SLO County has a new advisory council. Does it support Oceano Dunes off-road riding?
Two different advisory councils will now oversee Oceano — including a group that some say was formed to represent supporters of continuing off-road riding at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 3-2 in favor of recognizing the Vitality Advisory Council of Oceano (VACO). Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg cast the two dissenting votes.
The existing Oceano Advisory Council (OAC) has represented the community of nearly 7,300 residents since 1996. The board’s recognition of VACO means Oceano will now have two separate groups with different priorities representing residents.
“It is unprecedented to have two advisory councils for the same community area,” OAC chair Allene Villa said at Tuesday’s meeting. “The establishment of an additional council is not only unnecessary, but it’s divisive and sets a dangerous precedent. The Oceano Advisory Council is a legitimate and officially sanctioned council in existence since 1996. The establishment of another council will only serve to cause division and confusion in our community and county.”
Does new Oceano advisory council support OHV use?
Unincorporated communities form advisory councils as another layer of local representation, although they’re considered private, not public, entities. The organizations don’t have any official decision-making power, but the volunteer members can make policy recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.
In addition to the OAC and VACO, there are currently eight other advisory councils representing Avila Valley, Cayucos, Creston, Los Osos, the North Coast, Santa Margarita, the South County and Templeton.
OAC members and organizations such as People for the Dunes — which advocates against allowing vehicles on the Oceano Dunes — claim VACO members specifically formed their group with the goal of representing businesses and residents in favor of off-highway vehicle use at the popular park.
The OAC’s 2021 meeting minutes show members of the advisory council supported the California Coastal Commission’s March decision to phase out OHV use at the Dunes.
The current OAC boundaries don’t include the Oceano Dunes Natural Preserve and State Vehicular Recreation Area, but those areas are part of VACO’s purview, according to OAC’s opposition letter.
VACO’s request for recognition cited the Coastal Commission’s move to end off-road riding at the Dunes as part of the rationale for the organization’s formation.
“The recent decisions made by the California Coastal Commission, which profoundly (impact) Oceano, as well as a other long-unresolved issues, require a responsive, locally informed voice,” the request letter said. “We ask for recognition as the Oceano Vitality Advisory Council so that we can better meet the challenges and opportunities before us.”
Why community members support new advisory council
The Tuesday meeting’s public comment period was dominated by callers supporting or expressing disapproval of the new advisory council. The comments lasted about two hours and included many pre-recorded messages.
“I support the new advisory council,” Aida Odgers said. “I don’t feel that the old council represents me or my community.”
People for the Dunes created an action alert and urged residents to call into the meeting and push against VACO’s recognition, which prompted messages supporting the OAC.
“Lynn Compton does not seem to care about the OAC and what’s happening with that,” said Andrea Jacobson, who said she’s a San Luis Obispo County resident. “She would rather replace it with other people who would be for riding on the Dunes. She does not have the OAC’s best interests in mind. She hasn’t attended meetings, but she intends to cut off the funding that pays their bills.”
Following the comments, Gibson pointed out that Oceano does not elect OAC members; they must apply directly to the council.
Other local advisory councils use a combination of elections and appointments to select new members, but the process is not standardized throughout San Luis Obispo County.
The most recent community advisory council handbook on the county’s website dates back eight years, to 2013.
“I think the fact that the existing advisory council and the proposed one are not elected really is at the heart of the issue here,” Gibson said. “I can’t support offering official recognition to another advisory council in Oceano for reasons we’ve amply heard in public comment. And that is that doing so would increase division within that community at a time when we really should be asking them to come together and try to discuss the various, agreeably, contentious issues. But we need one voice.”
Ortiz-Legg agreed with Gibson, saying she’d “like to see some standardization, as well, to try to balance the competing interests.”
“I see both sides of this, and I think that that’s kind of true in that all of these advisory councils,” she said. “There’s nothing consistent in our county with this stuff. And we see this often, where it’s supposed to be a broad section and yet it tends to be one thing or another.”
Supervisor: Current advisory council ‘undermines the county’
Supervisor Lynn Compton, who represents the Oceano area, said she’s not surprised VACO formed, but “this isn’t a group I asked to come forward.”
“I think the impetus for the forming of this new group occurred when two members that were long-term members, 35-year members, on the Oceano Advisory Council basically had to resign and were asked to leave because the current council changed their bylaws,” she said. “So I think they felt disenfranchised.”
Compton said the new advisory group isn’t related to OHV use at the Dunes, as “the application that’s put forward has nothing to do with the OHV area. There’s not even a mention of that.”
The supervisor said the OAC works to “undermine the county” when they push for efforts that the Board of Supervisors doesn’t support — such as closing Oceano County Airport or developing a new revitalization plan for the area.
Compton said she has not refused funding to the OAC, but she will decline to provide dollars for projects that aren’t in line with the county’s agenda.
“The councils don’t make decisions that are binding to the Board of Supervisors,” Compton said. “They make recommendations to us. And it really should only be to us. It’s not to stand in our place in the community.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Gibson suggested that the board table recognizing VACO while Compton works with the two groups to bring them together.
But Compton declined, and Supervisors Debbie Arnold and John Peschong joined her in voting to recognize the new advisory council.
“I don’t think it’s great to have two advisory councils, in all honesty,” Compton said. “I wish, like some of the comments people said, I wish everybody could be in one council and you could get differing viewpoints. However, that’s not, with the current council, how it works.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct a quote from Supervisor Lynn Compton. While discussing the creation of a second advisory council, Compton said she favors having just one group representing Oceano but doesn’t feel that’s currently possible.
