Point Lobos Parking on Highway 1: What Carmel Highlands Can Expect

"The conditions we're seeing today are markedly different from when this work began," Steffanie Gamecho, director of the ParkIT! project, told the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on September 22. "What used to be primarily a weekend and summer holiday problem has become increasingly an everyday occurrence."

That afternoon the board voted 5-0 to go after the narrow shoulders south of the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve entrance. Four days earlier, the Governor had signed a bill that orders California State Parks to report on traffic and unsafe parking along this same stretch of Highway 1. A third effort, the long-planned shuttle, has also been moving toward the Planning Commission.

All three are moving at once, but they will reach the highway in order of size, smallest first. If you drive this stretch to get home, the fixes that shape your fall and winter are the small, quick ones. The fixes big enough to match the crowd run on 2027 timelines.

What has already changed at the gate

The first fixes arrived without a vote. By mid-June, the reserve had switched to collecting entry fees as drivers leave instead of as they arrive. A park representative told KSBW that the old setup "was causing the line to stack up onto the highway and block traffic southbound towards Big Sur," and that the switch "quickly alleviated that issue."

Around April, new parallel-parking rules took effect along Highway 1. On one Friday in June, a ranger wrote about 20 tickets at $51 each and gave about 20 verbal warnings.

There is a local track record for this kind of small fix. In 2019 the county banned parking at all times on the east side of Highway 1 for 1,800 feet in each direction from the reserve entrance. It started as a two-year trial. When county staff reviewed collision data afterward, they found no reported collisions involving pedestrians since the restriction began, and no adverse effect on reserve attendance. The board made the ban permanent on June 8, 2021. That result is why the county is now reaching for the same tool on the south side.

The narrow-shoulder rule needs a permit before it needs a sign

Supervisor Kate Daniels submitted the referral behind the September vote on July 21. She was careful about its scope. "This isn't an attempt to make no parking south of the entrance," she said at the meeting. "When a car's tire is on the shoulder and there is foliage, trees, or fenceline on the other side of those cars, or there's no room, the only place for a pedestrian to walk is in the road. And that's the situation I'm trying to rectify."

The county's staff report explains why no signs have gone up yet. Restricting parking on Highway 1 counts as "development" under the Coastal Act, so the county needs a Coastal Development Permit before it can install or enforce anything. The board picked the faster of two routes, an Emergency Coastal Development Permit. It runs for up to one year and requires a follow-up permit through the regular process. If the county keeps the emergency permit to a year or less, its decision cannot be appealed to the California Coastal Commission. A regular permit would go through the Planning Commission, could be appealed to the Board of Supervisors, and could then be appealed to the Coastal Commission.

The board also told staff to work with Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol on raising the fine in the existing no-parking zones, which is currently $28, and on better signage. State law and county code let the county charge up to $100 for a first infraction, $200 for a second within a year, and $250 for a third or later one. Any increase still needs Caltrans approval.

The open question is enforcement. Supervisor Chris Lopez said the Sheriff's Office is stretched thin and park staff often get stuck inside the reserve because of the traffic. He pointed to Bixby Bridge: "Are we going to K-rail this next?" The staff report also lists enforcement as a challenge. It notes that CHP has a process for agreements that assign dedicated officers to a specific location.

The shuttle is the only fix sized to the crowd

Signs and fines can move parked cars. They can't make room for more visitors, and that is the reason the reserve's parking spills onto the highway in the first place. Depending on the source, the reserve itself holds anywhere from 150 to 160 cars:

Estimates of yearly visitors vary just as widely. The county report cites a 2021 environmental review estimating about 400,000 people walking into the park each year and says recent observations suggest the number is rising. KSBW's June report put total visitors at nearly a million. Every count is at least several times what the original plans allowed for.

John Hiles, manager of the Monterey Sector of State Parks, described the daily peak in Monterey County Now's coverage of the shuttle plan. "From about 10am to 2pm we're seeing a large increase of people mostly parking along the highway and walking in, [sometimes] getting up into 4,000 to 5,000 people a day."

