While the passage of Senate Bill 846 might enable Diablo Canyon Power Plant to continue operating past its original closure date, it hasn’t stopped local organizations from envisioning a future of conservation for Diablo Canyon lands.
The Land Conservancy of SLO County, Cal Poly, Regional Economic Action Coalition (REACH) and the yak titu titu yak tihini Northern Chumash Tribe (ytt) presented a proposal to the California Natural Resources Agency on Feb. 10, where state leaders listened to public input regarding $160 million the legislation allocated toward local land conservation and economic development. During a media briefing on Feb. 9, authors of the proposal expanded upon key points of the plan, which included placing the ownership and management of North Ranch and South Ranch in the hands of the ytt Tribe.
Tribal Chair Mona Tucker described the opportunity to retake ownership of that land as once in several generations, several lifetimes beginning in the 1700s.
“That’s how long we’ve been waiting for the opportunity to become the rightful owners and also appropriate stewards, so that this land will look the way it looks 500 years from now, the way it looks today,” Tucker said.
The conservation proposal seeks to balance cultural and environmental resource protection of the land in Wild Cherry Canyon while also providing the public with access to a continuous trail from Avila Beach to Montaña de Oro, according to Land Conservancy Executive Director Kaila Dettman, who spoke at the media briefing.
“It’s been a priority of conservation groups for decades, as well as in the state’s priorities,” she said, noting that both groups want to protect wildlife habitat, water quality, and the biodiversity of this region of the county.
“So of course protection of the Diablo Canyon lands fits in well with that overall vision,” Dettman said.
In addition to land conservation, the proposal also touches upon transforming the Cal Poly pier into an offshore renewable energy research and demonstration facility, as well as co-using Parcel P land to create a Cal Poly tech park.
“We really took a step back and pulled out the aperture of focusing just on Parcel P for clean tech innovation and we took this more ecosystem approach,” REACH President and CEO Melissa James said. “How can we begin to incubate and accelerate clean tech innovation on the Central Coast … and across the region with continuing to still invest in Cal Poly’s leadership in that role?”
On Feb. 10, the Natural Resources Agency assured community members that their priorities for Diablo Canyon lands would be taken into account, adding that the public could still send written comments until March 3.
“We don’t want to be re-creating the wheel,” said State Lands Commission Executive Officer Jennifer Lucchesi, who was present at the Feb. 10 meeting. “You as your community know what the needs are, what the opportunities are, and I think we want to really reflect all of that hard work.” Δ
Editor’s note: This article was edited from the print version to correct a quote attribution.
This article appears in Feb 16-26, 2023.