Parks Chief Delays Overnight RV Parking Plan at Rincon

Besieged by criticism from surfers and owners of nearby luxury beach homes, the chief of the county’s parks department said Monday he will postpone until next year a plan to reinstate overnight RV parking along the Rincon Parkway.

A public hearing on the plan was scheduled for today’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors, but General Services Agency Director John Johnston said he would ask for a delay.

“It’s not dead and it’s not abandoned,” Johnston said. “But I am going to recommend the ordinance that’s on the agenda be pulled and that I meet with the varying parties of interest and see if we can come up with something that’s agreeable to everybody.”

Johnston had recommended opening up 75 overnight spaces on the ocean-side parkway to accommodate overnight campers during the summer. Currently only daytime parking is permitted. He said the $18-per-night spaces could raise $127,000 per year.

County-run parks generally are not profitable. Johnston’s projected deficit for the coming budget year already has been shaved from about $475,000 to $350,000 by cutting jobs and reorganizing, he said. The RV plan was an attempt to further reduce the gap.

But homeowners in neighboring Solimar Beach predicted increased crowds, pollution and traffic fatalities along Pacific Coast Highway. The Surfrider Foundation also opposed the plan. Both groups put pressure on supervisors and Johnston to drop the proposal.

“It’s gotten so confused and vitriolic that I thought maybe I’d step back and take a little more time to try to come together on this,” Johnston said. “Rather than further alienate citizens and make them more cynical about government, I’ll step back and try to engage them in conversation. Maybe there’s someplace we can meet in the middle.”

In the meantime, Johnston will focus on another financing plan--building a fees-producing golf course on 120 acres in Happy Camp Canyon in Moorpark. That proposal could go before the Board of Supervisors in August, he said.