ParkIT! is a community-based effort that started in 2018. Its current proposal comes from State Parks and would turn the Marathon Flats lot at Rio Road into a 100-space park-and-ride, with shuttles to the reserve about every 15 minutes. A reservation system would manage both shuttle riders and parking inside the reserve. On August 3, the Carmel Highlands and Carmel Valley Land Use Advisory Committees voted to send the project to the County Planning Commission. The county's September report also lists Palo Corona Park and the Crossroads Shopping Center as shuttle parking sites.

"One of our goals with the reservation system is to be able to manage that use and spread it out throughout the day or the week," Hiles said.

The county expected a Planning Commission hearing in October. As of today, no hearing date has been posted. No shuttle operator has been publicly named, and in June State Parks told KSBW there was no implementation timeline. A Planning Commission vote would be a permit step. It would not mean shuttles are running.

Sacramento's answer is due in April

SB 178, a public resources trailer bill, was signed on September 18 and took effect immediately. Section 4 tells California State Parks to work with the Coastal Commission, the Transportation Agency and the District 5 Supervisor on a report to the Legislature, due April 1, 2027. The report must cover safer ways to spread out day use, unsafe parking in the Highway 1 right-of-way, including the roughly 90 parallel spaces south of the entrance, traffic-calming measures such as warning signs and reflectors, and possible additional pedestrian entrances. The bill provides $150,000 for the work.

The county's staff report recommends letting that study run its course, including on the pedestrian bridge north of the entrance. In its current condition, the bridge forces people off the designated path and onto the edge of Highway 1. No repair design or construction date has been published. County staff plan to report back to the board before July 1, 2027.

Put together, the calendar looks like this:

1. Already in place: payment at the exit, parallel-parking enforcement with $51 tickets, and the east-side no-parking zone that has been permanent since 2021.
2. Pending a permit: no-parking on the narrow south-side shoulders under an emergency permit, plus a possible fine increase that needs Caltrans approval.
3. Expected this month, not yet scheduled: a Planning Commission hearing on ParkIT!.
4. April 1, 2027: the State Parks report to the Legislature is due.
5. Before July 1, 2027: county staff report back to the Board of Supervisors.

The Carmel Highlands Residents Association has called the situation a "public safety crisis." It has made videos about backups and delayed first responders and covered the issue at its June 10 annual meeting. A Highlands resident told the August advisory meeting about neighbors' cars being sideswiped by drivers making U-turns. "You've got gridlock going both northbound and southbound," she said. The list above shows that relief on that gridlock will come in steps.

Driving the stretch this fall

The Point Lobos Foundation tells visitors their best chance of getting in is to arrive before 9:30 a.m. or after 3 p.m. Those times bracket the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. peak Hiles described, so midday is when the shoulder is busiest and drivers are most likely to be pulling in or turning around.

Farther south, Highway 1 has been fully open through Big Sur since September 14. Before that, an August closure had cut through travel south of Gorda. As of Caltrans' road report on October 3, a signal controls one-way traffic at Rocky Creek Bridge, 15.7 miles south of Monterey, around the clock until 6 a.m. on November 30. See Monterey's travel alert also lists two sets of overnight full closures. The first is at Post Mile 44.3 north of Nepenthe, from 11 p.m. on October 8 to 5 a.m. on October 9. The second is at Post Miles 54.2 to 55.6 north of Point Sur Lighthouse, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on October 12 through 15. Construction schedules change, so check the Caltrans road conditions page before a late drive south.

The next change you're likely to see at the reserve is new signs on the south-side shoulder, once the county's emergency permit is approved.

At San Diego's Favorite Team, we follow corridor decisions like this one because a permit hearing or a state study deadline can change daily life on a street well before it shows up anywhere else. If you're weighing what Point Lobos access planning means for your own plans in Carmel Highlands, start your home plan with a tailored consultation, and we'll go through the dates with you.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.