How some of the Bay Area’s nastiest beach restrooms are about to get a makeover
Few things can spoil a day at the beach — with the glorious waves, soaring sea gulls and shimmering sand — faster than an unpleasant bathroom.
Working to bring the dilapidated, malodorous toilet facilities at some of the Bay Area’s most popular beaches up to a more pleasant standard for the thousands of visitors, state parks officials are moving forward with a project to replace the ramshackle restrooms at eight popular state beaches and parks along the San Mateo County coast.
The $3 million project will remove cracked, graffiti-covered buildings constructed as far back as the 1980s, along with sometimes stomach-churning porta-potties, and replace them with modern restrooms at Gazos Creek, Bean Hollow, Pescadero, Pomponio, San Gregorio and Cowell Ranch state beaches, along with Burleigh Murray Ranch State Park near Half Moon Bay.
“Restrooms don’t have to be fancy,” said Linda Hitchcock, a state parks planner who is overseeing the work. “But they shouldn’t be gross. They shouldn’t be what you remember from your experience at the beach.”
State parks officials put the job out to bid this month. Construction is expected to start this summer, with the gleaming new restrooms open by next spring. The new buildings will be pre-cast concrete vault toilets, with steel doors, coat hooks and railings. As part of the project, many of the state beaches will receive upgraded parking facilities with spaces for disabled visitors, new picnic tables, shade structures and barbecues.
To cover the costs, $650,000 of the budget came from Proposition 68, a parks bond passed by state voters in 2018. The remaining amount, expected to range from $1.9 million to about $2.4 million, will come from state general funds, required to be spent as part of a settlement from a 2005 lawsuit in which state parks leaders agreed to upgrade facilities to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Restrooms may seem like a mundane issue, but surveys at parks agencies across the United States show they are a top concern for visitors.
“When we passed bond measures, we polled people on their priorities, and bathrooms were nearly always near the top,” said Bob Doyle, retired general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District in Oakland. “The first time a person visits a park, if it’s a mess, they are never coming back. If you want families, particularly women with kids, to come to parks, they want clean restrooms.”
Bathrooms at many of the roughly 280 state parks in California are deteriorating and worn out because the parks themselves date back generations, Doyle said. There are few groups that lobby lawmakers in Sacramento for basic park maintenance funding to fix broken drinking fountains, upgrade campgrounds, replace picnic tables and open new restrooms.
“Legislators aren’t funding maintenance,” he said. “People scream at rangers and park managers when the facilities are worn out. They don’t scream at legislators. A lot of attention goes to climate change, wildfires and endangered species, and it should. But the enjoyment of people in the parks isn’t the highest priority.”
A visit this week to the beaches along the San Mateo coast showed the water closet wreckage.
At Bean Hollow State Beach, the padlocked restroom’s ceiling had caved in. Metal railings were rusted out. The brick walls were cracked, and four blue portable toilets stood nearby.
At Pescadero State Beach, a lone, ominous outhouse stood in the parking lot overlooking the ocean. Several of its shake roof shingles flapped in the wind. The inside was a canvas of graffiti. Its fittings were covered with rust.
“This one’s a real winner,” Hitchcock said, forcing a smile. “We could have a haunted house here at Halloween. But look at the view!”
Farther north at San Gregorio State Beach, all the restrooms were rundown. One was boarded up. “This one was hit by a truck about six months ago,” Hitchcock said.
The old restrooms will be demolished, their portable toilets hauled away and new facilities installed. The new pre-fab restrooms can withstand 150 mph wind gusts and earthquakes up to 7.0 magnitude, helping them last longer.
“They are solid,” Hitchcock said. “They are almost bombproof. And they fit well with the environment.”
State parks maintenance workers clean the restrooms daily. Vault toilets have 1,000 gallon concrete tanks and are pumped out once a month. But the portable blue plastic toilets hold only about 60 gallons and are pumped out weekly.
That’s not a job for the faint of heart.
“The worst thing’s when people drop beer bottles in there,” said one maintenance worker. “We’ve even seen towels and clothes. It clogs the hose when you pump them out.”
Over the past two years, state parks has embarked on projects to replace restrooms at other beloved parks, including Humboldt Redwoods, Mount Diablo, San Bruno Mountain and Montara State Beach.
Visitors on a blustery day this week to Pomponio State Beach welcomed the bathroom beautification.
“It’s pretty run down,” said Davis Norris, a visitor from Carmel Valley. “I’m kind of surprised they are this trashed. As far as curb appeal, I’m afraid it’s an F.”
Laura Lee Lienk, traveling with him, agreed it was time for an upgrade.
“Nobody wants to pee behind a bush,” she said, laughing. “We all deserve better.”