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Save "Toes Beach" Dunes Program
What's News:
Playa del Rey residents lobby to keep hands off "Toes"
—Drawing a Line in the Sand at "Toes Over" Beach
Surfrider's South Bay Chapter has joined with local residents of Playa del Rey to protect and restore the last remnant of undeveloped coastal dunes in Santa Monica Bay still accessible to the public. Many of our members who grew up in the area remember the beach as "Toes Over" - now shortened to Toes Beach. The dunes that are slated for development stretch from the corner of Culver Blvd and Pacific St to a couple blocks north.
The chapter isn't opposed to development in general, and certainly recognizes the need for housing in Los Angeles. But this project would level beach dunes for construction of three-story townhomes and destroy forever an irreplaceable opportunity to restore our natural coastal heritage. So, we are currently supporting the efforts of locals to advocate for a full Environmental Impact Report before any permits are issued. We're simultaneously lending our support to find funding to buy this property back from the developer and restore it to a natural site for all the public to enjoy.
Our chapter also opposes the nearby short-sighted Playa Vista Phase 2 development for the same reason -- we are dedicated to restoring and protecting our coasts and oceans for all people (See the Playa Vista story below). We are advocating restoring that area with "constructed wetlands" to emulate the historical Ballona Wetlands ecosystem. This restoration would be an economically sound way to cleanse the polluted urban runoff from the Ballona Creek Watershed. These new, restored wetlands would be the easterly bookend of an integrated restoration of the natural ecosystem currently being planned by the California Coastal Conservancy. A restored Toes Beach Dunes, site of the wetlands historical outlet to the sea, would be the westerly bookend.
Please sign the petition supporting our efforts by visiting: www.SaveOurDunes.org
Owners have development plans for the untouched dunes on the beach near the lagoon.
Daily Breeze - January 9, 2005 - by Kristin S. Agostoni
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1340381.html
Our own Joe Geever is quoted...
The residents opposed to the town houses say they've received support from other community groups, including Surfrider Foundation, which is concerned about potential environmental and recreational impacts of losing the drifts. The foundation's Southern California Regional Manager Joe Geever said he grew up with close ties to Playa del Rey's Toes Beach. As a kid, he camped on the sand drifts and crawled across them. He doesn't even remember a fence on the property year ago. And if there were signs to keep trespassers out, he said, nobody paid attention. "I guess in the back of my head, I knew that (parcel) had a house on it before," Geever said. "(But) I don't think I'd known that whole stretch of dunes was private property." The sand drifts he knew so well seemed to belong to the people. But in fact, they never did.
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