Back at the Hearst Ranch

Three years ago, a hard-won and convoluted agreement ended one of the most acrimonious land-use battles in California history. The deal ensured that almost all of the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch on the San Luis Obispo County coast will remain undeveloped, its stunning views preserved forever, with 13 miles of the 18-mile shoreline transferred to California State Parks. Many facets of the agreement remain controversial, and it is by no means clear how--or if--they will be implemented. But one unambiguous fact anchors the accord: This nonpareil stretch of coast is now open to the public; average citizens will never again be excluded from its shores.

The ranch, of course, is best known for Hearst Castle, which commands a sublime view of the coastline from the summit that William Randolph Hearst dubbed La Cuesta Encantada. Built over a period of 30 years beginning in 1922 and donated to the State in 1957, it is one of California’s most popular tourist attractions, annually drawing millions of visitors to view the lavishly landscaped grounds, palatial edifices, and vast art collection that Hearst acquired from various European estates.

In many ways, the castle always has been ancillary to the huge ranch that envelops it--especially to Hearst’s heirs, who generally have viewed the property as an essential part of their patrimony. The family’s business arm, the Hearst Corporation, tried for many decades to turn the ranch into a significant profit center.

The initial vision was nothing if not grandiose. In 1965, the corporation proposed a development designed to ultimately top out at 60,000 residents and include an airport, college, and hospital. Despite bitter public opposition, that proposal was bruited about for years; county planners killed it in 1980.

Hearst came back with a different proposal, mostly focused on and around San Simeon and Ragged Points. It was tossed back and forth a couple of times between the board of supervisors and the Coastal Commission, reshaped and scaled down a bit, but failed to come to fruition.

The struggle over the future of the north county coast came to a head at the Coastal Commission hearing on January 15, 1998. At this point the Hearst proposal included a resort complex with three hotels, a convention center, blufftop golf course, dude ranch, restaurants, and shops. Hundreds of people packed the largest hall available in San Luis Obispo and spilled into the lobby. Most spoke in passionate opposition, though Hearst also had a well-organized crowd of supporters. The Commission rejected the Hearst plan, approving instead a scaled-back project that would allow 375 hotel rooms at San Simeon Point.

Open-space advocates remained firm in their opposition to any major development at the ranch, though, and in 2002 Steve Hearst, the head of the corporation’s land division, switched strategies. The corporation pitched the idea of a conservation easement, which would keep most of the ranch as open space in exchange for a cash payout and some development rights.

Out of that broad concept, fine-tuned over three years with the collaboration of various land conservation groups and agencies, an agreement ultimately was forged. Major points include:

• The State would pay Hearst $95 million in cash and tax credits in exchange for retiring development rights on 80,000 acres east of Highway 1 and protecting this land for agriculture and habitat by means of an easement.
• The corporation would retain the right to build a 100-room hotel at Old San Simeon Village, 15 employee homes at different sites, and 27 homes, each with a five-acre core site and a 20-acre buffer zone, east of Highway 1 and out of sight from the road. To exercise these rights, the corporation would have to secure the necessary permits.
• Hearst would donate 1,500 acres west of Highway 1, with 13 miles of shoreline, to the State, retaining 700 acres, with five miles of private beaches, at San Simeon Point, Ragged Point, and Pico Cove. An easement to protect scenic views would be placed on these properties and held by Caltrans. Public access to San Simeon Point would be limited to 100 people a day. At Ragged Point, guided walks for up to 20 people would be offered once a month.
• A contiguous 18-mile stretch of Coastal Trail would be allowed west of Highway 1.
• A section of Highway 1, roughly two miles long, would be moved east--in some spots several hundred feet inland--to prevent damage by coastal erosion. The acreage that would then be west of the road would be added to the state parkland.

The closing of escrow on the acquisition was announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Feb. 18, 2005. Soon after, these 949 acres were transferred to State Parks, to be added to San Simeon State Park. This year, the 20-acre Piedras Blancas Motel site was added. What else has happened? Not much, save for ongoing monitoring of the conservation easements, the expansion of some boardwalks near elephant seal rookeries, and the installation of a few pedestrian entrances. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

True, no public campgrounds or trails have been developed along Highway 1, but no McMansions have sprouted east of the highway, nor is there a new resort at San Simeon Cove. So far, Hearst hasn’t sought a single building permit. The ranch looks much the same as it did right before the agreement--the same, in fact, as it has for a century or more. There is the rocky coast, fronted by grasslands and chaparral that roll up against oak uplands. The Santa Lucia Range stands as a rampart to the east, sometimes exquisitely detailed in full sunshine, sometimes dark and brooding, partially obscured by fog and shadows.

You could imagine Drake sailing up this coast, observing a landscape not appreciably different from that which exists today--Hearst Castle being the one exception, of course. Located 30 miles north of Morro Bay on the Enchanted Hill, it ineluctably draws the eye. Yet somehow it doesn’t clash with the wild landscape; it looks otherworldly, like something from another time, or out of time altogether.

When the deal closed, much remained vague. It was not clear when or if the Hearst Corporation would try to build the ranchettes east of Highway 1, or the resort at San Simeon Cove. Nor was it determined when State Parks would develop the Coastal Trail or when campsites would be established.

“It was a very large and very complicated project, consisting of many components,” observed Steve Horn, former executive officer of the Coastal Conservancy, who participated in the negotiations--and who still seems a little fatigued when discussing it. “So many things were wrapped up in it--the realignment of Highway 1, increased public access, the conservation of scenic views. It is a difficult agreement to summarize.”

