When beach trip is out of budget
Visiting the coast has become too expensive for the average family, a study finds. A bill aims to lower costs.
Some coastal property owners have always tried to keep the beach to themselves, illegally blocking public access to the surf and sand with locked gates and fake “no parking” signs.
Still, most of California’s 1,100-mile coast is open to everyone who can get there.
Increasingly, however, many Californians’ access to their beaches is blocked not by chain link but by the rising costs of a coastal outing.
Now there’s a push to address that.
“I grew up in a workingclass family and got to enjoy the beach,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). “There was easy access then. Now, people who grow up like I did don’t have that opportunity. Even for a middle-class family it can be cost-prohibitive to enjoy the beach.”
On Monday, Gonzalez introduced a bill that would require the California State Coastal Conservancy to create a program to preserve and increase affordable lodging along the coast, particularly in state parks.
Her measure comes on the heels of UCLA and San Francisco State studies showing that the cost of visiting the beach and staying there is becoming too expensive for many families.
“This new research shows that we are at a tipping point where deciding to visit the coast is a close call for most Californians, given the cost,” said Jon Christensen, the study’s co-author and a researcher at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
The report, “The Cost of Visiting the Coast Keeps Many Californians Away,” was released in late January.
Researchers found, for
example, that the average Californian is willing to pay about $118 a night for lodging in beach areas. But according to the California Coastal Commission, a room at a budget hotel along the coast during the summer is $135 to $260 a night.
The commission also reports that since 1989, about 24,720 economy rooms have been lost along the coast due to hotel and motel closures and remodels. Such affordable accommodations now make up only 5% of the rooms available in coastal areas.
“Over the years we have seen increasing pressure to build more higher-cost accommodations, even though Coastal Act policies are intended to protect and encourage lower-cost facilities,” said Effie Turnbull Sanders, the Coastal Commission’s vice chair. “The commission takes this very seriously because it’s getting difficult for even average families to visit our coast.”
Delving further into the economics of a simple day trip to the beach, the UCLASan Francisco State study calculated that the average value of such an outing is $37, and the expense of traveling to the beach and home again is $22, a figure that does not include the costs of parking, food and activities.
If the cost of a typical trip were to go up and equal or exceed the $37 value, the increase would discourage many potential visitors from going to the beach, researchers concluded.
Surveys show that beachgoers in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties often spend substantially more than $8.75 a day for parking alone — an amount greater than what potential visitors say they are willing to pay.
The findings stem from the continued analysis of a public opinion survey done by UCLA and the Field Poll in November. The survey included 1,800 registered voters in California.
About 90% of those polled said the condition of the ocean and the state’s beaches is important to them, with 57% believing they are very important.
The results showed that 62% of those surveyed are concerned about limited access to the coastline, and larger majorities stated that a lack of public transit to the beach, affordable parking and affordable lodging are problems.
“Addressing these barriers to access is every bit as important as managing development and sea level rise, but they have historically received less attention,” said Philip King, an economics professor at San Francisco State and the study’s co-author.
Researchers recommended that state government increase public transportation to the coast, encourage the construction of affordable overnight accommodations and create grant programs that help provide educational and recreational opportunities along the coast for low-income and middle-class families.
They also called for more affordable parking and adequate funding for coastal access programs run by the Coastal Commission and Coastal Conservancy.
Improving access to the coastline has emerged as a major concern of both agencies as well as organizations that represent low-income people of color, such as the City Project in Los Angeles, Latino Outdoors and Brown Girl Surf, based in Oakland.
“It’s crucial for the longterm stewardship of our public coast that all of our communities feel that our coast and beaches truly belong to all and can be enjoyed,” says José González, the founder of Latino Outdoors, a national nonprofit organization.
Two previous bills to increase affordable lodging at the beach, including one written last year by Assemblywoman Gonzalez, failed to pass at the committee level. That measure has been revised and is “ready to go,” she said.
If passed, the Coastal Conservancy would work with the California Department of Parks and Recreation and develop a separate pilot program to explore ways for the private sector and nonprofit organizations to develop, maintain and operate affordable accommodations.
UCLA’s Christensen says that nonprofits, such as land trusts dedicated to conservation or the public good, could purchase coastal properties and convert them to low-cost lodging.
Involving private property owners, however, would be more difficult, he said. Among the options are conservation easements and agreements that provide a reasonable rate of return for landholders, who are willing to buy into the idea of providing affordable lodging.
“It will be more challenging to find the right way to partner with private entities,” Christensen said. “But it needs to be explored.”
Adding more low-cost units at state parks might be the easiest to accomplish, Gonzalez said. About a third of the 1,100-mile coastline is state park land, where there is already many affordable campgrounds, tent cabins, cabins and motel-style lodges.
Some of the best examples can be found at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park near Crescent City and Asilomar State Beach in Monterey County, which is known for its rustic lodging and conference center built in the early 1900s.
“The most successful of our lower-cost accommodations are in state parks,” Gonzalez said. “We need to work within that success. We need public investment in campgrounds and cabins. The investment works.”