Piedras Blancas: State to Invite Ideas for Resort

By ?Kathe Tanner, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Mar. 24–A public workshop on what to do with the former Piedras Blancas resort is the next step now that the state Department of Parks and Recreation officially owns the property.

Local state parks officials were notified this week that the $4.5 million deal is done for the aging motel, gas station, recreational vehicle camping area and coffee shop complex.

The 1950s-era motel is about 15 miles north of Cambria on a spectacular site above the ocean. The 20-acre parcel with a mile of coastal bluff was the last privately held chunk of commercial land along the coastal strip from San Simeon Point to San Carporforo.

Many considered the acquisition to be a vital step in coastal conservation, preventing what could have been a major commercial development at the midpoint of 13 miles of oceanfront State Park that used to be part of Hearst Ranch.

The deal has been in the works for some time through the Trust for Public Lands, which bought the property in May 2005 to make sure a developer didn’t step in while the trust was seeking funding.

Nick Franco, superintendent of the parks district that includes the resort, plans to hold a public workshop soon, perhaps by early summer, on how best to use the property.

“My preference would be to hold the meeting out there,” he said. “We’ll just talk over what are some of the options, see what the public wants to do.”

Franco noted that the topic was discussed somewhat during previous public forums on the entire new coastal strip. But at those meetings, he deferred any specific suggestions until State Parks actually owned the site.

Planners already are mulling over possible concepts for the site, such as a hostel in the former motel and a staging area for those walking the California Coastal Trail, visiting the elephant seal rookery or taking one of the monthly lighthouse tours.

“There are a whole bunch of options,” Franco said. “What we all need to decide is what’s the right fit.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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