More Beach RV Parking Proposed

Surfers and beach-goers may lose some free beachfront parking on the Rincon Parkway north of Ventura if the county follows through on a proposal to convert a portion into a camping area for recreational vehicle owners.

County officials are circulating a plan that would see about 40% of the two-mile-long day-use parking area between the community of Solimar Beach and Emma Wood State Beach converted into 76 RV camping spaces during the summer months. The so-called southern extension of the camping parkway would add to an existing 112 spaces to the north, between Hobson Beach Park and Faria Beach Park.

Parks Department operations manager Andy Oshita said the arrangement would be beneficial to all beach users because portable restrooms would be installed at the designated day-use areas that would remain on either side of the RV area.

“The camping parkway gets filled every summer seven days a week, and we’ve had requests for more camping,” he said. “And if overnight parking is permitted, it’s going to permit a much needed service in terms of sanitation facilities.”

There have been persistent complaints about beach users and surfers urinating on the rocks south of the residential community, county officials said.

However, some people see the proposal as a restriction on one of the few free parking areas near the ocean.

“It’s a bad idea,” said Melton Hill, 37, of Ventura, who heads out to the parkway as often as three times a week on his motorcycle to relax and read the newspaper. “If you limit the access by making it just for RVers, it wouldn’t be good for the general public. I’m already paying taxes, I live in the county, I should have access to the beach.”

Still, not all beach-goers condemn the plan.

Brian Brennan, president of the Ventura County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, said the plan initially made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. But considering the alternatives, the group is tentatively supporting the idea.

“It could be the case of the lesser of two evils at this point,” he said. “We’re concerned about lack of access, but . . . without that revenue coming in, maybe they will be looking at day use as an opportunity to bring in some revenue.”

The existing RV camping area brings in about $106,000 a year, Oshita said.

Last year, the Board of Supervisors split the parks and harbor department in an effort to wean parks from the subsidy that harbor operations provide. Now recreational areas are being forced to find additional revenue sources in an effort to make them pay for maintenance costs. For example, RV parking fees were increased $1 this year to $13 a day in the summer. Rates are lower at other times of the year.

The Surfrider group is hoping to use the loss of the area as leverage to ease restrictions on the hours parking is allowed. Surfers taking advantage of early morning swells risk receiving a ticket since parking is allowed only between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. In addition, day parking areas could be re-striped for angular instead of parallel parking, lessening the number of spaces that would be lost.

“In return for losing that access in one spot, maybe we can increase access to the whole Rincon,” Brennan said.

Not surprisingly, many recreational vehicle owners like the idea.

“It’s wonderful,” said Bob Scott, of Ventura. “It’s the way it used to be.”

The county eliminated more than 100 parking spaces for RV camping in about 1980, in the belief that more daytime parking was needed and because of maintenance problems associated with homeless people living in the camping sites, Oshita said.

County Supervisor Kathy Long, whose district includes Faria Beach, said county officials would support whatever local residents want for the area.

Right now, the Faria Beach Homeowners Assn. is opposed to additional overnight camping. But Long said she wants to get association members together with the Surfriders Foundation to see if a compromise can be reached.