SLO County hill is a hit with hang gliders, residents. Should officials limit access?
The Cayucos Advisory Council has asked the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors to authorize putting a gate at the top of Chaney Avenue.
The avenue ends at a steep hill at the southern end of the small, coastal town. The hillside looks a lot like those that surround it, except for the colorful hang gliders that soar from there over Highway 1 toward the Pacific.
Hang glider enthusiasts have long been allowed to use the area, which is ideal for their launches.
They are respectful of the environment and neighbors, and they maintain the access road that the county does not, according to reports during recent council meetings and those hosted by Supervisor Bruce Gibson with county counsel and representatives from the San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department, Planning and Sheriff’s Office.
However, the hang gliders’ presence at Hang Glider Hill, as it’s known locally, alerts others to the fact that there’s access to a hilltop with a jaw-dropping ocean view. That has attracted illegal visitors and campers to the area.
The council voted 11-1 to pass board president John Carsel’s motion requesting that the county Public Works Department ”install a locking gate at the end of the county-maintained road on Chaney Avenue, thus limiting vehicular access to Hang Glider Hill to public health and safety vehicles, including, without limitation, law enforcement, fire, medical and county of San Luis Obispo personnel, and to others with a legitimate purpose.”
The outlier explained that she’d abstained from the vote only because she hadn’t been able to speak on the issue. It was determined later that her Zoom input had been muted because of loud background noise that was disrupting the meeting, and her raised hand to speak wasn’t noticed in time.
Trespassing, fire danger at Hang Glider Hill
Trespassing at Hang Glider Hill is a problem that’s getting worse, according to several council members and community residents who spoke at council meetings on Aug. 4 and Sept. 1.
Concerns range from trespassing on private properties and the surrounding hills to other illegal activities including campfires, off-road driving, the use of firearms and mounds of trash that often include human feces and used hypodermic needles.
One person who spoke during a recent meeting said he and his wife had seen three fires on the tinder-dry hillside in the previous week. “It’s just a matter of time before (a blaze) catches the brush on fire,” he said.
The commenter said a neighbor’s camera system had tracked an average of “40 trips a day” up the hillside, “and in the upper 50s on the worst day last week. So (having law enforcement and fire) trying to be available whenever trespassing is happening just isn’t feasible.”
After those discussions, Gibson concluded that “access at the top of Chaney can be blocked. That’s a big step in achieving what I know the neighborhood is interested in.”
He explained that the hang glider users should be allowed limited vehicular access to Hang Glider Hill via a gate with a series of individually keyed padlocks, along with Cayucos residents, first responders and local land owners and their guests.
It’s “a similar approach to what we took on the north end … of 13th Street and Studio Drive,” an access that also led to an antiquated subdivision of lots, Gibson said.
Each key would open one lock that opens the whole gate, Gibson explained. “It’s a system that’s been in use for decades.”
Gibson said it hasn’t yet been determined if installing the gate and other access-limiting actions would require a coastal development permit.
If the gate is installed, it would block access to trespassers, Illegal campers and others whose use is endangering the area and neighboring residential properties.
Law enforcement officials and firefighters are well aware of the issues on Hang Glider Hill, Gibson said, but because those problems arise primarily at night, they’re difficult for officials in patrol cars or fire engines to address.
Having available personnel is also a problem, as is the current location where the Sheriff’s Office’s all-terrain vehicles are kept.
Gibson said he’d suggested that the Sheriff’s Office training officers “make that area a training ground for physical endurance walking and driving the off-road vehicles.”
People observing illegal activities on the hillside are urged to call the Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 805-781-9550, rather than calling Cal Fire’s Cayucos station. Not only will the dispatchers direct the appropriate first responders to the area, but they’ll also make a permanent record of the call.
Also, as Gibson and Russ Taylor noted, neighbors whose properties butt up against the open space area should be vigilant about maintaining sufficient defensible space around their homes and the perimeter of their properties.
That admonition also applies to people who own the vacant lots in the antiquated subdivision.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
