State Parks violates new Oceano Dunes ban on creek crossing after Coastal Commission vote
Days after the California Coastal Commission revised its coastal development permit for Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, California State Parks had yet to implement key operational changes at the popular park.
Those changes — prohibiting vehicle crossings of Arroyo Grande Creek while it flows into the ocean and banning nighttime off-highway vehicle use in non-camping sections of the park — were mandated by the Coastal Commission to go into effect on March 19.
Other changes, such as closing the Pier Avenue vehicle entrance and prohibiting OHV use in the park, will come later.
The Coastal Commission unanimously voted to impose the changes to the Oceano Dunes permit on March 18 during a 12-hour-long meeting.
The vote to revise the Oceano Dunes’ permit came nearly 40 years after the Coastal Commission formed an agreement with State Parks to temporarily allow OHV use at the park near Pismo Beach — even though the activity causes environmental degradation in violation of the California Coastal Act.
But even after the historic vote, the Coastal Commission and State Parks are still allowing activities explicitly prohibited by the Oceano Dunes permit to continue.
On Sunday evening, Monday morning and Tuesday morning, vehicles were observed crossing the creek by Tribune reporters and an Oceano resident.
Arroyo Grande Creek is home to sensitive fish species, such as the federally threatened steelhead trout and endangered tidewater goby, that use the creek for migration. Vehicles crossing the creek is concerning and likely disturbs the fish’s migration patterns, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Coastal Commission staff.
Coastal Commission staff also noted in their February report to commissioners that the creek is in an environmentally sensitive habitat area — along with the entirety of Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area — so any use that damages such habitat must be discontinued in order to comply with the California Coastal Act.
“We are working closely with State Parks to implement the coastal development permit’s new terms and conditions as soon as possible,” Coastal Commission spokeswoman Noaki Schwartz wrote in an email to The Tribune.
In an interview with The Tribune, Coastal Commission Chair Steve Padilla said that the new conditions under the Oceano Dunes’ permit must be implemented.
“At the end of the day, the lawful permitting conditions have to be abided by and, hopefully, we will be making those changes pretty immediately,” Padilla said. “So we have to kind of wait and see a little bit because it is so new — within reason, right, but (the permit conditions) are in effect.”
When those changes will be implemented, however, is unclear.
In a email to The Tribune on Monday, State Parks spokesman Jorge Moreno said that the agency “continues to review the new conditions set by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday night.”
“The new conditions raise complex issues regarding the operation and management of Oceano Dunes all of which State Parks needs to consider,” Moreno wrote.
Cynthia Replogle, an Oceano resident, said she was disappointed when she saw vehicles driving through Arroyo Grande Creek on Monday morning.
“If State Parks is going to ignore the Coastal Commission, it makes me wonder if they’re intending to just fight the changes and never comply with them,” said Replogle, the co-coordinator for the Dunes Alliance, a coalition of community and environmental organizations that advocates for environmentally-sustainable uses at the Oceano Dunes.
Replogle pondered whether the Coastal Commission is allowing State Parks a “grace period” to start implementing the permit changes.
Prohibiting vehicles from crossing Arroyo Grande Creek while it flows into the ocean is a massive change at the Oceano Dunes. The creek flows into the ocean north of the main dunes complex of the park, which is where the majority of the park’s visitors go to ride in the dunes.
Should State Parks implement the new condition in the park’s coastal development permit, it would be forced to block OHV riders from the main area where off-road riding is allowed in the Oceano Dunes while the creek continues to flow into the ocean.
But under the revised permit, vehicle crossings of Arroyo Grande Creek are prohibited while it flows into the ocean, according to adopted commission staff report.
“It was pretty clear when I was out there earlier, that nothing’s changed; it’s business as usual,” Replogle said. “But I’m interested to see what the Coastal Commission is going to do at this point, I hope that they don’t wait too long before they start some enforcement action. They can’t just let State Parks blow off the requirements and keep doing what they were doing.”
It is unclear Monday whether nighttime OHV riding outside of camping areas is still occurring at the Oceano Dunes, though it was another activity that the Coastal Commission prohibited as of March 19.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
