The Arroyo Grande City Council is preparing to make its water supply more reliable through a ballot measure asking voters to cancel a policy that’s been around since 1990.
At its March 10 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved city staff to prepare a measure for the November ballot to repeal an initiative called Measure A that required residents to vote every time the city wanted to purchase water from the state.
“I think it’s critically important that we’re able to, as a community, as a county, share the resources that are available,” Councilmember Aileen Loe said. “I think this is a really important, proactive measure, looking forward.”
Voters approved Measure A in 1990, effectively prohibiting Arroyo Grande from participating in the California State Water Project—a 705-mile-long water storage and delivery system that snakes across two-thirds the length of the state—unless they cast an affirmative vote.
Assistant City Manager Bill Robeson told New Times there isn’t a clear reason why the city worked on Measure A, adding that people seemingly equated state water purchases with development and population growth.
“When you are in a drought emergency, it is too late to purchase state water, and contract negotiations can be time-consuming and unnecessarily tense/difficult,” he said via email. “As a city, we want to be proactive managers of our water supply rather than crisis managers. The repeal allows us to be operationally flexible as uncertainties arise and/or are anticipated.”
A successful repeal of Measure A also has a domino effect on Measure E, passed in 2016 by a little more than 86 percent of voters. That policy was a “carve out” of Measure A that allowed state water purchases without a citywide vote during declared drought emergencies.
While there could be uncertainty because the city would have to rely on a state water contractor to provide water under acceptable terms, according to Robeson, nixing Measure A would mean that state water can be purchased outside declared drought emergencies without first requiring an affirmative vote from the public.
“The potential change in requirements in the purchasing of state water provides the ability for the city to have options and react quickly as uncertainties arise, rather than working within an emergency status or waiting approximately a year or longer to introduce a ballot measure to address water supply shortfalls,” he said.
In 2024, the City Council deliberated going ahead with a state water ballot initiative after a review of a water supply evaluation. The council directed staff to pull out of the cost-sharing agreement for the Central Coast Blue project that aimed to stabilize water supply in the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin with recycled wastewater.
Council members then asked to postpone a state water ballot measure until 2026 because the city had an adequate water supply in 2024 and not enough time to educate voters on the need before the November 2024 election.
According to the city’s staff report, declining levels at Lopez Lake and shaky long-term sustainability in the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin compelled an exploration of more water supply options.
The exact amount of water that could be available to Arroyo Grande isn’t known yet.
“We have had discussions with other state water contractors in past years, and their state water availability,” Robeson said. “However, we will need to renew our discussions to update that information, if the council directs us to do that.” ∆
This article appears in March 12-19, 2026.