Storm lays waste to Stinson Beach’s main parking lot.
Nearly half of popular parking spaces lost — fix is uncertain
Three days after a subtropical storm walloped Stinson Beach, huge chunks of the destination’s main parking lot continued Monday to wash into the ocean.
The damage is so extensive that the National Park Service, which operates the lot, and Marin County Public Works, which is in charge of the flooded Easkoot Creek, couldn’t estimate how long repairs will take and how much they will cost.
Nearly half of the 316 parking spaces in the north lot were destroyed in a place already thin on parking, and rain forecast for later this week could take out even more.
Businesses and residents are
worrying how the loss will affect traffic and tourism — which draws a million visitors annually — along with everything else that makes the community hum.
But on Monday, the decimated lot had become an attraction in itself.
At the Parkside Cafe, locals gathered to drink coffee and eye the flooding. Spring breakers boogie-boarded down the rushing Easkoot Creek. Water raged over the jagged asphalt lip of the former parking lot and dropped into the sand below, forming a miniature Niagara Falls.
“Would you look at that?” said Dino Colombo, 53, gazing at a green industrial dumpster half-submerged in the sand. “I’ve lived out here forever. This is exceptional. I’ve never seen anything like this. I wish I could have been out here to see it when it collapsed.”
Electronic music pulsed from his headphones as he used a rake to sift through the rubble. Sometimes Colombo will unearth old coins, bottles or jewelry in the sand and sludge. It’s easy to find them after storms and floods — and Stinson Beach has had many.
In the New Year’s Eve flood of 2005, two dozen low-lying homes and the community’s main road were submerged, leaving residents to paddle down the street in kayaks and rowboats. Afterward, the county dredged the creek as an emergency measure, seeking to prevent it from flooding again. It worked, for a while. But the snarl of local, county, state and federal agencies whose jurisdictions overlap on Stinson Beach has made it difficult to reach a consensus on how to control Easkoot Creek. Dredging in recent years has been infrequent, stalled by controversy surrounding the endangered fish species that live in the waterway.
So when the “Pineapple Express” storm hit the area Friday, dumping more than 7 inches of rain in 36 hours, the creek quickly overflowed. Blocked by tree branches, gravel, sand and rocks, it cut a new path to the ocean.
At the storm’s height, water ran nearly 2 feet deep, cracking fissures in the lot’s asphalt and sweeping recycling bins out with the tide.
“This has been an ongoing issue with the creek,” said Toby Bisson, supervisor at the Stinson Beach County Water District, which manages the surrounding watershed. “Every time you have a high-flow situation, it bottles up. We all want instant results, but it’s just not going to happen this time.”
Nearby, Kenny Stevens, chief of the Stinson Beach Fire Department, toed the edge of the buckling lot. He expected more hardscape to crumble within the day.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a week,” Stevens said of the needed repairs. “This is the worst damage I’ve ever seen. It’s going to take some time to recover from it.”
That could spell trouble for business owners who depend on tourism to make their living, among them Donny Mackin, 67.
He’s owned Stinson Beach Surf and Kayak Rental for more than 20 years. If the past two days are any indicator, he said, business is about to drop. On Sunday, fewer people came by the shop looking for rentals.
“When people come, this parking is essential,” Mackin said. “There was already not enough parking to start with. Now, we’re down even more parking slots. We know the park service is going to fix it. It’s a question of how soon. It’s a big mess.”
Just then, visitor Tim Fewell stumbled upon what he thought was the path to the ocean. Now it was a nearly impassable waterway.
The Novato resident has been making day trips to Stinson Beach his entire life. On Monday, dressed in board shorts and smelling of sunscreen, he had visions of a warm beach day. Four small children and a dog tagged along behind him.
“I thought it was just that side of the parking lot,” he said, snapping a photo on his phone. “I’ve never seen this so washed out. There is a literal river across the road. It’s pretty wild. I’m hoping they can get it fixed by summertime. Otherwise this town will be a traffic nightmare.”
He and his brood turned around, hoping to find another path to the beach. A few more beachgoers braved the stream, teetering across on a fallen log.
Across town, Amy Arenberg, 48, of Corte Madera, lounged on the patio of her red clapboard rental. Her tiny, ginger-colored labradoodle raced across the yard, yapping at passersby. Arenberg and her family were staying in a friend’s home for the week, but it might be their last jaunt to Stinson Beach for awhile.
Parking is already horrendous, she said. The lot — the one that no longer exists — fills up well before noon.
Signs warning “No parking” dot nearly every residential road. Coming back in the summer wouldn’t be worth it, not if the lot isn’t repaired.
“They need that lot,” Arenberg said.
As she headed back inside the home, a car rolled past. Seeing only private spots, the driver backed up to look elsewhere.