WRT, along with San Mateo County Parks and the Peninsula Open Space Trust, recently hosted an open house at Tunitas Creek Beach to showcase the preferred design for public access and rehabilitation of the 58-acre beachfront property. 

“The opportunity to create a brand new public beach in San Mateo County does not come around often,” said Supervisor Don Horsley. “Tunitas Creek Beach is a hidden jewel with over a mile of scenic Northern California beach, as community members have long known. We look forward to preserving this beautiful place forever in a way that benefits the environment and our entire community at the same time.” 

Situated along a bluff at the mouth of Tunitas Creek, the site had been used for centuries as an Ohlone seasonal village and was a stopping point on the Spanish Portola Expedition. The entire property had been in private ownership for more than 100 years but has become seriously degraded and unsafe due to illicit and unmanaged public use. 

Tunitas Creek Beach currently has no facilities and is only accessible via a steep, eroded trail down the bluff. Vehicles pull off Highway 1 into a deeply rutted dirt parking area, and an existing residence is in danger of collapse. 

The preferred design creates new overlooks, picnic areas, parking facilities, and an accessible path to a mid-bluff viewpoint and interpretive exhibit on the site of the existing residence. A service road and improved beach access path will provide necessary clearance for emergency and maintenance vehicles, and the existing social trails down the bluff will be closed and replanted with native vegetation. A new loop trail will enable more adventurous visitors to explore the southern half of the property and will provide an additional beach access point. 

“A stunning property like Tunitas Creek Beach should be cared for and available for everyone to enjoy,” said Walter T. Moore, President of POST. “We hope to restore this property and open it to everyone to visit and be refreshed by its beauty and to share its many natural resources with all of the living things that make Tunitas Creek and the beach their home.” 

WRT is working with engineers at CSW|ST2 to complete final designs, with a goal of beginning construction in the summer of 2022.