For South County Chambers of Commerce President and CEO Jocelyn Brennan, the California Coastal Commission’s March 18 decision to end off-roading and most other vehicle access in the Oceano Dunes felt bittersweet.
While Brennan said she’s concerned and sad for the South County business owners who depend on off-roading tourists to stay afloat, she’s simultaneously relieved to see the 40-year battle over vehicle access in the dunes laid to rest. It’s an opportunity, finally, for everyone to move on. Rebuild. Heal.
“I feel like it’s been hard for the businesses to have this hanging over their heads for so long,” Brennan told the Sun. “Now we know what we’re dealing with, and we just have to figure it out.”
The historic Coastal Commission decision over the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA) still allows for street-legal vehicles and some night driving on the beach between West Grand and Pier avenues, where up to 500 drive-up campsites can continue to operate indefinitely. The Coastal Commission also voted to close the park’s Pier Avenue entrance, but extended the closure deadline from July 1 of this year to July 1, 2022.
Though commissioners said they were moved by the many comments they heard from off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts vehemently opposed to the ban, all agreed that OHV use in the Oceano Dunes is not consistent with the Coastal Act or the park’s designation as an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.
“It’s clear how impacts occurring at the park are having a disproportionate impact on adjacent and downwind underserved communities,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said at the meeting. “It is clear that Oceano, Nipomo, Guadalupe, and Santa Maria qualify as [environmental justice] communities that are experiencing these adverse effects of pollution. And it is clear that prohibiting those activities would reduce or eliminate the environmental burden on these communities.”
It’s not the conclusion that some business owners and residents in South County had hoped for, but it at least offers some semblance of closure and certainty to a community that Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee said has been living in limbo for decades.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the decision, there’s a direction,” Lee told the Sun. “There’s a scope that as a city we can work with. We were going to be able to work with either choice, but certainty is really going to help.”
With the fate of the SVRA always in question, Lee said corporations and entrepreneurs are often wary of setting up shop in South County.
“It’s like when you start to have conversations with developers and those interested in making an investment in Grover, invariably the question either to the city or to the chamber of commerce or to other business organizations is, ‘Hey, what’s the status of the dunes?’” Lee said.
Bruce Van Vort is the owner of Fin’s Bar & Grill, a beachside seafood restaurant situated next to the SVRA entrance on West Grand Avenue. Due in part to its location, many of Van Vort’s customers are off-roaders and campers.
“I’ve talked to OHV riders today,” Van Vort said the day after the Coastal Commission’s vote, “and, I mean, they’re in tears.”
Though the Coastal Commission’s decision is about the strongest stance any agency has taken on the matter in years, Van Vort said there’s still a lot pending, making it difficult for him to prepare for the looming closure. The details of the phase-out plan and Pier Avenue closure remain to be seen, and the Friends of the Oceano Dunes, an organization that supports OHV access in the dunes, is gathering support and donations online to fight the ban in court.
If that lawsuit isn’t successful and off-roading is banned, Van Vort said one thing is for certain.
“It’ll have a tremendous impact on a lot of businesses,” he said. “There will be businesses that’ll have to shut down. Businesses that’ll have to find different ways of operating,” he said.
This article appears in Mar 25 – Apr 1, 2021.
