Avila resort set to host events again 

The Avila Beach Golf Resort is planning to host several large in-person events and concerts in the coming months as the pandemic winds down locally, but the controversy over what events it's really allowed to host still hasn't been resolved.

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• File Photo By Karen Garcia
• BACK IN BUSINESS As the pandemic winds down, the Avila Beach Golf Resort is planning to host events and concerts again.

Although the resort has been hosting small weekly concerts for some time now, co-owner Rob Rossi said a flower show this month was the first truly large-scale event the venue has hosted since the beginning of the pandemic, which decimated the resort's operations and stalled hearings regarding its events license. Several other larger concerts that were canceled throughout the pandemic are being rescheduled for this fall.

"We're now staffing up to be able to properly manage gatherings again as we open up, now that California has determined it's 'all clear,'" Rossi wrote to New Times.

Large events at the resort have long been controversial among Avila Beach residents who say they cause traffic congestion and noise.

At a meeting in March 2020, the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted to delay a hearing on the resort's application for a temporary commercial outdoor entertainment license, which would have allowed the resort to host up to 12 one-day events with up to 3,000 attendees and five multi-day events with up to 5,000 attendees each year. The hearing was initially scheduled for December 2019, but it was delayed after confusion over its need for approval from the California Coastal Commission.

Then in the fall of 2020, the resort withdrew its application. Now Rossi said the resort is operating under the permits it already has.

Trevor Keith, director of SLO County Planning and Building, said any events currently scheduled at the Avila Beach Golf Resort are all allowed under the county's code or are activities historically associated with the resort's operations.

"The county and the resort owner are in the process of better defining what events are permitted going forward," Keith wrote in an email to New Times. "We are looking at additional ways to make sure that those activities enhance the Avila Beach community." Δ