State Parks in Crisis, Panel Says : Recreation: Lack of maintenance plagues system and summer closures are possible. Report to parks chief urges more commercialism and new taxes.

SACRAMENTO — California’s vast park system, once considered one of the finest in the world, is “falling apart” as drastic fee increases have driven away users and years of neglect have forced it to forgo essential maintenance, a blue-ribbon committee finds in a new report.

As summer begins, a financial crisis in the system raises the possibility that many parks could close--some as early as July 1, the height of the visitor season--and others could be forced to operate at reduced hours.

The committee, made up of business leaders, environmentalists, legislators and local officials, is proposing a rescue plan that asks the Legislature to approve new taxes and urges more commercialism and private involvement in the state’s 285 parks.

“The finest park system of its kind in the world is falling apart, quickly losing its constituency (and) failing to meet increasing user demand,” the committee concludes in a preliminary draft of a report to the state parks chief.

Officials at parks throughout the system confirm the panel’s findings, reporting that everything from roads to restrooms have fallen victim to deferred maintenance.

Examples abound. At Will Rogers Historic State Park near Pacific Palisades, stables need repairs. At Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, an antiquated sewage treatment plant is unable to run at full capacity. At South Carlsbad State Beach, the campgrounds are forced to close several times a year because of sewer system breakdowns.

Throughout the park system, said Darryl Young, legislative advocate for the Sierra Club, “trails are falling apart, toilets are not being kept clean. What’s happening is that people are going to parks to get away from civilization and what they’re coming smack in the face of is civilization and all its problems.”

“I think they’re (the parks) in desperate condition,” said N. Gregory Taylor, executive assistant to the general manager of the Metropolitan Water District and a member of the citizens committee. “These are treasures of the state that we decided at one time that we should preserve and it really is sad that we seem to have lost that.”

Eventually, the downward slide of the once-proud park system can be arrested, members of the rescue committee contend. But they acknowledge that it is unlikely any of their proposals could be put in place soon enough to avert further cuts and possible closures. Nor are they likely to find ways to capture enough revenue in the long term to fully restore facilities that have been allowed to deteriorate.

Parks Director Donald W. Murphy said the agency had expected to be able to weather its budget shortages without closing parks until it learned that agency funding could be slashed by $32.4 million next fiscal year, about one-fifth of its budget. Consequently, even with other economies planned, from 20 to 30 park closures are a distinct possibility, he said.

“That’s just the way it is. You don’t have the resources and you don’t have any choice (but to close parks),” Murphy said.

He appointed the committee to propose more stable, long-term methods of financing the state park system. The committee’s report has not been put in final form and Murphy said he has not decided which proposals he will adopt.

Among the more controversial are those that call for giving the private sector more of the state parks action. Concessions could be expanded, unspecified public-private partnerships may be suitable in some parks and more commercialism could be allowed, the committee report said.

Nina Gordon, president of the California State Park Rangers Assn., said there is room for expansion of concessions in certain recreation areas. But she warned that, taken too far, such development can detract from the naturalness of the parks.

“Some of these ideas are horrible choices and I would really hate to have to make them,” said Lynn Sadler, a committee member and an official of the Planning and Conservation League. “I hope I never have to choose between Coppertone advertisements on a trash can, for example, and closing a park.”

The committee also proposed that California adopt a transfer tax on the sale of real property and earmark some of the revenue for parks. On a $100,000 house the tax would amount to $100. Noting that parks boost the state’s economy by about $1 billion, it also urged the Legislature to continue to give the system its fair share of general fund tax revenues.

Legislators have not responded to such a request, but have been cool to increasing funding to any branch of state government.

Committee members said not since Big Basin Redwoods State Park was established as the first park in 1902 has any park had to close because of a lack of operating funds.

But Murphy said park closure is a last resort. He said he hopes that the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson will provide the financial Band-Aids to get through the worst of the crisis. Murphy said he is proposing a massive reorganization that would cut 226 jobs from his 2,100-staff, including slicing in half the number of headquarters personnel. Practically all departments of state government are feeling the pinch of the recession and fiscal crisis, but advocates for the park system say the parks have never had it easy.

“The parks have never really had a public interest group pushing for them. They’ve always been taken for granted,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Ernie Carpenter, another committee member.

The public, he said, has never realized the awesome responsibility that rests with the parks system. Under its stewardship are 180 miles of coastline and 625 miles of lake and river frontage. Dotted over the 1.3 million acres of state parkland are nearly 18,000 campsites and 3,000 miles of trails. When the state faced revenue shortages, said committee member Sadler, the Legislature had little trouble cutting the general fund revenue allocation for parks because lawmakers thought the shortages could be made up by increases in fees.

They failed to realize, she said, that fee increases--sometimes as high as 55%--would spawn a user rebellion. Indeed, in fiscal year 1990-91, when the heaviest increases went into effect, park attendance dropped from 77.8 million to 70.4 million. That year, entrance and parking fees that were $3 to $4 were increased to $5 and $6; camping fees went from $10 and $12 to $12 and $14, and boating fees shot up from $1 to $5. Some beaches that had never charged fees now require $5 for parking.

In Sonoma County, Carpenter said residents became enraged when the state began charging just to walk on the beach. He said a movement to boycott the parks started when the families of commercial fisherman were being charged $5 to gather at Bodega Bay and watch the fleet come in at sunset. The state withdrew the charge, but by then he said the seeds of rebellion were sown.

“On the coast here, the fee increase simply translated into five bucks for a sunset and salt air,” he said.

So far this year, indications are that park attendance may have started to rise again, but the committee said user fees can still fund only a part of its operations.