Two environmental organizations based in Gaviota have followed up the loss of their county-level appeal to reconfigure a culvert going in beneath the 101 highway with an appeal to the Coastal Commission. At stake is a wildlife crossing in an area that the Gaviota Coast Conservancy and the Coastal Ranches Conservancy call a roadkill hotspot. Though Caltrans agreed to fund a wildlife survey in the area to find out more about where the wildlife cross the freeway to get from the mountains to the beach, the two nonprofits believe the project that was approved at Cañada del Barro is the right place for Caltrans to create a larger wildlife underpass.
During the appeal hearing at the Board of Supervisors on September 22, Caltrans specialist Mitch Dallas argued that a passageway bored under the highway large enough to accommodate wildlife would raise the current $7.5 million cost to $29.5 million for an 18-foot diameter culvert 450 feet long.
The strategy is often to estimate a price that’s startling, said Doug Kern, head of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy. He had checked with engineers, too. “It doesn’t have to be a mammoth, cavernous way for deer to get though. It just has to be big enough so that they can see light.”