Rendering shows the north and south sides of Hwy 1 and where the Connector Bike Trail would run to the left of the highway. SLO County rendering
There’s been more movement taken in the County’s effort to connect Morro Bay and Cayucos with a beachside, dedicated bike path and it looks now like the long-anticipated project might be hitting clean air at the front of the pack.
County Supervisors on March 25 approved an additional $200,000 for the so-called Morro Bay-Cayucos Connector Project, a 1.25-mile separated bike path along the bluff top overlooking Chevron Dog Beach and Morro Strand.
When completed, the connector would close a significant gap in a continuous bikeway from the Cloisters Park in Morro Bay to Norma Rose Park in Cayucos.
Norma Rose Park is a designated park for Cayucos situated between the cemetery and Hwy 1. Though it’s been approved and designed, the County has held off on building the park for lack of a revenue source to pay for the upkeep. Currently there is a small dog park on the property.
“Combined with other existing bike routes,” reads the report from Project Delivery Division Manager Robert M. Ruiz, and Supervising Engineer, Aaron Yonker, “this pathway will result in a more than 10-mile-long bike route, with 4 miles already existing in Cayucos and more than five miles already existing in Morro Bay.
“The pathway will create a safe pedestrian and bicycle connection between these communities, where today, the path requires walking and riding on Highway 1 next to high-speed traffic.”
The latest $200,000 was being transferred out of the County’s Parks Public Facilities Fees.
The transfer required a four-fifths vote of Supervisors to be approved.
The transfer allowed the County to amend its contract with Cannon Corp., of San Luis Obispo for the eighth time on the project.
The contract amendment added another $210,000 (not to exceed limit), and would pay “for additional engineering design, environmental review, Caltrans coordination, environmental permitting, right-of-way, acquisition, and construction documents services.” The approval also included another $21,000 in contingencies that could be use if needed.
With the County retaining oversight, the added cash would allow Cannon “to provide additional services necessary to complete the Plans, Specification, and Estimate (PS&E) package from the current 70% completion to final 100% completion,” Ruiz’ report said. “Once PS&E are complete, the Department of Public Works will be positioned to request authorization to enter the Construction phase from Caltrans.”
The project route hasn’t been easy, because the County has been trying to patch together grant monies to pay for the estimated $7.5 million project and is using tax monies, which complicates the red tape portion.
It’s been a long and twisty road to this project, with over two decades passing from when the idea was first hatched to now and likely several more years to go until riders can use it.
“This project,” Ruiz said, “is consistent with the California Coastal Trail and County Parks & Recreation’s Park and Recreation Element. In 2003, County Parks & Recreation obtained a transportation grant for a feasibility study, which was completed in 2006, showing this trail segment is feasible.
“In 2008, County Parks & Recreation received another transportation grant for preliminary design and completion of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
“In 2010, the EIR was certified by the County Board of Supervisors. In 2013 and 2014, County Parks received additional transportation grants to complete the design, engineering, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, right-of-way acquisition, permits, and construction documents. The completion of this phase of the Project will further define what the project’s design, cost, environmental impacts, and timeline will be for construction.”
It’s already been expensive. The “planning” budget — before this additional $200,000 — was at $1.59 million, “Funded by $1.192 million in Regional State Highway Account grant funds and $400,000 in Parks Public Facility Fees. The proposed augmentation of $200,000 will come from Parks Public Facility Fees for a total budget of $1.792 million.”
The Parks Public Facilities Fee Fund had over $550,000 in it before the transfer and now has a balance of $350,000.
The project would build a bike path along the bluff top from the south end of Studio Drive in Cayucos to Toro Lane and North Point in Morro Bay. The project has had hurdles to jump from the start with the first being the location. The County queried the public on whether it should go on the east side of Hwy 1 or on the west side, outside the Caltrans highway safety fence? Though there were some Cayucos folks that wanted it on the eastern side, the majority wanted it next to the beach.
The project also has some difficult spots along the 1.25-mile route including crossing Toro Creek, a 180-foot-long gap that will require a bridge to be built.
South of the creek is another area where the bluff isn’t wide enough nor stable, and there will have to be a seawall built and backfilled to hold up the path.
On the other side of Toro Creek, the bluff has been eroding from the bottom and that too will have to be dealt with.
Heading towards Cayucos, there are dozens of small drainage swales cutting through the dunes that will have to be built over, too.
There will need to be parking areas established on either end, though it appears the North Point parking lot will be used.
Complicating things, is the objections of property owners on Toro Lane who filed suit to force the project not to use the narrow, Toro Lane as part of the bike path.
On the other hand, the project was granted a Coastal Development Permit by the Coastal Commission, whose members were concerned about the seawall but approved it anyway.
The Commission has long opposed such artificial measures as seawalls and rock piles to hold back erosion from the sea.
But the public good of this project apparently out-weighed the “no-seawalls” policies the Commission has used in the past.
In the past the County has talked about having to coordinate this project with a Caltrans project that will replace the southbound Toro Creek Bridge.
The supports under the bridge deck have been damage — cracked near the base — and partially displaced, apparently by big storms and rushing creek waters.
Caltrans finished replacing the northbound bridge several years ago, a project that saw traffic in both directions diverted over the single available bridge, which remained open throughout the lengthy construction. The next bridge job is expected to be done the same way.
The beach property itself was once part of the Chevron Estero Marine Terminal, which tankered oil in and out of Estero Bay from 1929 to 1999, when it was closed for good.
Chevron sold the beach parcels, which is the only SLO County beach where dogs are allowed to run off leash, to the Cayucos Sanitary District, which needed the terminal’s old loading pipeline for an ocean outfall for its new treatment plant on Toro Creek Road.
The CSD then sold Dog Beach to the City of Morro Bay, which has pledged to oversee it and ensure that dogs will always be able to go off leash there.
SLO County is doing the bike path project with the assistance of San Luis Obispo Council of Governments or SLOCOG, which is a funding agency for state and federal gasoline taxes and other transportation monies.
Ironically, SLOCOG was almost responsible for what would have been a major setback and possible project killer.
In February, the SLOCOG Board was asked by staff to reallocate the Connector Project transportation monies to the Bob Jones Trail Project, another segregated bike path from SLO to Avila Beach, due to rising costs with that project and the potential loss of millions in allocated grant monies slated to expire.
But SLOCOG was able to bridge Bob Jones’ funding gap with different money sources, and the money was not transferred.
So now it appears that both major bicycle projects will be able to pedal on.
