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State Parks’ plan seeks to avoid closures

March 5, 2012

A variety of plans to manage the state park system to avoid widespread closures of California’s 278 facilities has been completed by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and distributed to lawmakers.

Financial problems plaguing the system still may result in closure of as many as 70 of the parks by July including Morro Strand State Beach in Morro Bay. Legislators will consider options before that date.

Among the proposals presented by LAO, the legislature’s nonpartisan analyst, are (1) transferring ownership of some parks to local governments; (2) eliminating the use of peace officers for certain park tasks; (3) allowing private companies to operate parks; (4) increasing park user fees and shifting toward entrance, rather than parking, fees; (5) incentivizing park districts to more effectively collect user fees; and (6) expanding the use of concessionaire agreements.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed an $11 million reduction in budget support this fiscal year.


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“First of all, there is already an ordinance on the books for no camping on the streets of Morro Bay, obviously there is a reason for this.”


Actually a couple of reasons… the hotel lobby group and the revenue for the city generated by hotel taxes.


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diamond

I wholeheartedly agree with the anti-tourism sentiments. I’ve long said Morro Bay is a tourist town with no tourist attractions and a vacation village with no night life.

The biggest problem as I see it, is that half the town is retired and has little connection to the local economy. As far as many people are concerned, they’d love to slam the door shut behind them and not let another visitor into town!

As for your post, allow me to make one correction, the 72-hour notices are for “parking” on the street.

If the cops catch someone actually sleeping in their vehicle, they get a ticket immediately.

If someone had 72 hours to move their vehicle, they probably wouldn’t worry too much, since that’s equal to 3-day weekend.


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Thank you, I stand corrected.


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The new state budget is 94 Billion (BILLION, with a B). Personal Income Tax collections (those on you & me) increased from 54.2 Billion to 59.6 Billion. That’s an increase of over $5 Billion dollars. And closing these parks is over an $11 million cut by the governor? If this isn’t political crap, then I don’t know what is. THE PARKS BELONG TO US, THE PEOPLE. KEEP THEM OPEN.


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Why is this even an issue? Are California officials so inept that they can’t generate revenue from some of the most sought after park environments of the world? Campgrounds (and day use areas) could generate twice their current revenue. Anyone attempting to reserve California campsites for any weekend knows that they sell out hours after they become available.


El Capitan state campground is another example of poor government park management. The campground is closed during some of the best whether days and surf season of the year – November through March.


These high revenue generating opportunities would buoy the costs of less popular locations. Threat of park closure is just another arrogant maneuver by legislators who want to bleed taxpayers for more money to feed California’s Porky Pig.


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What is with the link in the article? LInking to google for a definition? Really? Come on CCN, you guys are much better than that.


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The link is to the report.


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Morro Bay Police need to enforce the city’s no overnight camping ordinance that has been ignored for years. This is part of the problem when you have campers visiting friends that just park on the streets throughout the city. Why pay to stay at the parks when it’s free to camp on the streets of Morro Bay? Not just campers but boats and trailers too. While MB “volunteer” cops cruise around all day removing yard sale signs they should be marking vehicles that have been parked or not moved in some cases years. These same obvious vehicles also create street erosion. The city street sweepers cannot clean debris and dirt under the vehicles, allowing seeds to grow in cracks starting the breakage of the street.


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Great idea…maybe they should ban tourism and visits from out of town family and friends that last longer than one day. After that one’s on the books the city’s newly elected Gestapo agents can roam the neighborhoods for cars,RV’s, boats and anything else that dosent meet standards your standards and approval. Then all us tax payers can foot the bill to have it hauled off like south county does for its collectors fine things.


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03/06/2012 at 9:27 am


First of all, there is already an ordinance on the books for no camping on the streets of Morro Bay, obviously there is a reason for this. Though it’s already illegal to do so, they kindly give violators a 72 hour notice. Golly, if they can’t camp in the streets, perhaps they might have to pay for camping at one of our state parks that is about to close. (tax dollars). If you don’t mind long term street camping and storage, then please post your address so anyone who wants to camp is welcome to do so in front of your home, if you have one and I will gladly pass it on to the homeless campers being removed from Prado rd. As far as banning tourism, Morro Bay seems to be doing a fabulous job of alienating tourists already with no dogs on beach, no fishing, no kite flying and zero activities for kids. “All of us tax payers” already foot the bill for street maintenance, which is just one of the reasons in favor of removing or fining offenders who use the street as private storage facilities. If you want to turn our streets into a free parking lot, then perhaps you can coax a Snowy Plover to nest on one of your vehicles so it can’t be touched or removed.


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