CORP letter to SCAPOSD on Red Hill purchase Steve Sharpe, General Manager
Dear Mr. Sharpe: On behalf of the Coalition for the Outdoor Recreation Plan (CORP), allow me to congratulate the staff and board of SCAPOSD for your role in acquiring the Red Hill (Sequeira) property, and for placing it on a fast track to public access. CORP is very encouraged by the extent of interagency cooperation in this transaction, including timely and decisive participation by the Coastal Conservancy and State Parks. I also believe this is the first time Sonoma Land Trust has acted as an advance purchaser for SCAPOSD since 1992, when both agencies were excoriated in the press, unfairly in our view, for their handling of the McCord purchase. We are very pleased to see these partnerships reestablished, as they will be essential to the timely acquisition of key public lands in a difficult market. In particular, we believe SLT and SCAPOSD together should play a role similar to that of Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), which has acquired and turned over nearly 40,000 acres to public agencies for recreation since 1977. We hope and expect that this significant purchase of highly scenic land for recreation will be repeated throughout the county -- for example, on Taylor Mountain, where you have made a start, and on western Sonoma Mountain, where you have not. The member organizations that make up CORP are eager to help in this process, for example by helping to set priorities, by lobbying key agencies in regard to specific purchases, or by public outreach. Feel free to contact me to discuss such options.
cc: Supervisors Mike Cale, Paul Kelley,
Mike Kerns, Mike Reilly, Tim Smith |
