Oceano’s Pier Avenue is getting a makeover, and San Luis Obispo County wants residents to chime in about what changes they’d like to see.
“Pier Avenue is just such a gem for the community of Oceano, but there’s really not a future vision or blueprint on how Pier Avenue should evolve,” said Jake Hudson, SLO County transportation planner and project manager. “So the idea is to involve the community in this sort of defined and visioning of what the streetscape of Pier Avenue should look like.”
Hudson said community members, not only just in Oceano but from throughout the county, can visit pieravecorridorplan.com and take a 12-question survey on changes they would like to see for the street, which runs from Highway 1 to the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area entrance.
“There are gaps in the sidewalk connections, and there are options and ways that we can close the sidewalk gaps and make bike and pedestrian connections through that corridor,” Hudson said. “That’s exactly why we’re asking the community, and we want to know what the community wants to see in terms of how we accomplish that.”
On the corridor plan home page, residents can look through about 25 suggestions that residents have already made, he said. For privacy reasons, survey respondents’ names will remain anonymous and only their recommendations will appear.
“Some of the comments are regarding things that are sort of outside the scope of the project and outside the jurisdiction of the county,” he said. “We mainly get suggestions about the Oceano Dunes, but that’s not usāthat’s State Parks’ jurisdictionāand our goal is to develop a plan that works regardless of either State Parks or Caltrans, who kind of sandwich this project on either end.”
Public outreach is slated to end in May of 2024, but Hudson says that date isn’t set in stone, as he likes to keep the surveys open as long as possible to ensure everyone has an opportunity to comment.
“Probably in May of 2024 we will start to develop the design concepts based off of what we’re given around that time,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to close off the public input phase until we have to make a recommendation to the Board [of Supervisors] on what’s going to happen, and we want to be able to provide them with as much information as we can.” Ī
This article appears in Holiday Guide 2023.