,000 from the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund to the Department of Parks and Recreation to commission a study to develop an environmentally sensitive bypass in the Upper Willows area of Coyote Canyon in order to reopen the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in Coyote Canyon to motorized traffic.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: YES   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is the oldest historic trail in California, being established in 1775.
(b) After 200 years in the New World, Spain was still struggling to control its Pacific Coast territories. By 1773, there were two presidios and five missions in California, but the Spanish population was still sparse due to lack of access into Alta California from Mexico. Establishing an overland route was essential for Spain to secure the Pacific Coast of today’s United States against British and Russian influences and to remain in possession of Alta California.
(c) In 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza, a frontier soldier of New Spain, proved that an overland route was possible into Alta California by undertaking his own successful exploratory mission from Mexico to California. In 1775, once the route was established, he was authorized by the Viceroy of New Spain to guide 198 emigrants and 1,000 head of livestock on the first overland colonizing expedition from Sonora, Mexico into Alta California. The expedition became difficult when traveling through the sand dunes and deserts of southeastern California, and forced Anza to divide the expedition into three groups. The groups met at what is currently the Anza Borrego Desert State Park and continued until they reached the San Francisco Bay.
(d) The expedition successfully led to the founding of the Presidio of San Francisco and missions San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) and Santa Clara de Asis. Anza’s mission was important because he confirmed that the San Francisco Bay was an important harbor, and his route enabled settlements to be supplied long enough to become established. Throughout history Anza’s trail has provided military units, settlers, cattlemen, forty-niners, and other desert travelers with an overland route through California.
(e) In 1933 and 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps improved the Anza trail into a road during the Great Depression through what is now Anza Borrego Desert State Park. To commemorate Anza’s expedition, in 1990, the United States Congress designated this historic route the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. This historic trail enters California at Winter Haven and extends across 900 miles of terrain until it ends in Fort Point, near the Golden Gate Bridge.
(f) In 1975, the Bureau of Land Management turned over to the Department of Parks and Recreation federal land encompassing the Coyote Canyon. The department committed to the bureau in their development and management plan that use would include off-highway vehicle use and primitive camping.
(g) In 1976, grants were made of rights to use De Anza and Santa Caterina trails (also known as Coyote Canyon Road) and right-of-ways in favor of the public over any portion of the land included in lawfully established roads. An easement of a public road was also granted by the Bureau of Land Management to the Department of Parks and Recreation.
(h) In 1987, the Department of Parks and Recreation prohibited all off-highway licensed motor vehicles in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
(i) In 1995, the Department of Parks and Recreation created the Coyote Canyon Public Use Plan that ended motorized-through travel in the canyon. Both San Diego and Imperial Counties passed resolutions opposing the closure of Coyote Canyon Road. In that same year, the Department of Parks and Recreation prohibited overnight camping in the area.
(j) In 1998, a motorized reroute feasibility study was commissioned by the Department of Parks and Recreation which concluded that no reroutes were available because wilderness boundaries could not be moved.
However, in 1987, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the State Parks Commission, and the San Diego Association of Governments approved a bypass of the Lower Willows area. The Lower Willows area of Coyote Canyon was successfully rerouted. The reroute required a wilderness boundary adjustment and route realignment.
In 2002, a five-year monitoring study of the Upper Willows area supported retaining the closure of the existing route to motorized vehicles. Both the 1998 and 2002 studies were biased and designed to produce the results desired by the Department of Parks and Recreation. The studies overemphasized the levels of construction needed for a primitive road and failed to address all potential reroutes.
(l) It is in the state’s interest to reopen Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail to motorized travel for historic and cultural reasons, to increase visitorship to Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and to assist the economy of the surrounding community.
Section 5012.3 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

5012.3.
 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the director shall maintain an easement as a road, as defined in Section 527 of the Vehicle Code, running along Coyote Canyon within the boundaries of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is part of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. The road shall be continually open to vehicular traffic, except between June 1 and September 30, inclusive, each year, during which period the director may close the road for the big horn sheep mating season.
(b) (1) Upon completion by the department of a new street that is parallel to the road described in subdivision (a), the director shall notify the Secretary of State. The notice shall state that it is being made pursuant to this paragraph. The Secretary of State shall note the date of the receipt of that notification.
(2) This section shall remain in effect only until the date specified in paragraph (1), and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 3.

 There is hereby appropriated the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) from the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund, created by Section 38225 of the Vehicle Code, to the Department of Parks and Recreation to commission a study to develop an environmentally sensitive bypass in the Upper Willows area of Coyote Canyon in order to reopen the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in Coyote Canyon to motorized traffic.