Just a few weeks ago, a bluff area along Lucerne Road was open, with only a small sign warning people of the drop below. After a community member reached out to me asking if more would be done, I looked into the issue and found that no one really knew who was responsible.
“As you look down, it’s pretty deep,” said Al Herrera, Cambria resident.
Herrera lives in Cambria but walks regularly along Lucerne Road in Cayucos with his wife. He says he had concerns about people potentially falling off an open cliff ledge. He took it upon himself to move a small public works sign in an effort to deter people away from the ledge.
“You know, hook up a fence right here, that’s it. Block it off. You don’t want anyone to get injured,” Herrera said.
While looking into this, I called the California Coastal Commission, they told me they don’t maintain ownership records. I visited the San Luis Obispo County Assessor’s Office multiple times with one employee telling me the ledge area does not belong to the county and another time, another employee telling me it does.
In a statement to KSBY, SLO County Public Works said in part, “It appears a portion of the adjacent property owner’s land has eroded and fallen to the beach, exposing the end of the sidewalk to the coastal bluff. This sidewalk was constructed by the property owner in conjunction with development on their property and terminated into a dirt area that no longer exists.”
Public Works is now taking action. Officials say they installed a temporary barrier last week and will soon install a permanent barrier. Officials say they will continue to monitor the roadway conditions on Lucerne Road as well.
