2023 will see CA State Parks go through the unit classification process for the Tesla unit and it will be important for the community to participate in the process as it shapes the allowable activities in the unit. The Tesla Unit is a 3100 acre parcel adjacent and directly west of Carnegie OHV SRA in Alameda County southeast of Livermore, east of Lake Del Valle directly south of Corral Hollow road. It’s been owned by state parks for ~ 20 years. Court and legislative action (2021-2022) overturned the Carnegie General Plan for this parcel and directed State Parks to reclassify this parcel as a non OHV SRA unit. This classification and general plan creation have funding allocated and appropriated. Classification is scheduled for 2023 and creation of the general plan to follow and is estimated to take 3-5 years. This unit has an industrial history of coal and silica mining, pottery production and then cattle ranching. There are also native peoples cultural resources along with habitat resources. The Carnegie General plan included trails in the Tesla Unit area. The Carnegie OHV SRA General Plan is also being updated at this time.
Classification is the first step in determining how this CA State Park property will be managed and broadly defines the allowable activities and balance between conservation and recreation on a state park unit. Unit types range from Wilderness, Natural or Cultural Reserves, State Park, State Recreation Area, and OHV State Recreation Area from highest conservation to highest recreation intensity. More information on these unit types can be found in the PRC (Public Resource Code) 500xx series.
Here’s a flowchart of the state park planning process
Key steps include:
- Inventory of Features (Resource Inventory block)
- Stakeholder Input (under Classification & Naming)
- Staff Recommendation (under Classification & Naming)
- Public Hearing (under Classification & Naming)
- Commission Unit Classification Decision (under Classification & Naming)
As of January 2023 they are in the Inventory of Features step. They will be engaging an outreach consultant and holding public stakeholder meetings in Spring 2023. Stakeholder meetings will be organized by common interests such as recreation, conservation, land manager partners, etc. Summer 2023 will involve staff and a multi-discipline team reviewing the stakeholder input and writing a staff recommendation report to the CA State Parks and Recreation Commission. The commission would have a public hearing at their Q4 2023 meeting to discuss and decide on the unit classification. A general plan would then be created and take 3-5 years followed by implementation to open the property to the public. The general plan could include plans for staged development to facilitate earlier opening to the public with minimal development followed by projects to add further amenities. Stay tuned and watch for information on public input opportunities. Show up, participate and be heard. Katie Meatreaux is the lead planner for this process.
Send Katie an email if you’d like to be on a notification distribution for this process.
