Brandborg, Stewart M., executive director, Wilderness Society-.. Clausen, Hon. Don H., a Representative in Congress from the State 5,6 Edwards, Hon. Don, a Representative in Congress from tle State of Gubser, Hon. Charles S., a Representative in Congress from the Gustafson, Dr. Joel, president, Point Reyes National Seashore Hartzog, Hon. George B., Jr., Director, National Park Service-- Johnson, Hon. Harold T., a Representative in Congress from the Maloney, Douglas J., county counsel of Marin County, Calif. McCloskey, Hon. Paul N., Jr., a Representative in Congress from the Mendoza, Joseph, landowner, Point Reyes National Seashore-- Moss, Hon. John E., a Representative in Congress from the State of Van Deerlin, Hon. Lionel, a Representative in Congress from the Letters: Anderson, Hon. Glenn M., Member of Congress, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, Hon. Wayne N., chairman, House Interior Committee and Azevedo, Mrs., president, Marin Council for Civic Affairs, San Rafael, Calif., to Representative Roy Taylor, dated May 12, 1969 (tele- Bagley, William T., California Legislature, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, Bruce, Alan, county administrator, Marin County, to Congressman Letters-Continued Callison, Charles H., executive vice president, National Audubon Cohelan, Hon. Jeffery, Member of Congress, to Hon. Roy Taylor, Corman, Hon. James C., Member of Congress, to Hon. Jeffery Cohelan, Dolan, Robert J., clerk, San Francisco City and County Board of Dougherty, Hugh, chairman, Planning Commission, Marin County Downes, George G., chairman, board of trustees, Northern California Have, Richard P., president, Marin County Chamber of Commerce Hofmann, Oliver D., president, Marin Coast Chamber of Commerce, Jordan, Thomas S., Jr., president, Committee for Green Foothills, Maloney, Douglas J., county counsel, Marin County, to Hon. John F. McCloskey, Michael, conservation director, Sierra Club, San Fran- Murphy, Hon. George, U.S. Senate, to Hon. Roy A. Taylor, dated Otis, Webster, Pierce ranch, Larkspur, Calif., to Hon. Don H. Clausen, dated May 8, 1969. Patterson, Tamara N., Inverness, Calif., to Hon. Roy A. Taylor, dated May 9, 1969. Prezioso, Sal J., president, National Recreation & Park Association, to Sipkin, Chester, San Rafael, Calif., to Representative Wayne N. Smith, Dr. Edmund H., director, University of the Pacific Marine Station, to Representative Don Clausen, dated May 13, 1969 (telegram). 96 Students, room 7, grade 6, Novato Unified School, Novato, Calif., to 76 Students, room 8, Hamilton Air Force Base, San Rafael, Calif., to 76 98 Train, Hon. Russell E., Under Secretary of the Interior, to Hon. 2 Train, Hon. Russell E., Acting Secretary of the Interior, to Hon. 52 Resolutions: Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County, Calif., resolution 26134, California Legislature Assembly Joint Resolution 28. POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, CALIF. TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1969 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS AND RECREATION Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Roy A. Taylor (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. TAYLOR. The Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation will come to order. We meet this morning for consideration of H.R. 3786, by Congressman Clausen and Congressman Mailliard, and H.R. 8515 by Congressman Cohelan, H.R. 9719 by Congressman Cohelan and others of California, H.R. 9798 by Congressman Teague of California, H.R. 9805 by Congressman Utt, H.R. 10137 by Congressman McCloskey and H.R. 10888 by Congressman Gubser. In the absence of objection, a copy of H.R. 3786—which is identical with H.R. 8515, H.R. 9719, H.R. 9798, H.R. 9805, H.R. 10137, and H.R. 10888-will be made a part of the record at this point. (A copy of H.R. 3786 follows:) [H.R. 3786, 91st Cong., first sess.] A BILL To authorize the appropriation of additional funds necessary for acquisition of land at the Point Reyes National Seashore in California Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 8 of Public Law 87-657 of the Eighty-seventh Congress is repealed and that there is enacted in lieu thereof the following: "SEC. 8. There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act, except that no more than $57,500,000 shall be appropriated for the acquisition of land and waters and improvements thereon, and interest therein, and incidental costs relating thereto, in accordance with provisions of this Act." Mr. TAYLOR. In the absence of objection a copy of the committee report which we received this morning dated May 12, 1969, signed by Under Secretary Train, will be made a part of the record at this point. (1) (The departmental report follows:) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Your Committee has requested the views of this Department on H.R. 3786, a bill "To authorize the appropriation of additional funds necessary for acquisition of land at the Point Reyes National Seashore in California." This report covers identical bills H.R. 8515, H.R. 9719, H.R. 9798, H.R. 9805, H.R. 10137, and H.R. 10888. We recommend the enactment of the bill, amended as suggested herein. The bill repeals section 8 of the Act of September 13, 1962 (76 Stat. 538), which authorized the appropriation of not to exceed $14,000,000 for the acquisition of land for Point Reyes National Seashore, California. The Act of October 15, 1966 (80 Stat. 919), amended section 8 of the Act of September 13, 1962, supra, by increasing the amount authorized to be appropriated for land acquisition from $14,000,000 to $19,135,000. H.R. 3786 would add a new section 8 to the amended 1962 Act to increase the appropriation authorization an additional $38,365,000 to $57,500,000. The Committee's report on the 1966 amendment (H. Rept. No. 2067, 89th Cong., 2d session) noted that: "There is a need for a very considerable increase in the present limitation on appropirations. While the present bill, as amended, proposes an immediate increase of $5,135,000 to take care of six specific tracts of land totalling 3,707 acres, the committee is fully aware of the fact that this is a stopgap measure and that there will be need for further increases-perhaps to $57,500,000-before the seashore is fully established." The $14 million originally authorized in the 1962 Act was appropriated, and with these funds 16,000 acres were acquired. All but $2,097,927 of the $5,135,000 increase authorized in 1966 has