Program allows free overnight RV parking in SLO County. What could change?
Tourists flock to San Luis Obispo County to explore beaches, hiking, wine tasting and restaurants — and they need a place to stay when they visit.
In rural areas such as Creston and Paso Robles, some property owners offer free, overnight recreational vehicle parking to visitors through the Harvest Host RV Program, a national booking service.
The hosts, who often own wineries, ranches or farms, provide space on their land for “self-contained RVs” but aren’t required to offer hookups for water, sewage or electricity, according to the program’s website.
As Harvest Host grows in popularity, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors wants to regulate its use.
At its meeting Tuesday, the board directed county Planning and Building Department staff to interpret how the county’s rural camping ordinance would regulate local use of Harvest Host.
Supervisors designated this as a Tier 1 priority for the department, according to SLO County Planning Manager Arlin Singewald.
The board will review the department’s report in February.
Regulations will include requiring Harvest Host camping spots to be located in a permitted parking lot, and requiring RVs to be fully self-contained without hookups to water and sewer, Singewald said.
The board also asked staff to consider how many RV parking spaces would be appropriate per acre of land, Singewald said.
How does Harvest Host work?
Numerous SLO County residents offer one-night RV parking on their land through Harvest Host, which attracts business to the area, Four Lanterns Winery co-owner Jackie Gleason said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It does bring in money,” Gleason said. “People want to come. They want to taste the wine. They want to enjoy the area.”
The increasing popularity of Harvest Host has caused tension between the county and property owners.
The county has issued about 20 notices of violation for unpermitted camping, Singewald said, though not all were related to Harvest Host.
District 1 resident Claire Mamakos received one of those notices, she said Tuesday.
In May, a county code enforcement officer accused Mamakos of running a commercial RV park without proper permits on her property — an accusation she denies.
Instead, Mamakos said, she offered free, one-night RV parking without hookups through Harvest Host.
Still, the county eventually fined Mamakos for allowing overnight RV parking on her property, she said.
“It’s a travesty that Harvest Host has become such an issue,” Mamakos said.
Rodger Janakus, co-owner of Stanger Vineyards in Creston, said he stopped using Harvest Host after receiving a citation from the county.
In an email to the board, Janakus wrote that traditional campsites are often booked six months in advance, while Harvest Host allows travelers to visit the Central Coast spontaneously.
Visitors often buy products from their hosts or engage in local activities, such as attending a tasting room at the host’s winery, said Serene Friedman, co-owner of Four Sisters Ranch Vineyards & Winery in San Miguel.
“They support these small businesses that otherwise would go under without — in these out-of-the-way locations — these wonderful visitors,” Freedman said.
Creating specific regulations for the Harvest Host RV Program can guide property owners through its use without violating the rural camping ordinance, the board said.
What about Hipcamp?
Currently, organized campsites in rural areas must be 1,000 feet away from the property line, and require a health department permit to operate, according to Rural Camping Ordinance.
These regulations apply to the use of Hipcamp, a booking service folks use to rent campsites for tents, RVs and even cabins on their land, according to its website.
The Planning and Building Department may also make revisions to the ordinance “in a way that would expand where rural camping could occur while continuing to protect public safety and preserve the county’s rural character,” Singewald wrote in an email to The Tribune.
At Tuesday’s meeting, some residents said they worry that amendments to the ordinance would expand commercial camping on private, rural property — disrupting the quiet character of their neighborhoods.
Dan Penkauskas said he lives in a “quiet, very peaceful” neighborhood in Creston, but he’s concerned about the impact revisions to the rural camping ordinance would have on the area.
A winery next to Penkauskas’ property plans to rent out Airstream trailers through Hipcamp on its property, he said, adding that the campsite is less than 1,000 feet away from the property line — which would be a violation of the camping ordinance, he said.
Updates to the ordinance could allow that campsite to grow, creating more “noise pollution, sight pollution, and safety problems” near Penkauskas’ home, he said.
“If those changes are implemented, our quiet country life will change,” Penkauskas said. “That peace is about to be blasted to smithereens.”
He asked the board to preserve the existing regulations in the rural camping ordinance.
Cambria resident Karen Pierson said she’s worried about campers causing fires.
“We have such a dry forest in Cambria,” Pierson said. “We can’t have camping in Cambria. It’s just such a high risk.”
Incremental camping services such as Hipcamp aren’t licensed by the California State Department of Housing and Community Development, and they don’t pay transient occupancy taxes in SLO County, Visit SLO Cal representative Tracy Campbell said at the meeting.
However, she said, Hipcamp and other sites still benefit from Visit SLO Cal’s marketing to tourists, and county services such as the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
“This gives them an unfair advantage over those that are properly licensed,” Campbell said. “We do not want to dismiss that that is an opportunity for visitors to our region, but we need to hold them accountable for the (transient occupancy tax), and for code enforcement.”
Campbell asked the board to consider increasing the transient occupancy tax.
The board designated revisions to the rural camping ordinance as a Tier 2 priority for the planning department, and will review the changes later next year.
“It’s going to take a lot of work,” Supervisor John Peschong said. “You can regulate (Hipcamp) and make it work.”
Phillips 66 oil refinery
Supervisors on Tuesday also discussed the closure of the Philips 66 oil refinery in Santa Maria, which is slated for January.
Supervisor Lynn Compton suggested that the board authorize a feasibility study for the county to purchase the 1,600-acre site.
“There’s just a lot of assets with that property for not just South County, but for the entire county,” Compton said at the board’s Nov. 1 meeting. “I think for any one of us to just dismiss it and write it off and say it’s not feasible would be a mistake.”
The study would cost the county $632,487 to compete.
With a long to-do list and staffing limitations at the county planning department, however, the feasibility study was designated as a Tier 2 priority.
This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
