Coastal Commission wants habitat conservation plan for Oceano Dunes
February 12, 2015 12:15 am • April Charlton [email protected]
The Coastal Commission wants to see a habitat conservation plan for the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area completed sooner than later.
“All this goes to show we haven’t accomplished anything,” Commissioner Mary Shallenberger said about the numerous issues surrounding the operation and maintenance of the Oceano Dunes SVRA.
Shallenberger’s comments came during a lengthy permit review hearing in Shell Beach on Wednesday for the popular off-road vehicle park that hadn’t been reviewed by the commission since 2007.
“It’s nothing more than a freeway on the beach,” Shallenberger added. “There must be another way to do it. Using our beaches as a highway is not OK and not essential to State Parks to meet its mandate to provide recreation. For me, time’s up.”
Oceano Dunes SVRA is managed and operated by the State Parks Department, which received a Coastal Commission permit in 1982 to allow continued vehicle use on a six-mile stretch of beach south of West Grand Avenue in Grover Beach.
At that time, San Luis Obispo County was considering eliminating off-road activity in the dunes for a year while it developed a management plan for permitting vehicles on the beach.
The permit allowed the construction of fencing to specify use and restricted areas in the Oceano Dunes SVRA. It also established interim park access control, designated an interim off-highway vehicle staging area and addressed the park’s carrying capacity by setting vehicle limits.
Terms and conditions of that permit were designed to provide for “continued study and ongoing adaptive management of the park” related to core issues, such as staging areas, and consistent with the “access, recreation and resource protection” policies of the Coastal Act and the San Luis Obispo County Local Coastal Plan.
State Parks has been working to develop a habitat conservation plan, which will address such issues as a permanent staging area and entrance to the park, for the last 15 years, and many on the commission believe until that plan is on the table, changes to the permit can’t be made.
“For God’s sake, why isn’t it done? It should be done,” Commissioner Dayna Bocho said. “Let’s get it done, put a deadline on it and move on.”
Although most of the commissioners agreed they wanted to see the habitat conservation plan developed and implemented as soon possible, the body stopped at directing staff to take a more aggressive approach with State Parks, as many in the packed audience had hoped would happen.
“It’s time to use that authority and discretion,” said Andrew Christie, Sierra Club Santa Lucia Chapter president.
Oceano Dunes SVRA Superintendent Brent Marshall said he expects to have a draft copy of the conservation plan completed by year’s end.
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