Supervisors come through for rural property owners

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San Benito County, sheltered between the Gabilan Range to the west and the Diablo Range to the east, is home to 1,300 square miles of area, most of which is rangeland. Ranching can become difficult when dealing with droughts, and rural landowners are looking for other sources of income.

 Some local ranchers and other rural landowners have attempted to take advantage of the area’s proximity to Pinnacles National Park by setting up low-impact campgrounds, but old regulations meant they couldn’t offer camping without undertaking cost-prohibitive studies.

Now, to the relief of landowners and ranch managers like Tim Borland, that has changed. The San Benito County Board of Supervisors approved new regulations on June 18 which allow the use of their property for low-impact camping. According to the policy, which goes into effect mid-July, property owners can host up to nine campsites with not more than six campers per site.

“I appreciate San Benito County’s hard work in coming together to collaborate for the benefit of promoting agritourism by passing the low impact campaign resolution,” Borland told BenitoLink.

Property owners and operators near Pinnacles National Park voiced support for the guidelines, saying it benefitted local businesses, the park and the community. 

While Borland, who has been operating Bar SZ Ranch since 2021, said the move allows local farmers and ranchers to diversify their business model, property owner Bill James said offering additional camping opportunities could also provide relief to the park, which he said is “booked solid all the time.”

Bar SZ Ranch specializes in agritourism, hospitality and raising beef and pork. Located about 10 minutes from Pinnacles, Borland said he sensed the need for additional camping opportunities in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had a great setup for a campground,” Borland told BenitoLink in March. “It could sleep some 50 people, six campsites and two glamping tents.” 

Campground at Bar SZ Ranch. File photo courtesy of Bar SZ Ranch.

He said when he was hosting camping through Hipcamp, a service for listing and renting campsites, his occupancy rate was 65% or more year-round.

But with opportunity came an unexpected hitch. Camping on private property still required permits from the county.  

“Because apparently you don’t own your property,” Borland said. “You can’t just buy a piece of property and then figure out ways to make money on it. You have to get permission from the county on multiple different levels.”

In addition to obtaining permits, Borland said he was told he may need to conduct an environmental study because there might be red-legged frogs in that part of his ranch, which are on the state’s threatened and endangered species list. He was looking at a price tag of about $85,000 “just to put in a campsite or two.”

“But there comes a point where the rules and regulations choke out the opportunities and it gets pretty discouraging when you get all excited about this piece of property that could be a real benefit and a real blessing to the community, and even to the county,” he said. 

In addition to the starting cost, and with no assurance he would be allowed to continue the camping component of his business, he said he could not find clear guidance from the county. The same concern was also expressed by James at the supervisors June 18 meeting and by participants of BenitoLink’s listening session on rural tourism. 

“I want the simple checklist of everything that needs to get done and I want consistency and continuity in the process,” Borland said, adding that depending on which county department he dealt with, he’d get different requirements.

James said he experienced the same problem. “It made a lot of sense to us but there wasn’t a lot of real direction with the county. You would call one person and they’d go ‘sounds great,’ then call another person [who said] ‘I don’t know.’”

Borland had grown frustrated with the process and considered letting go of the agritourism aspect of his business. 

“This has sucked a lot of the joy out of my soul and taken the wind out of my sail,” he said, visibly frustrated.

He wasn’t alone. 

BenitoLink has spoken to several rural landowners who have not only been frustrated by county policies but said they’ve gotten down to their last dollar waiting for approval. It’s common for these small businesses to be unwilling to go on the record for fear of repercussions. 

“I’ve talked to other hospitality businesses, agritourism businesses and we all feel like we’ve experienced confusion in the process and we feel like we were asked to do something that someone else wasn’t asked to do and vice versa,” Borland said.

Entrance to the Bar SZ Ranch, which is about 10 minutes from Pinnacles National Park. Photo by Noe Magaña.

Asked how much time he had invested in trying to advocate for a change in policy, he said it was countless emails, calls and trips to Hollister.

In March, the San Benito Planning Commission began discussing the policy addressing low-impact camping on private lands. Issues they considered include permit requirements; minimal and maximum acreage per campsite; fire safety and setbacks.

Borland, who had been advocating for changes since 2021 and joined the newly formed tourism-related nonprofit Visit San Benito, expressed his support for the new county regulations at the June 18 supervisors meeting.

“We believe in the county and in the tourism and hospitality potential,” he said.

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