The Bob Jones Trail extension project, which would connect San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach, is unlikely to move forward after a crucial San Luis Obispo County board of supervisors vote Tuesday.
Advocates have been trying to extend the trail for more than a decade. The current road between the city and the trailhead has a narrow shoulder, and at least two cyclists have been killed by cars. There’s also no public transit between the two cities.
The final hurdle for the project was buying a 1-acre parcel on the edge of a larger 80-acre property, which the county needs to extend the trail. It’s owned by Ray Bunnell.
The board voted Tuesday on whether to approve eminent domain, meaning the county could buy Bunnell’s acre even though he’s unwilling to sell it.
Kristen Renfro is Bunnell’s lawyer.
“Mr. Bunnell has been objecting to this trail on his property since at least 2010,” Renfro said.
The eminent domain resolution needed four votes of approval from the supervisors. John Peschong recused himself from the vote because of past campaign donations from Bunnell, and Debbie Arnold was the lone “no” vote.
“Property rights is, to me, the cornerstone of our republic,” Arnold said.
Supervisor Bruce Gibson criticized her actions.
“It’s pretty clear that we’re going to see this board fail because one county supervisor chooses not to act in the public interest,” Gibson said.
San Luis Obispo County has poured nearly 7 million dollars into the trail extension project—money that Supervisor Dawn Ortiz Legg now called “wasted.”
The project also received about 18 million dollars in federal funding. But, if construction doesn’t start by March, they have to give that money back, and the 14-year-long project will lose its funding.
Some public commenters called the failure to pass the resolution “heart-wrenching.” At the end of the hearing, the council approved a motion for staff to look for other paths forward for the project.
