SLO County’s Bob Jones Trail holds on by $7.8 million thread after another funding hurdle
San Luis Obispo County hit another roadblock in its effort to finish the Bob Jones Trail — but yet another burst of funding just might save the project.
The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments Board of Directors voted 9-0 on Wednesday morning to allocate another $7.8 million to the path that will link the city of SLO to the sea in Avila Beach.
Supervisor John Peschong abstained due to an ongoing conflict of interest.
The now-$48-million project will bridge a 4.5-mile gap in the trail — a price tag that has more than doubled since its original estimate in 2021.
Caltrans District 5 originally pledged $6 million to the new trail design, but the agency withdrew that funding in February upon learning that the project wasn’t eligible for it.
On Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo Council of Government stepped in at the eleventh hour with the $7.8 million to close the project’s funding gap, adding to the $7.7 million the council has already committed.
The California Transportation Commission will review the project for final approval at its March 20 meeting.
Bob Jones Trail connection to be built in phases
The completion of the Bob Jones Trail has been held up for years by five property owners whose land the trail passes through, but local rancher Ray Bunnell in particular has been at the center of the county’s attention.
The county tried — and failed — to secure a corner of Bunnell’s land for years, at one point offering him more than $200,000 for just over an acre of his 146-acre property, but the rancher turned down the deal and has stood firm on his hard-fast rejection of putting the trail on his property.
The county then regrouped and pursued a “bookend approach,” designing the trail to avoid the withholding properties — including Bunnell’s — while working with Caltrans to complete the missing portion.
The new trail will reroute onto a strip of Caltrans-owned land next to Highway 101 for a stretch between Clover Ridge Lane and Ontario Road, county civil engineer John Waddell previously told The Tribune.
Caltrans originally committed $6 million to funding and constructing the path on that land, but that plan fell through due to “miscommunications with headquarters,” SLO Council of Governments programming director Rich Murphy said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The bookends on either end of the Caltrans corridor will be built in two phases.
Phase one will complete the northern bookend from the Octagon Barn to Clover Ridge Lane using funds from an $18 million grant from the Active Transportation Commission secured by the county in 2021. Originally, the grant was meant to cover the entire cost of the project.
Construction must begin this year in order to keep the grant funds from expiring.
Construction on phase two, which will finish the southern bookend from the Caltrans right-of-way to the Ontario Road staging area, will start in 2027-28.
It will be paid for by the original $9.6 million in contributions from the SLO County Council of Government and the county’s recent $5 million contribution.
The Friends of the Bob Jones Trail also raised $270,000 in private funds for the project.
To keep trail users safe along the highway segment, Caltrans will likely install a protective barrier between the highway and the path, which would be built 10 to 12 feet away from the roadway, Waddell said.
The project gets a new funding plan
Because the new design was relocated onto a strip of Caltrans-owned property, Caltrans District 5 committed to securing $6 million in State Highway Operations and Protection Program funding for construction of the trail on that land.
But on Feb. 14, “Caltrans Headquarters informed District 5 that the project ultimately does not meet the eligibility requirements” for the funding, the staff report said.
Caltrans’ estimate for the cost of building along their right of way also increased by $1.8 million, SLO County public works spokesperson Shelly Cone told The Tribune.
That left the project with a $7.8 million funding gap, and the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments with three options.
First, the council of governments could choose to advance $7.8 million from its 2026 fund cycle to fully fund the Bob Jones Trail and retain the $18.5 million Active Transportation grant, while attempting to recoup some funds through future negotiations with Caltrans.
The second option would’ve been to return the $18 million state grant and construct as much of the trail as possible using the $12.7 million in combined commitments from the county and the council of governments. Without total funding, this option likely would have resulted in the second phase of construction being significantly delayed, pushing costs even higher.
Finally, all funding could have been returned — including all contributions from the county, the council of governments and the state — and the county could have been asked to apply for a new state grant to pay for the entire project in a future funding cycle.
“All the options really aren’t that great,” Murphy said on Tuesday.
Ultimately, the council of governments unanimously chose to reappropriate the $7.8 million from their future budget, bringing its total contributions to the Bob Jones Trail project to $15 million.
“We’re in a position to advance 2026 funding capacity, and we’re in a position to retain the state grant, and we’re in a position to still leverage prior commitment of resources from the county and (the council),” Murphy said.
With the additional $7.8 million from the council, the project is once again slated for approval by the California Transportation Commission at the end of the month.