One thing’s sure: the entire process is moving slowly. State Parks held four workshops in Cambria and San Luis Obispo in the spring and summer of 2006 to enable the different groups and agencies that participated in the deal to coordinate future plans and provide interested citizens the opportunity to comment.

“The one thing we [got] from the public is that they want the least disturbance possible, and we’re honoring that request,” said Leander Tamoria, State Parks’ supervising ranger for the San Luis Obispo Coast District. “We’re not sure what the final configuration will be, but we want to make the impacts to the land minimal.”

Currently, State Parks is wrapping up studies of the coastal property’s archeological and natural values. Some surprises have emerged, most notably the presence of the Smith’s blue butterfly, a federally listed endangered species. It feeds on coast buckwheat, a fairly common plant in the area. Park staffers also are removing invasive flora, particularly pampas grass and ice plant.

In the meantime, visitors have free access to the coast at any point along the 13 miles of new state parkland, with the exclusion of elephant seal rookeries, where safety requires that people stay at a distance. Hearst is not enforcing its rights along the five miles of shoreline it has retained, so the informal access that has long existed there continues. Guided tours on San Simeon Point and Ragged Point have yet to happen.

Access to beaches and coves can be had via primitive trails that wend through the thick vegetation, and for the foreseeable future a certain laissez-faire policy will prevail: people are allowed, if not explicitly encouraged, to get to the coast as best they can.

Three possible locations for new campgrounds exist: at the Junge Ranch between San Simeon Creek and the town of San Simeon; the Molinari Ranch, just north of the existing campground at San Simeon State Park; and on a 20-acre blufftop parcel north of Point Piedras Blancas, site of the former Piedras Blancas Motel, acquired recently with the help of the Coastal Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. All three properties are now state parklands. At a public brainstorming session about the future of the motel and its site held on November 14, those present agreed they want low-cost overnight accomodations there.

“We’re taking slow methodical steps for a reason,” Tamoria said. “We want to make sure our mapping and resource inventories are comprehensive, and we want to avoid overbuilding. We’re asking the public to be patient.”

One of the conditions of the easement is a monitoring program to ensure that the Hearst Corporation adequately maintains the ranch’s rich natural resources--the rangelands, oak forests, riparian corridors, and the wildlife that depends on them. Even opponents of the agreement generally acknowledge that the property was maintained very well: historically the corporation was a good steward.

The California Rangeland Trust, a conservation organization composed of ranchers and their advocates, holds the easement on the eastside lands. Twice a year, biologists and rangeland ecologists working under contract to the trust check 57 sites for compliance. They measure the amount of residual forage to determine if overgrazing is occurring, and examine environmentally sensitive areas to make sure they are not being damaged. The trust has the final say on easement compliance. If it determines that Hearst has violated easement terms, it must enter into arbitration with the corporation. Should that process fail to yield a resolution, court action would follow.

Critics of the deal claim the arrangement is too cozy for Hearst. A ranching association, they say, could hardly be expected to take a big stick to one of the largest grazing operations in the state. But the trust maintains that its record of protecting open space and wild ecosystems is sound. “We’re now in our third [year of] monitoring,” said Michele Clark, the trust’s liaison with the Hearst Corporation. “Admittedly, two years is a very short timeframe in the history of the ranch, but so far there has been no real change. Things are looking very good.”

Any development on the Hearst property will require an extensive permitting process, with no guaranteed outcomes. Permits would be issued on a project-by-project basis, but only after the San Luis Obispo County Coastal Plan is revised. Attempts to revise the plan during the past decade stalled, usually over the Hearst Ranch. Now, with the conservation easement in place, it seems likely a final plan revision will be adopted in the next year.

Ultimately, the Coastal Commission will have to sign off on everything--not only on the county plan changes, but on each project as well. Commissioners may have serious reservations about any construction on the San Luis Obispo County coast. Water, in particular, is a potential deal breaker. The Central Coast has a Mediterranean climate, with relatively scant rainfall. In the past two decades, water shortages sometimes have been extreme. “We have long commented that water is a very critical issue [for the Hearst property], one that would have to be addressed by the county plan,” said Tami Grove, the Commission’s development and transportation liaison.

Grove added that any proposed Hearst development would raise other concerns as well. “For example, the Coastal Act stipulates that Highway 1 must remain two lanes in rural portions of the state, which certainly includes the San Simeon area. It remains to be seen how that could affect a resort at the cove.” For that matter, said Grove, the agreement’s general consistency with the Coastal Act remains unclear. That includes the realignment of Highway 1 north of Piedras Blancas Lighthouse due to beach erosion concerns--a project further complicated by home development on nearby private parcels that are surrounded by the ranch. The building permits were issued before the realignment was approved, and it now appears that the new routing could put the highway through at least one home currently under construction. It’s possible Caltrans will have to purchase the property to complete the realignment, raising the cost of the project significantly. “Caltrans is currently involved in a discussion with the [property owners], and the Coastal Commission is part of that process,” said Grove. “It’s one of many things that must be worked out.”

Glen Martin reported on natural resource issues for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1990 to 2007, and is now writing freelance. His work has appeared in Audubon, Sierra, Discover, Men’s Journal, Outside, and other magazines. In 1997, National Geographic and Roundstone Press published his guide to national wildlife refuges. He lives in Santa Rosa.