SLO County group raises enough to keep popular coastal property open to public

A nonprofit organization has raised enough money to purchase the Cuesta Inlet in Los Osos — with plans to preserve public access to the beloved seaside property.

“This is a victory for our community and for everyone who values access to open space,” Save Cuesta Inlet volunteer executive director Margarete Schmidt said in a news release. “The generosity and commitment of our neighbors and local businesses made this possible. We are profoundly grateful — and proud — that, together, our community secured the future of Cuesta Inlet for generations to come.”

For decades, Los Osos residents have flocked to the Cuesta Inlet to walk their dogs, kayak, bird watch and enjoy the fresh air on the southeast end of the Morro Bay Estuary.

The privately-owned property was put up for sale in 2022, and a group of locals banded together under the rallyng cry of “peace, love and public access” to make a plan to protect the land.

As of Friday, the non-profit organization Save Cuesta Inlet raised the $735,000 needed to purchase the 13-acre property, Schmidt said.

“People grew up here,” she told The Tribune on Monday. “They’re smart enough to know that nothing stays the same forever, and we needed to make sure to get involved so it stayed the way we want it to.”

A long road to escrow

In 2022, the landowners put the property up for sale for $1 million, Schmidt said.

Soon after, a handful of community members formed Save Cuesta Inlet to raise money to buy the property. Because Save Cuesta Inlet is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, it can’t purchase the property for more than its appraised value, which at the time was $720,000, Schmidt said.

When the nonprofit offered to buy the land, the owners refused — maintaining that they wanted to sell it for $1 million.

At the end of 2024, a private buyer offered to purchase the property for $900,000, Schmidt said. Eventually, the buyer backed out when they realized development would be an “uphill battle” with the California Coastal Commission, she said.

After that, Save Cuesta Inlet commissioned an updated appraisal of the property — which came to $735,000.

Finally, on June 2, the landowners agreed to sell the property to Save Cuesta Inlet for the appraised value — starting a six-month escrow.

“Our board never gave up trying to get it into escrow,” Schmidt said. “Once we delivered that escrow for them, the community just pulled through.”

Once the property was in escrow, fundraising to purchase the Cuesta Inlet was a true community effort, Schmidt said.

Kids organized lemonade stands, families hosted garage sales and volunteers showed up at the farmers market every week to solicit donations. The Morro Bay National Estuary Program even pledged to donate $60,000, which “turned the tide,” she said.

“It was not the big fancy galas that did this,” Schmidt said. “It was the people on the street who said this was really important, and they dug deep.”

What’s next?

Now that the nonprofit raised the necessary funding, the next step is signing documents to make the sale official, Schmidt said. Escrow is scheduled to close on Oct. 1.

The nonprofit then plans to take a 60-day break to get some much-needed rest, before returning in 2026 under a new name: Friends of the Inlet.

Save Cuesta Inlet did offer the property to the county Parks and Recreation Department to operate as a county park, but the nonprofit would have needed to pay the county $200,000 per year for maintenance — which felt unrealistic, she said.

“People are searching through the sofa cushions to make this happen,” Schmidt said, noting that it would be difficult to raise $200,000 every year.

As a result, the nonprofit will manage the property, similar to the way the Morro Coast Audubon Society owns and manages the Sweet Springs Nature Preserve.

The nonprofit plans to keep the property open to public access and coordinate projects that support the health of the environment.

For example, the volunteers would like to clean up some of the old kayaks and canoes cluttering the shoreline, and remove invasive ice plant growing on the property.

Not much will change at the Inlet; the nonprofit’s goal is to make sure that people can keep kayaking, bird watching, walking their dogs and enjoying the beauty of the coastline.

“It’s been a great experience for, I think, everyone on the board,” Schmidt said. “We’re looking forward to the next chapter.”

This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM.