May 25, 2006

To: Honorable Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

      Director of OES, Henry R. Renteria

      Kathleen Crawford, OES Program Manager 1, Coastal Region

      Bijan Sartipi, Caltrans, District 4 Director

      Gene Fong, FHWA Division Administrator (HDA-CA)

From: Oscar A. Braun, Executive Director, CWP CRMP & Fire Safe Council

Subject: Immediate Emergency Mitigation Requested for Devil’s Slide Hwy 1 Bypass

 Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I am writing you today  requesting that you direct Caltrans, under the authority of the Governor’s Office Emergency Services (OES), to immediately start “emergency mitigation” construction of the Alan Anthony Beaven Bypass ( formerly known as the  Martini Creek Alternative Bypass) for the  Devil’s Slide Highway 1 Improvement Project.  Devil’s Slide Hwy 1 has been closed since early April 2006.  The public health and safety remains at the highest  risk in the event of virtually ALL emergency occurrences.  There is only one (1) ambulance located on the coast of San Mateo County to serve a daily average of 50,000 residents and tourist. Two lane road access and egress is severely limited to Hwy 92 which significantly  inhibits “first responders” from safely evacuating the populous and providing emergency relief services.  After forty years of political delays, NOW is the time to provide Californians a safe permanent “bypass” solution to the Devil’s Slide Hwy 1 coastal route by building the Alan Anthony Beaven inland bypass!  Devil’s Slide emergency mitigation construction is already funded  and can be completed by Summer of 2007… if work starts immediately.  

The OES mission is to ensure the state is ready and able to “mitigate” against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the effects of emergencies that threaten lives, property, and environment.  OES  coordinates the activities of all state agencies relating to preparation and implementation of the State Emergency Plan.  OES also coordinates the response efforts of state (  Caltrans) local agencies to ensure maximum effect with minimum overlap and confusion.  Additional, OES coordinates the integration of federal resources (  FHWA) into sate and local response and recovery operations.

The Sierra Club and their puppet politicians have put anti growth politics before the People’s health and safety.  We’ve been “Set up & Sold Out” by career politicians that put their re-elections goals above protecting Californians.   Can San Mateo County afford an environmental movement and Supervisors that cannot be trusted?  Think of all the work left to do: The protection of the S.F. Peninsula watershed wildland urban interface “WUI” from catastrophic wildfires, smart growth to prevent urban sprawl and the preservation of our rural coastal farming communities.  It environmentalists cannot be trusted  at our San Francisco Peninsula resource management planning table, then soon we will no longer be invited.  And that would be a tragedy, not just for environmentalist, but the environment itself.  Much as we would work to protect our environment, so must we protect our honor, or neither will service. 

God Bless You Governor Schwarzenegger and God Bless All Californians,