At Linda Mar Beach, one of the Bay Area’s best-known surf spots just south of San Francisco, parking spaces that once turned over with surfers and day-trippers are increasingly occupied by RVs — and frustration among residents and beachgoers is mounting.
Brian Feulner, a Forestville-based surf photographer, has launched a petition urging officials to crack down on what he describes as “vehicle squatting” at the Pacifica beach. He is calling on local and state leaders to remove the vehicles, clean up what he says are contaminated parking areas, and restore equal access to the popular coastal destination.
As of Thursday, the petition had gathered nearly 1,200 signatures. It also asks officials to address the illegal dumping of wastewater while connecting homeless individuals in the area with appropriate resources.
“Our beloved beach is currently facing a severe public health, environmental, and access crisis that local government officials are ignoring,” Feulner wrote in the petition. “This is unacceptable. Hundreds of families, including young children attending surf camps, walk through these parking lots daily.”
Feulner and other critics say the growing number of RV encampments and people living in vehicles has contributed to human waste being dumped directly in the beach parking lot. He also shared a video that appeared to show liquid leaking from a waste bag beneath an RV.
Recent testing has also indicated that human waste was the source of fecal bacteria that has recently affected the beach.
At a recent Pacifica City Council meeting, other visitors raised similar concerns, echoing the issues outlined in the petition.
“I don’t want to have to think, ‘When was the last time I had a hepatitis B shot?’ every time I get in the water, or play poo-poo hopscotch in the sand,” resident Jeanine Dubois said.
City leaders said they are trying to address the issue by getting a permit, including an emergency permit, from the state to close down the parking lots. An attempt to close down the lots last year failed without the proper permits; the city’s current permit requires the Pacifica State Beach parking lots to be open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“We are working on that permit application,” city manager Sean Charpentier said, “… to move forward with an overnight closure of those lots and plan to submit that to the Coastal Commission by the end of this month.”
Pacifica, like many parts of the state, has a big homelessness crisis, and the city has a parking program for the unhoused to park in dedicated spots.
Some residents urged empathy for those who say they’re forced to live in RVs and vehicles. Trino Fuentes said on social media he lives overnight at the beach because he’s had difficulty getting public housing.
“I’m living in a van bugging nobody and giving back to my community I live in,” he wrote. “Sadly there’s no help for single fathers with special needs children.”
