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Tunitas Creek Beach, south of Half Moon Bay, Calif., is shown on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. With an $11 million construction contract, the beach is becoming a new San Mateo County park. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
For years, the mile-long stretch of sand on San Mateo County’s rural coastline has been known for raucous late-night parties that have left behind huge piles of trash.
On Tuesday, the gorgeous property, once owned by rock singer Chris Isaak, took a big step closer to becoming a new public park — the first of its kind in more than 50 years.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve an $11.6 million construction contract to build parking, trails, ranger stations, restrooms, interpretive signs and other amenities at Tunitas Creek Beach.
Construction is scheduled to begin in July. When work is completed next summer, the new park will be the first major coastal beach added to San Mateo County’s parks system since the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at Moss Beach in 1969.
“This is one of the best beaches I’ve been to in the entire state,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, whose district includes the property.
“It’s wide open,” he said. “In many ways it’s different than the other beaches we have in San Mateo County. And you have a view of the bluffs. It’s just breathtaking. This is a legacy project.”
Studies have shown that endangered steelhead trout live in Tunitas Creek, which flows through the property, and the beach is home to snowy plovers, a rare bird. The sprawling property, with cliffs more than 100 feet high on the northern edge, looks a lot like Point Reyes National Seashore.
The 58-acre property is open to the public today, but on an informal basis without amenities.
When the construction contractor, Gordon Ball Inc., of Alamo, which submitted the low bid, begins work next month, it will be closed due to heavy machinery and safety issues, said Nicholas Calderon, San Mateo County parks director.
Calderon said a ramshackle, boarded-up pink house on the bluffs, built in 1958, was demolished a few months ago. In addition to the upcoming project, which will feature four overlooks and parking for about 60 vehicles, Calderon said the county plans to build a ranger residence on the site in the future, but is still exploring funding sources.
And the date of the public grand opening?
“It comes down to the weather,” Calderon said. “If we get a winter that cooperates with us, we’ll be able to open it in early 2024. But if we have a winter like this past one, we’re looking at mid-2024.”
The beach has a colorful and turbulent history.
Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola and his men camped at Tunitas Creek in 1769 during their expedition from Baja California to San Francisco Bay. The property has been in private ownership for generations, its towering cliffs and dunes hidden from motorists zooming along Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay.
A company known as the Todd Gelfand Trust, linked to pop singer Chris Isaak, bought the bluff-top land on the site, the house and most of the beach sand for $3.1 million in 1998.
Isaak, 66, a Stockton native who had hits in the 1990s with songs like “Wicked Game,” has never been seen at the property, locals said. The singer declined interview requests to discuss why he bought the land.
But over time, the beautiful landscape turned into a major headache for Isaak, the police and neighboring landowners.
A decade ago, hundreds of people with stereo systems, disco balls, tents, kegs and mattresses regularly left behind massive amounts of trash, set off fireworks and used Tunitas Creek Beach as a bathroom during all-night raves. Many people drowned there. The landslide destroyed the small home’s water system. And noisy parties have shown increased legal liability.
In 2017, the Gelfand Trust sold it to a prominent Palo Alto environmental group, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, for $5 million.
In 2020, the open space trust sold it to San Mateo County in a below-market deal for $3.2 million led by former San Mateo supervisor and sheriff Don Horsley. Since then, the county and the land trust have held public meetings and conducted numerous studies to gauge how the new park should be designed.
On Tuesday, supervisors approved not only the $11.6 million approved for construction, but the authorization for an additional $1.1 million to cover unexpected cost overruns if necessary. They also approved a plan to work with PG&E to bury power lines there to improve views.
Funding for the project came from multiple sources: $4.4 million was donated by the Peninsula Open Space Trust, and $4 million came from county funding. Another $2.9 million came from the state’s Coastal Conservancy; $500,000 came from the Midpeninsula Open Space Trust,; and $828,000 is from Proposition 68, a state parks bond approved by voters in 2018.
“Wow!” said Marti Tedesco, a spokesperson for the Peninsula Open Space Trust. “This amazing part of the California coast is going out of private ownership and into the hands of the public for generations and generations to enjoy.”