LANDFILL DUNES PRESERVE
This District open space has a long and colorful history of land use. We can start back in the Depression years of the 1930's. The sand dunes of what are now Seaside and Sand City were un-incorporated "hinterlands" with a remote homestead scattered here and there. Seaside and Sand City didn't incorporate as cities until 1954 and 1960, respectfully. "Back then" environmental consciousness was not exactly a household topic. So, not unreasonably, the peninsula cities hauled household refuse to this site and burned it. Imagine doing that today!
By 1945 the peninsula cities and communities had grown significantly and were experiencing a post-war population boom of sorts. The time had come to close the "burn dump" and convert it to a then acceptable "landfill" style refuse dump-site. This new use was municipally operated by the peninsula cities and the county. But like most landfills of that era, it was an attractive nuisance for gulls, scavengers, and flies. But it was the flies that drove Bessie Kramer of Seaside to write a pointed letter to the Monterey Herald in 1951. It appears that the flies were so numerous that they were infesting the growing community of Seaside. Perhaps it was the flies that prompted the community to break from the County and incorporate into a Charter City. Seaside incorporated in 1954 and the landfill was closed the following year.
The dump remained closed for almost 15 years before an entrepreneur tried to make a profit on the property as a go-cart race track. That venture lasted the summer of 1969 and then quietly disappeared. So to did the asphalt pathways under a carpet of ice-plant that was introduced by Caltrans when it began construction of this portion of Highway 1. Again, the land lay silent for many years.
Then came the 1980's - the years of free-wheeling financial speculation and de-regulation. The land became attractive to Monterey Bay Developemnt Corp as potential hotel and resort property.
In a complicated scheme involving the Bank of Carmel and Pima Saving and Loan, the property was used as collateral for an over-inflated loan of $5 Million in 1985. In the bust years that followed, Monterey Bay Development Corp defaulted on the loan and filed for bankruptcy. The fallout resulted in the collapse of both the bank and the savings and loan. The federal government (Resolution Trust Corporation) stepped in and seized the assets of Pima Savings & Loan which included this property. The property again lay abandoned and "orphaned" for several years.
As the 1980's closed-out, The Park District embarked upon an ambitious plan to acquire as many of the undeveloped coastal dune properties in Sand City as possible for addition to the proposed Monterey Bay State Seashore - which was signed into law September of 1994. The Park District seized upon the opportunity to acquire the non-performing note and first deed of trust (now in excess of $13 Million) for $100,000 in January, 1995. This put The Park District into a good position to coordinate the subsequent remediation work necessary to move the landfill material back away from the eroding shoreline. During 1995-96 the remediation work at the Landfill site was conducted with the assistance of the California Integrated Waste Management Board. The landfill material was dug-up, sorted and what was recoverable and recyclable was removed. The rest was re-buried behind the projected 50-year erosion set-back and capped with new sand. The final conversion of this property into full public benefit included restoration with native coastal dune habitat and the construction of an extension of the Monterey Bay Coastal trail, which includes one of the most breathtaking views of the bay to be seen from the trail. |