Camp Roberts Planning a Buffer
By Leah Etling, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Jan. 6–Camp Roberts’ 42,361 acres are surrounded, for the most part, by ranchland: undisturbed chaparral, grazing cattle and scenic vistas as far as the eye can see.
The U.S. Army National Guard would like to keep it that way.
To that end, Camp Roberts commander Col. John Smith has submitted a plan to Washington, D.C., that would establish permanent conservation easements on neighboring properties. The easements, which require voluntary participation from property owners, would prevent future development from encroaching on the camp, where flight and artillery training is carried out.
Up to 50,000 acres could be conserved when the plan is complete. The camp has dozens of neighbors in San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties — not all will be asked to consider selling parts of their land.
The first proposed land buys are along the base’s northwest corner, which is in Monterey County. They were selected because they are adjacent to the area of the base where the loudest training operations are carried out.
It could be many years before San Luis Obispo County neighbors of the base are asked if they’d like to sell parts of their land so that they would remain undeveloped, Smith said. The buffer plan won’t affect the proposed San Miguel Ranch development, which is south of the base and not an immediate neighbor of the military property.
Working with the Monterey County Agricultural and Historical Land Conservancy, the Army is well along in the process of establishing an open space buffer that will extend three miles from the base in certain areas.
An Army official from the Pentagon confirmed Thursday that Camp Roberts is in the process of applying for approval of the project, which would use federal money.
The initial proposal is to purchase 640 acres from two owners of large land holdings in Monterey County. Negotiations with those property owners are under way, Smith said.
Estimated price for the initial land buy could be around $1 million, Smith said.
The concept is called an “Army compatible use buffer” in military parlance. Late last year, Camp San Luis Obispo provided $350,000 for three parcels between Los Padres National Forest and the camp’s boundary, totaling 315 acres along the Cuesta Grade. That project is also considered an Army compatible use buffer, according to the Pentagon.
A document from the U.S. Army Environmental Command published in 2004 after the first buffer was established around Camp Blanding, Fla., says the easements are crucial to “limit the effects of urban and suburban sprawl on military training.”
Around Camp Roberts, the best pending example of such sprawl is the San Miguel Ranch, a proposed 345-home project on 550 acres that could add 1,000 residents to San Miguel, the closest San Luis Obispo County town to Camp Roberts.
However, San Miguel Ranch, which is about to enter the environmental review process, doesn’t directly border Camp Roberts, said developer Brent Grizzle.
There is an agricultural parcel of more than 350 acres between the base and Grizzle’s development, he said.
Smith said Friday that the closest a buffer could come to San Miguel Ranch would be if one were established on the neighboring property. That area is not a priority for buffering, however, because limited training takes place near there.
Smith said that though he has received calls from San Miguel residents opposed to the large development urging Army officials to work against San Miguel Ranch, they do not intend to do so.
“Maybe his neighbor would sell us his easement, but that would be it,” Smith said. He does, however, mention the proposed development several times in his draft proposal as an example of encroaching development.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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