Recently retired engineer named membership chair as conservancy advances major coastal and greenbelt preservation efforts
The Cayucos Land Conservancy has a new board member, as it continues its quest to establish and add to a greenbelt surrounding the community and beyond.
The CLC announced that Gary Newman, a recently retired engineer, has joined the board as the new membership chair. He comes aboard after a career in general engineering.
“Gary was born and raised in the Bay Area,” “attended college in Southern California and graduated with a degree in General Engineering,” reads an announcement in the CLC’s most recent e-newsletter. “Gary grew up snow-skiing, fishing, and camping with his grandfather and has been an avid mountain biker for decades.”
He spent his career in the “international semiconductor industry,” the CLC said. “He and his wife Holly found Cayucos on their daughter’s recommendation while she was at Cal Poly. The views of Estero Bay, the open hills and small beach-town vibe were exactly what they were searching for,” it continues.
The CLC, “is committed to the enduring preservation of the rural greenbelt that surrounds Cayucos, California,” reads the CLC’s Mission Statement on its website (see: cayucoslandconservancy.org). “Preserving this historic and stunning open space is the primary goal of the land conservancy, so that this and future generations can enjoy this beautiful place for many years to come.”
The CLC has been involved in several conservation efforts, including preserving the Estero Bluffs, north of town on Highway 1. The Conservancy was formed to combat a proposed subdivision on that coastal bluff back in the 1990s.
“In the early 1990s, a proposed development threatened public access of the Estero Bluffs open space and natural coastline north of Cayucos,” reads a history of the Estero Bluffs battle on the CLC website. “The citizens, led by the founders of CLC, challenged the development. As a result of the community’s efforts the Trust for Public Land and acquired the property in 1998, granted fee ownership to California State Parks and a perpetual conservation easement to the newly formed Cayucos Land Conservancy.”
The result was establishment of Estero Bluffs State Park, a day use area that sits adjacent to Highway 1 and offers unobstructed views of Estero Bay and the Pacific Ocean, crisscrossed by hiking trails through the dune scrub to a rocky coastline. The easement has led CLC to become an active partner in the management of Estero Bluffs, conducting regular nature walks and clean-ups, and meeting regularly with State Parks on various issues involving the park.
CLC has also obtained an easement on San Geronimo Creek Ranch, which sits north of Estero Bluffs; and was instrumental in the purchase of Harmony Headlands, located some 5 miles north of Cayucos on Highway 1. That former private coastal ranch also has also become a part of State Park’s SLO County properties.
CLC has also been working with SLO County on obtaining and retiring the so-called Cayucos “paper lots,” located on the eastern hillside in Southern Cayucos.
Those legal lots are part of an old subdivision that exists only on paper, but have been determined to be “unbuildable” by the county due to the steepness of the slopes and unstable ground, which the county claims is a danger for landslides.
Over the years many of the owners of those paper lots have either sold or relinquished ownership, or lost them through tax liens to the county. There are however, many that remain in private ownership.
The CLC’s current major project is the Toro Coast Preserve an effort to obtain and preserve the 2,000-acre Chevron Ranch Property that used to be part of the oil company’s Estero Marine Terminal, which tankered out oil delivered by pipeline from the Central Valley and San Ardo oilfields, from 1929-99.
The majority of the Toro Coast Preserve is actually east of Morro Bay, heading off into the mountains at Alva Paul Canyon, which lies east of Del Mar Park in Morro Bay.
CLC is working with other local conservation organizations — the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County and the Morro Bay Open Space Alliance on this project.
When the ranch is finally preserved in total, it will be one of the major accomplishments in coastal conservation in SLO County history.
“The Toro Coast Preserve is an integral piece and the essential southern cornerstone of that rural greenbelt,” the CLC said.
If readers are interested in getting involved with the CLC and volunteering for its various efforts, email the Board at hello@cayucoslandconservancy.org. Visit cayucoslandconservancy.org to learn more about the organization’s efforts.
Feature Image: Gary Newman has been named the Cayucos Land Conservancy’s membership chair.