been appropriated, and used to acquire 2,366 additional acres. The remaining authorization is committed to settlement of condemnation cases involving five of the six tracts referred to above in the Committee report. The only method now available for acquiring additional lands, except by donation, is through exchange for other Federal lands. Five exchanges have been concluded since 1962, adding 4,450 acres. The acreage of fast land now in Federal ownership, approximately 22,816 acres of the 54,136 acres of fast land within the authorized boundaries, is fragmented and insufficient to be regarded as efficiently administrable for purposes of carrying out the 1962 Act. For this reason, the seashore has not been officially established by publication of a notice in the Federal Register as provided in section 5 of the Act (76 Stat. 540). Further acquisition is necessary to consolidate the land already acquired into a manageable unit. Additional land within the boundaries is required to provide public access to Limantour Beach, one of the most important recreational beaches within the seashore, and to provide sufficient area for needed public recreational developments. Since the 1962 Act, land prices at Point Reyes have risen sharply, averaging from 10 to 20 percent per year. In order to deal with the critical problem of escalating land costs generally, the Congress recently authorized the establishment of a new land management program using authority to sell and leaseback properties which can be continued in private use. (Section 5(a) of the Act of July 15, 1968, 82 Stat. 354, 356.) The land management program we propose for Point Reyes recognizes three zones or categories of land use—public development, preservation, and private development. Within the public development zone, as the term implies, we will place public use facilities, such as roads, campgrounds, interpretive centers, marinas, and administrative and maintenance facilities. About 15,200 acres of the national seashore will be included in this zone. Within the preservation zone, the objective is to preserve natural, historic, scenic, and scientific features of unique interest. Only minor developments such as trails will be placed in these areas, in order to assure their natural character. The preservation zone of the national seashore encompasses about 13,000 acres. Within the private development zone, compatible private uses will be permitted, such as ranching and dairying in some places and properly spaced residential sites in others. This zone consists of about 25,650 acres. At present section 4 of the 1962 Act prohibits the acquisition of any parcel over 500 acres within this area, except by "consent of the owners so long as it remains in its natural state, or is used exclusively for ranching and dairying purposes including housing directly incident thereto." This restriction on acquisition increases our problems on fragmentation and makes administration extremely difficult, if not impossible. We propose to repeal this limitation and to use the lease-back and sell-back authority here to continue the intent of the restriction. In the preservation and public development zones, we intend to purchase or otherwise acquire and retain the fee simple title. In the private development zone, we plan to acquire at a reasonable price an interest in the land that will enable us to restrict developments to those compatible with national seashore objectives. If we are unable to do so, we propose to purchase the fee simple title, and lease-back or sell-back the land at fair market value, subject to such terms and conditions as will assure its development by the lessee or purchaser in a manner compatible with the objectives of the national seashore. In order to accomplish this, we must have the flexibility to acquire all of the privately owned property without the consent of the owner. We estimate the cost of acquiring all remaining private lands within the boundaries established by the 1962 Act to be $28,300,000. This new estimate was completed by the National Park Service of this Department in January 1969. This $28,300,000 cost estimate is in addition to the present amount of $19,135,000 authorized in section 8 of the 1962 Act, as amended. However, using the recent authority to sell back appropriate lands (in the private development zone), we estimate that approximately $10,356,750 may be realized and returned to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Of course, lands which the Department agreed not to acquire at the time legislation to authorize the seashore was being considered by the Congress, i.e., those owned by the Vedanta Society of Northern California, RCA Communications, Inc., and American Telephone and Telegraph Company will not be acquired. We recommend the following amendments of H.R. 3786: 1. In line 8, strike out the figure "$57,500,000" and insert, in lieu thereof, the figure "$47,435,00". This amendment substitutes the most recent cost estimate for acquiring the remaining lands ($28,300,000) plus the amount already authorized in section 8 of the 1962 Act, as amended ($19,135,000), for the figure in the bill. 2. In line 3, after the word "That" insert "(a)"; and add the following new subsections after line 11: "(b) Section 3(a) of Public Law 87-657 is amended by striking out the words 'except as provided in section 4, the' in the first sentence thereof, and substituting the word "The'. "(c) Section 4 of Public Law 87-657 is repealed, and sections 5, 6, 7, and 8 are redesignated as sections 4, 5, 6, and 7, respectively." The Bureau of the Budget has advised that while there is no objection to the presentation of this report, the Bureau will express its concern with the implication of the legislation in a separate letter to your committee. Sincerely yours, Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman RUSSELL E. TRAIN, Under Secretary of the Interior. Mr. TAYLOR. The gentleman from Colorado. Mr. ASPINALL. Reserving the right to object, and of course, I shall not object. On any kind of a project coming before us we ask for decisions and recommendations from the Department. It is a known fact that it is a part of the practice for the Bureau of the Budget to participate in these decisions as the right arm of the President. Whether the Bureau of the Budget disapproves of the project or whether it supports it is not controlling as far as consideration of the bills before this committee is concerned. But we prefer to know that |
