Controversy rises over parking plans for Surfers Beach

Currently, the parking lot project is being spearheaded by the San Mateo County Harbor District, who owns land on Burnham Strip — sandwiched between Highway 1 and Avenue Alhambra in El Granada — and previously hired a consultant to pursue parking development there. That parking lot would need to be connected to the beach and harbor with a crosswalk spanning Highway 1. 

The need for new parking in the area is particularly important because of Caltrans’ plans to remove shoulders on Highway 1 to make way for bike lanes, eliminating an often-used parking option for beach visitors or those who can’t find parking at Pillar Point. 

While it is not currently involved in designing the already-existing Harbor District parking lot project, Caltrans was mandated by the California Coastal Commission to put in 75 parking spaces due to the shoulder removal and has indicated if the project fulfills its requirements it would financially support construction, per a Harbor District staff report. 

Last week’s listening session on the topic was hosted by Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents the coastside on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, and state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park. Caltrans was also present at the meeting.  

Three parking lot options were presented: two on the Burnham Strip lot, one with an entrance on Alhambra and the other with an entrance on Highway 1, and a last option located on one of the Harbor District’s launch ramp properties near Sam’s Chowder House. 

Harbor District board President Kathryn Slater-Carter pushed back on the idea that parking lot plans had been finalized and any one option had been selected. 

“We have not even had one session or presentation of our formal planning process,” she said. “All of this brouhaha is from [the] community based on their own suppositions. We haven’t presented anything about what we’re going to do.” 

While the Harbor District Board of Directors will formally receive a presentation on the three options during its upcoming November meeting, Mueller said residents made it clear that the third option — building parking at the launch ramp — was preferable. 

“There is also unanimous agreement that the parking lot should be located at a different lot located adjacent to the harbor,” he said. “I think every hand in the room raised, saying that was the preferred location.” 

Community members expressed a bevy of concerns with the Burnham Strip location during the meeting, including the elimination of the natural green space as well as safety concerns with having cars exit and enter from Highway 1 or Avenue Alhambra. Those anxieties have also been voiced in a Change.org petition that has garnered more than 1,000 signatures. 

One community member, Birgitta Bower, said she’s not in favor of any of the options — she’d prefer the launch ramp if it came down to it, but its distance from Surfers Beach and expensive value makes it a poor choice, she said. But Bower believes the negative public opinion will preclude the Harbor District from developing the Burnham Strip location. 

“They know they lost. They can’t do Burnham Strip,” she said. 

Her suggestion — which she relayed into a Change.org petition, receiving more than 200 signatures — is that the nearby Pillar Point RV park has violated its lease and should be turned back into public parking for the beach. 

That’s a nonstarter, Slater-Carter said. 

“If these community members want to buy the [Pillar Point RV Park] lease, they can call the owner of the lease and they can talk about it, and then we can be involved,” she said. 

The Harbor District Board of Commissioners will next discuss the parking lot project at its meeting Nov. 19. For now, its future remains an open question.