Is this the last stand for off-roading at the Oceano Dunes?
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Revisioning the Oceano Dunes
The SLO Tribune Editorial Board examines competing proposals for the Oceano Dunes state park, from a total ban on off-highway vehicles to a major expansion of camping and recreation areas.
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Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series of editorials on major changes proposed at the Oceano Dunes, which includes the state’s most visited off-road recreation area.
Here we go again.
The state Coastal Commission meets on Thursday and, just as it did in 2019, it will consider a staff recommendation to completely ban off-roading at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area — the only state park in California where OHVs are allowed on the beach.
Our position is unchanged from two years ago: We support some form of off-road recreation at the Dunes, but only under strict guidelines.
As for those ambitious expansion plans included in State Parks’ draft Public Works Plan, forget about them. State Parks has yet to prove itself capable of managing the existing SVRA as it is.
Coastal Commission staff is correct in saying the Public Works Plan won’t resolve long-standing issues.
“It essentially maintains existing operation areas as before, leading to essentially the same sets of legal and coastal resource problems,” the report says.
In other words, it’s the same old, same old.
A planning boondoggle?
The series of events that took us to this moment in time is nothing short of ridiculous.
The Coastal Commission issued a temporary permit for the OHV park 40 years ago, under the assumption State Parks would find a solution to operational conflicts.
That’s magical thinking, and 40 years later, Central Coast residents are still waiting for a solution.
They won’t find it in State Parks’ Public Works Plan, which cost a little over $2 million to produce; 55% paid for by State Parks and the rest by the off-highway vehicle trust fund, which includes OHV registration fees, user fees and gas tax.
Instead of focusing on immediate problems — including air quality, environmental damage, noise and traffic hazards, it proposes expanding into two new areas: Oso Flaco, which it controls, and Phillips 66 oil refinery land, which it hopes to acquire after the refinery shuts down in 2023.
Oso Flaco would be transformed into a tourist destination with hundreds of campsites and other visitor facilities, while the plan for the Phillips 66 property would include 25 acres of staging areas for OHVs, a 33-acre professionals-only motocross track, an obstacle course, a training area for beginners; and hundreds of additional campsites, among other features.
Another entrance
The Phillips 66 project could also include a much-needed southern access to the SVRA, taking pressure off the entrances in Oceano and Grover Beach.
But that remains uncertain, so for now, State Parks wants the Grand Avenue and Pier Avenue entrances — which have been considered temporary all this time — to finally be declared permanent.
That means vehicles would have to continue crossing Arroyo Grande Creek; that’s not only a hazard for drivers, it also wreaks havoc on the environment. Vehicle crossings can cause banks to erode, alter the creek bed and threaten protected species, including steelhead trout, tidewater goby and red-legged frogs.
But not to worry — State Parks has a solution. It will continue to monitor creek levels and prohibit crossing when the water is too high; it also will “investigate options” for installing a temporary bridge.
That’s absurd.
It would make far more sense to add a southern entrance that would avoid the creek entirely, and have the added benefit of routing SVRA traffic away from Oceano’s Pier Avenue, allowing the community to evolve into a more traditional California beach town.
The Grand Avenue entrance in Grover Beach could remain open to street-legal vehicles to accommodate beach camping on the stretch between Grand and Pier avenues, as the Coastal Commission staff recommends.
Transformational change
That one change alone — adding a southern access point and allowing only street-legal vehicles between the Oceano and Grover entrances — would reduce conflicts between off-roaders and local residents fed up with the noise, traffic, pollution and litter that’s typical during the busy season.
We urge the state Coastal Commission to require the addition of a southern entrance as a condition of remaining open. We’re talking access road with kiosk and restrooms — not a major project with hundreds of campsites and cabins and a convenience store.
If State Parks has not identified a location for a southern entrance and begun the process of construction within five years, then the SVRA closes.
Period. End of story.
In other words, instead of phasing out OHV activity over five years, as the commission recommends, allow State Parks to use that time to make major operational changes to reduce conflicts.
Other hard-and-fast conditions the Coastal Commission should impose:
- Close the Pier Avenue entrance.
- Complete all dust-control measures as directed by the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District to protect public health.
- Comply with all state and federal requirements to protect rare and endangered species.
- Consult with Native American tribal councils and incorporate their recommendations in a cultural/historical resource management plan.
- Enhance safety for off-roaders by setting aside areas for beginners and marking trails by degree of difficulty.
- Expand access to the SVRA by maintaining rental concessions and encouraging guided tours.
- Adopt Coastal Commission staff’s recommendation on visitor limits of 1,000 street-legal vehicles, 1,000 OHVs and 500 campsites.
- Set aside funding to compensate OHV-related businesses, in the event the park is ordered to close in five years.
If there is a section of the Dunes that can be kept open to off-roading — without threatening the health of downwind residents, degrading the habit of protected species, ignoring concerns of Native American tribal councils and degrading the quality of life for neighboring residents — we can support that.
But this can’t drag on indefinitely; at some point, Coastal Commissioners have to stop passing the problem on to their successors.
After all, State Parks has been given more than 40 years to get this right. This should be its last chance.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 5:30 AM.