The Point Lobos Gate Is on Three Different Clocks This Fall

"What used to be primarily a weekend and summer holiday problem has become increasingly an everyday occurrence."

Steffanie Gamecho, director of the ParkIT! project, told the Monterey County Board of Supervisors this on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. The board then voted 5-0 to pursue safety measures on Highway 1 near Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Four days earlier, the Governor had signed a state bill that pays for a full study of the reserve. ParkIT!, the shuttle plan that has been in the works since 2018, is expected at the County Planning Commission sometime in October.

If you live in Carmel Highlands, the stretch of Highway 1 by the Point Lobos entrance is part of your daily drive. Those three decisions landed within weeks of each other, but they will take effect on very different schedules. The emergency step could arrive within months. The shuttle depends on a hearing that hasn't been scheduled yet. The state's answer isn't due until spring 2027. In the meantime, the time of day you pass the gate still matters most.

How far past capacity the reserve has grown

Point Lobos now gets more than 500,000 visitors a year. The reserve's 1979 General Plan set annual capacity at 270,000, so current visitation is 85 percent over that figure. Monterey County NOW counts about 360 parking spaces serving the reserve: roughly 160 inside and roughly 200 along Highway 1. That means more than half the parking is on the highway shoulder, the same road Highlands residents drive to get into Carmel.

John Hiles, manager of the Monterey Sector of State Parks, has described when the pressure peaks. "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," he told Monterey County NOW. "It's overwhelming the reserve."

At a land use committee meeting in August, Carmel Highlands resident Sara Stone described what this looks like from the neighborhood. She told of neighbors whose cars were side-swiped by drivers making U-turns on the highway. She also told of a neighbor whose husband died of a heart attack, and wondered whether a delayed ambulance had made a difference. "You've got gridlock going both northbound and southbound," she said. "He may have passed away anyway, but the point is we'll never know."

The first clock: an emergency permit for the south shoulder

The fastest of the three measures is also the narrowest. Supervisor Kate Daniels' referral asks for no-parking limits on parts of the south side of the entrance where the shoulder is too narrow. It also asks the County to work with state partners to repair the pedestrian bridge north of the entrance. Daniels described the goal plainly at the meeting. "This isn't an attempt to make no parking south of the entrance," she said. "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."

The County's staff report adds detail. A tree and parked cars on the narrow south shoulder push pedestrians onto the edge line of Highway 1. On the north side, the damaged bridge sends pedestrians off the path and back onto the highway.

The board chose the quickest legal route, an Emergency Coastal Development Permit. Staff were also told to work with Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol on raising the fine, which is currently $28, and on better signs in the existing no-parking zones. An emergency permit can last up to one year. It must be followed by a permit through the regular process, and that follow-up is where longer-term parking and access options would be studied. Because of how it is structured, the County's decision on the emergency permit can't be appealed to the Coastal Commission.

As of the end of September, no public update shows that the permit has been issued, that new signs are up, or that the bridge repair has a date. The vote authorized the effort. It didn't install anything.

What happened the last time the County did this

The County has tried this before. In January 2019, Ordinance No. 5307 banned parking at all times on the east side of Highway 1 for 1,800 feet north and 1,800 feet south of the Point Lobos entrance, as a two-year trial. The signs went up and the ban took effect on May 30, 2019. When County staff later reviewed collision data, they found no reported collisions involving pedestrians in that area since the ban began, and no drop in attendance at the reserve. On June 8, 2021, Ordinance No. 5352 made the ban permanent.

That history explains why the new request is so limited. The east side is already settled, so this fall's effort covers only the narrow sections of the south shoulder that the 2019 ban didn't reach.

Not everyone on the board expects signs alone to work. Supervisor Chris Lopez noted that the Sheriff's Department is stretched thin and that park staff are often stuck inside the reserve by the traffic. He pointed to Bixby Bridge as an example of how hard it is to change visitor behavior. "Are we going to K-rail this next?" he asked.

The second clock: ParkIT! and the Marathon Flats shuttle

The emergency permit deals with where people can't park. ParkIT! deals with where they could park instead. On Monday, August 3, the Carmel Highlands and Carmel Valley Land Use Advisory Committees voted to send the project to the County Planning Commission. The State Parks proposal would turn the Marathon Flats lot at Rio Road into a 100-space park-and-ride. A shuttle would run to Point Lobos about every 15 minutes, and a reservation system would manage shuttle riders and parking both at Marathon Flats and inside the reserve.

For anyone who drives Highway 1 midday, the reservation system is the key part. "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. Today, the spike between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. happens because nothing limits it. Reservations would be the first tool aimed directly at that window.

Support for the plan isn't unanimous. At the Carmel Valley meeting, most of the roughly dozen speakers backed the shuttle. Opponents questioned putting the lot in a 100-year floodplain, and others raised concerns about the traffic analysis. Those concerns could come up again at the Planning Commission. The County's calendar lists Commission meetings on October 14 and October 28, but neither is confirmed as the ParkIT! hearing. The County posts agendas at least 72 hours before each meeting, and that is where the item will show up.

The third clock: a state report due in spring 2027

The slowest measure may have the widest reach. SB 178 passed the Legislature and was signed by the Governor on September 18, 2026, as Chapter 254. It requires State Parks to send the Legislature a report on congestion, safety, public access and visitor experience at Point Lobos by April 1, 2027, and it sets aside $150,000 for the work. The official bill record lists the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee as lead author. State Sen. John Laird's office says he secured the Point Lobos funding. Under the bill text, State Parks prepares the report in consultation with the California Coastal Commission, the Transportation Agency and the Monterey County District 5 Supervisor. The report is to look at unsafe parking in the Highway 1 right-of-way, including the roughly 90 parallel spaces south of the entrance toward the pullout closest to Gibson Beach, along with traffic-calming measures and possible additional pedestrian entrances.

Daniels connected the two efforts directly. "I think if we take action and show that we're serious about public safety, that our legislators will follow suit," she said.

The three clocks side by side

Even if every step goes smoothly, a reservation-based shuttle is the earliest structural change, and it is still at least one hearing away. Until then, the existing rules and the time of day are what shape traffic at the entrance.

Using the reserve on the current rules

Point Lobos is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with last entry at 6:30 p.m., and dogs aren't allowed. The Point Lobos Foundation lists a $10 entrance fee for a passenger car and notes that people who park outside the reserve may walk in. Hiles describes the peak as roughly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., which leaves an early-morning window and a late-afternoon window before closing on either side of it.

The docents' fall schedule gives a few dates to plan around:

• Thursday, October 1, 10:30 a.m. A public docent walk. The October schedule includes Cypress Grove walks.
• Wednesday, October 7, 10 a.m. An Easy-Access Adventure walk at Sea Lion Point.
• Diving at Whalers Cove. Scuba and free-diving require advance reservations, which open for the current month plus one month. Whalers Cove is the dive-ramp access point.

State Parks asks visitors to call ahead for current information on specific activities, since docent schedules, dive availability and trail access can change.

Before 10 a.m., the Point Lobos stretch of Highway 1 is a quick drive for a Highlands resident. By midday it can back up in both directions. Whether that changes depends on whether the shuttle and its reservation system get through the Planning Commission, which is expected to take up the project in October.

Susan Clark has lived on the Monterey Peninsula for more than three decades and follows how changes like these affect daily life in Carmel Highlands, from the drive along Highway 1 to the gate at Point Lobos. If you're thinking about how access, traffic and timing shape the value of a Highlands home, Susan Clark would be glad to talk it through with you. Request Your VIP Listing Consultation.