Pirate’s Cove area is finally getting cleaned up this year. Here’s what’s coming
After more than a decade as a haven for partiers and vandals, the Cave Landing-Pirate’s Cove area has finally become a San Luis Obispo County park and will get a much-needed face lift by the end of 2021.
The county Board of Supervisors in March unanimously approved a plan to add the cliffside spot between Avila Beach and Pismo Beach to the county parks system by clearing encampments and trash from the area, installing trash and recycling containers, adding signage and resurfacing the rutted parking lot.
County Parks and Recreation will also hire a new ranger by the end of the summer to increase patrols and perform maintenance work around the new park.
If everything goes according to plan, improvements will likely be finished by late fall or early winter, said Nick Franco, county parks director.
Trash and graffiti removal will likely take place in June and July, and the parking lot renovations will take place toward the end of the year, he said.
Cave Landing and Pirate’s Cove will remain open throughout the cleanup process, although the parking lot will temporarily close while crews are adding natural-colored rock to level the surface and minimally pave ADA parking spaces.
“Will this work? I certainly hope so,” Franco said. “It’s all dependent on how the people who use it, use it.”
Nearly a decade of planning at Cave Landing
The county has been trying to fix up Cave Landing — which features ocean views and a trail down to the clothing-optional beach at Pirate’s Cove — almost since it purchased the area in 2008.
The Coastal Commission nixed an extensive 2013 plan to pave the parking lot and add restrooms and trails, prompting the county to pare down its improvements.
Parks and Recreation in October 2020 received a minor use permit from the Planning Department to move forward with the current improvement plan, which will cost nearly $700,000. The county will receive a $250,000 Coastal Conservancy grant, which will cover more than one-third of the project’s budget.
Ongoing costs for the new ranger and continuing maintenance will run the county more than $120,000.
The county isn’t completely closing the door on amenities like restrooms and stairs to the beach, but those additions would be contingent on what community members want to see at the site, Franco said.
“The approach we’re taking is to be more collaborative,” he said.
Clearing Cave Landing encampment
Recently, Cave Landing has become an encampment with a collection of living spaces that include tents, dug-out fire pits and makeshift toilets. A variety of vans and RVs are also situated throughout the parking lot.
“They’re making a really good effort to try and take care of the place, but it’s not designed for living,” Franco said.
Cave Landing is also sacred space for the local Chumash tribe, which is another reason the county can’t allow encampments there.
“It is a culturally-sensitive site, so there are Native American resources up there,” Franco said. “So that is a big issue for us.”
County staff have been in conversations with some of the encampment residents and have visited them with members of the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition to help connect them with housing and resources, Franco said. The county hopes the encampment will disband by the end of May, he said.
‘This is well-spent money’
District 3 Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, who represents the area, thanked staff in March for all their work on Cave Landing and Pirate’s Cove. She also acknowledged District 1 Supervisor John Peschong for collaborating with late Supervisor Adam Hill, who was involved in efforts to clean up the site.
She said adding a ranger and consistently dedicating county resources to Cave Landing will ultimately save money, as county staff are already responding to public safety situations that develop in the area.
“We need to support the traditional use of our beaches,” Ortiz-Legg said. “We’ve seen more and more people out there, especially during COVID, and this is a very important location for many reasons. I mean, not only just on the beauty of it and the recreation of it, but also ... the cultural resources and the biological resources. So this is well-spent money.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
