WASHINGTON — The California Coastal Commission is asking the Surface Transportation Board to order mediation in the long-running dispute between it, the city of Del Mar, Calif., and the North County Transit District over the transit agency’s plan to build a safety fence along its rail line on the Del Mar Bluffs.
The transit district originally asked the STB in 2020 to issue an order affirming its right to install the fence and do bluff stabilization work along the line used by its commuter trains, Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliners, and BNSF freight trains. But that request has been held in abeyance while the parties attempted to negotiate an agreement; when that failed, the NCTD announced plans to proceed with installation of 1.7 miles of fencing and asked the STB to rule on its original request [see “San Diego transit district votes to proceed …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 24, 2022].
But a January filing by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and others in his office, on behalf of the Coastal Commission, says “the parties have made substantial progress” in resolving the matter, and that mediation “could help the parties to resolve their differences without need for further proceeds before the board, or at the very least, help narrow down the issues” in the NCTD petition.
It also cautions that, without mediation, “the commission anticipates significant discovery issues that will likely require the board’s attention.” An accompanying document says these will include determining the exact boundaries of the transit district’s right-of-way and source of funding for its project, which the document says will be “central to determining the issues … including whether the [Coastal] Commission has federal consistency jurisdiction to review the project for consistency with California’s federally certified coastal management plan.”
The transit district, in a filing in response to the coastal commission request, says that the discussions between the three parties “were constructive and held some promise,” but that “it is clear after this lengthy negotiation period that an agreement cannot be reached.” It says mediation would be “another veiled attempt to delay a vital safety fencing project.”
Del Mar residents and the Coastal Commission have opposed the fencing because they say it will restrict coastal access; residents along the bluffs also say it will spoil their coastal views. The transit district wants to restrict trespasser access that has led to a number of pedestrian deaths.
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