Proposal to change parking at Point Lobos State Reserve

For more than a month now, parking has not been allowed on the east side of Highway 1 by Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, and now some people want to keep it that way. The signs were put up just before the 4th of July holiday because of safety concerns.

On Monday morning, dozens of cars lined the west side of the roadway, including one woman we met from the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The sign said ‘Parking lot full,’ so I didn’t come in,” she said. “Fortunately I found a spot less than a quarter mile down.”

What she and others didn’t know, at one time they could park on the other side of the freeway.

“We saw the dangers of people parking on that side of the road, darting across to get into Point Lobos, children sort of running loose, mothers with baby carriages pushing them across the street,” said District 5 Supervisor Mary Adams.

Adams said at one point, she and her staff saw traffic backed up for miles, with people parked on both sides of Highway 1.

“We realized as clear as a bell that if an emergency happened right now, it is going to be on their shoulders that the emergency vehicles would not be able to get by,” Adams said.

Eventually the Coastal Commission gave the OK to ban parking on the east side of the road at that spot. It’s supposed to be a temporary measure. Adams said the Coastal Commission indicated they want the signs removed after the construction is completed on the Climbing Lane Project at Highway 1 and Rio Road in Carmel.

The Coastal Commission is concerned people aren’t getting enough access.

“The primary goal of the Coastal Commission is for everyone to have access to the coast and they believe that by taking away the parking on that side of the highway limits people’s ability to reach the coast,” Adams said.

There are other projects in the works, including a reservation system starting next January, and a shuttle system like the one that takes folks from the Big Sur Station to Pfeiffer Beach.

Supervisor Adams said people who want to ban parking along that stretch of Highway 1 should let the California Coastal Commission know. The commission is meeting this week in Southern California. There is nothing on their agenda addressing the signage, but again, the Climbing Lane Project isn’t going to be done until next month.