The Ontario Ridge Trail is a popular destination in Avila Beach where you can get both a workout and a beach view.
For more than a decade, there have been several attempts to build a home where part of the trail is located.
Now, there is a new proposal trying to merge the two ideas.
Dave Watson has been working with the McCarthy family to get them their dream home by the beach, but it’s been a complicated project.
“The whole process for the property actually started about ten, a little over ten years ago. The first house that we had been working on that the county approved was presented to the Coastal Commission on appeal and was ultimately turned down at that time,” explained Watson, owner of Watson Planning Consultants. “The reason that it was turned down had more to do, not so much with the house, but more to do with the trail and public access. ”
The new proposal is for a nearly 6,600-square-foot house, plus patios, decks and a two-car garage.
“The home is a two-level story house. [It] is largely cut back into the hillside, recessed into the hill to try to reduce its appearance and scale and the visual impact,” Watson said.
According to the San Luis Obispo County Department of Building and Planning, the application was submitted in 2019, but a re-design was turned in this March 2023.
One of the big changes in this proposal is a realignment of the Ontario Ridge Trail.
“About a mile and three-quarters of a trail,” explained Shaun Cooper, San Luis Obispo County Senior Park Planner. “It would be a natural trail approximately five feet wide, native, compacted material, and it would create that link between the cave landing and the beach over to the intersection of Avila Beach Drive.”
It would move a section of the trail from the McCarthy property to county land.
“The current easements come up from the Cave Landing parking lot up through private property, through an easement, and then back onto county property and then to other private easements,” Cooper said.
There still seems to be mixed feelings about the proposed realignment.
“It's perfect where it is,” said Shane Healey, who frequents the trail area. “Everything's aligned right where it is. ”
“It'd be fine if they do the house and all that, but most of what I think hikers would want is if the trail just got moved over,” said Malachi Fechner, who was visiting from the Stockton area. “We'd be fine with that. ”
But Watson said there is another compromise that makes it a good deal.
“The win-win also is that the owners of the property will build the new trail and dedicate it to the county on their property, and they will do that in a way so that this trail stays just as it is until such time as the county accepts the new trail is complete,” Watson said.
It has been a lengthy process to get most parties on board.
“It seems that the hiking community is very happy [with] what's been proposed, we worked hard on the kind of trail that they wanted, and then the McCarthy family has been very receptive to those requests,” said Dawn Ortiz-Legg, San Luis Obispo County District 3 Supervisor. “Parks has been very clear about what they need because it's important to address the parks. It's one thing to build a trail, it's another thing to maintain a trail.”
There is still more work down the line since the application is 24% of its completion.
“It will need to go through public hearings at the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors and likely to the California Coastal Commission before the permit is approved and the project is approved,” Cooper added.
Cooper said once the project is approved, SLO County Parks will have to talk to the board to see what funding can be used to operate and maintain the trail.
While the application for the McCarthy residence works its way through the system, visitors can expect some changes soon.
“We're about to start work on the parking lot improvements in the next couple of weeks and so that'll be grading the parking lot, putting in compacted road bays, handicap parking places, signage and a vista overlook area with interpretive panels,” Cooper said.
