June 2003

Sometime between May 25, 2003 and June 7, 2003 the farm access road that starts from the end of Bolsa Chica Street, passes just north of the abandoned World War II bunker, and then enters onto the Shea Parkside city parcel was regraded and widened.  The widening created a bunch of loose dirt that was then pushed onto the adjacent D.E. Goodell property just north of the bunker, resulting in vegetation destruction and the filling of a small ponding area.

You would have thought the farmer would have learned the lesson about unpermitted grading in the coastal zone after the previous December 2002 event.  I guess not!

Click on each image for a full-res version.  Note that the full-res digital camera photographs are 4 megapixels in size (2272 x 1704 pixels or about 2 or 3 megabytes).

Where Is It?

The area of maximum impact is indicated in white on the aerial photograph (dated April 1, 2000) below.

What Happened?

The farm access road leading down onto the Shea Parkside city parcel was widened.  You can clearly see the newly scraped area on the right-hand side of the road.  This picture was taken while standing on the Shea Parkside city parcel and looking northwest.  The palm tree at the very top of the picture appears in two other pictures below.



The extra dirt scraped off by the road widening was then pushed onto the adjacent D.E. Goodell property just north of the abandoned bunker, resulting in a bunch of vegetation being destroyed, as well as the filling of a small ponding area.  The following picture was taken looking in a northeasterly direction.  The palm tree in this picture is the same reference palm tree as in the previous picture.

The Before/After Proof

Digital cameras make it VERY EASY to take VERY MANY pictures.  Fortunately regular photographic surveys done before the grading managed to capture several highly incriminating "before" photographs that can be paired with "after" photographs to determine the extent of the damage that was done.

Before - December  20, 2002	After - June 15, 2003
The road entering onto the Shea city parcel in the background of these photographs is now definitely wider.

Before - December 27, 2002	After - June 15, 2003
The road is possibly a bit wider to the right of the Goodell bunker.  Some vegetation destruction can be observed along the far side of the road.

Before - March 1, 2003	After - June 14, 2003
The little Goodell ponding area just north of the bunker has now been partially filled in.

Before - May 5, 2003	After - June 15, 2003
Substantial Goodell brush clearing is visible between the palm tree along the left edge of the photo (the same reference palm tree seen in the other photos) to the skinny palm tree about one fourth of the photo width to the right.