Conservation groups purchase ‘world-class’ property for new coastal SLO County park
San Luis Obispo County conservation leaders are one step closer to converting a former oil storage and pipeline terminal into a massive coastal park.
On Feb. 6, the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County bought a 750-acre stretch of coastal hills in Morro Bay on behalf of San Luis Obispo County, a news release from the organization said.
“Having such an amazing open space for the community on the coast right there is going to be phenomenal,” Land Conservancy deputy director Daniel Bohlman told The Tribune on Friday.
The San Luis Obispo County Parks and Recreation Department will manage the land, which extends along Alva Paul Creek from Del Mark Park to Alva Paul Canyon.
This purchase is the second piece of a plan to acquire almost 2,000 acres from Chevron and create Toro Creek Park.
The park will include multi-modal trail system, which will be open to the public once the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approves operation and maintenance funding and the county completes site improvements “as soon as possible,” the news release said.
“SLO County is really a county that is rich in open spaces,” Bohlman told The Tribune. “The community loves it whenever there’s a new one.”
The county park will protect the land from development and offer the public more opportunities to enjoy nature, he said.
“This gives those communities amazing access to world-class property,” he said.
New SLO County park to be established in 3 phases
The Phase 1 acquisition of the Toro Coast Preserve project was completed in 2022, when the SLO County Parks Department took ownership of a 350-acre property between Cayucos and Toro Creek east of Highway 1.
The property includes the 20-acre, dog-friendly beach that’s open to the public, while the county leases the rest of the land for grazing and residences.
In February, the Land Conservancy of SLO County purchased the 750-acre property from Chevron for $5 million on behalf of the county.
The purchase was funded by a $3.5 million grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board, $1.5 million from the California State Coastal Conservancy and $500,000 of private donations raised by the Cayucos and SLO County Land Conservancies and the Morro Bay Open Space Alliance.
The 750-acre property runs east along Alva Paul Creek near Del Mar Park.
Eventually, the 750 acres will become a county park with a multi-modal trail system for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding with room to park equestrian trailers nearby.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors must also approve operation and maintenance funding for the park.
Finally, for Phase 3, the nonprofit plans to purchase a 700-acre property from Chevron located between Phases 1 and 2.
That land will also become part of the county park with tent and RV camping and easy access to the dog beach.
History of the Chevron property
Texaco originally used the 3,250-acre property as a marine terminal, where it stored oil before sending it to customers, according to Chevron spokesperson Jeff Moore.
The company extracted oil from inland production fields, then stored it in above-ground tanks near the center of the property, Moore said.
An 18-inch pipe then moved the oil along Alva Paul Creek to waiting tankers at a marine terminal west of Del Mar Park, he said. Texaco closed the marine terminal in the 1970s, then removed all five oil storage tanks in 1997 and 1998.
Chevron acquired the property when it took ownership of Texaco in 2001.
Total petroleum hydrocarbons and California regulated metals used to contaminate the eastern portion of the property where Phase 2 of the Toro Coast Preserve project is located, Moore said.
Chevron removed 14,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the site, and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board said the company had adequately cleaned up the plot in 2010.
Chevron removed Texaco’s above-ground pipeline in 2023 and has also cleaned up all contamination on land contained in Phases 1 and 2 of the project.
Once Chevron completes remediation efforts on Phase 3 of the property, it can be sold to the Land Conservancy, Bohlman said.
The Land Conservancy is currently negotiating with Chevron to purchase that final piece of land, he said.
“Around 2015, as Chevron began considering concepts for future uses of their property, the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County and our conservation partners expressed our desire to see this property brought into conservation for public benefit. Thankfully, we found a willing and patient partner in Chevron,” Bohlman said in the news release.
