The California Coastal Commission flexed its power over the decades-long local debate over water use and potential for new development in Los Osos.
At its Aug. 10 meeting, the Coastal Commission upheld the Los Osos Sustainability Group’s appeal of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approval of a coastal development permit for a proposed residential project.
With that permit, Los Osos resident Roger Dick hoped to build a roughly 2,500-square-foot family residence with a garage on a 6,000-square-foot vacant lot. Another property once rested on that lot, but it was demolished in 2010, leaving the land unoccupied for years. But the sustainability group’s appeal and the Coastal Commission’s findings proved to be stumbling blocks.
The commission’s staff emphasized that the construction project isn’t compliant with the local coastal plan, which outlines that new development must be denied if the appropriate water and wastewater services aren’t available to serve it.
Stressed by a lack of building growth since 1988 and an overdrafted groundwater basin, the bayside community contains different factions holding opposing views about the severity of the community’s water woes.
Dick and real estate broker Jeff Edwards, who represents him, believe that the Los Osos lot isn’t vacant in the first place.
“The Coastal Commission staff wants the Coastal Commission to think there was a connection between the LCP [local coastal plan] and the Roger Dick application, but there was not,” Edwards told New Times.
When the Coastal Commission approved the permit for SLO County’s wastewater treatment facility in Los Osos in 2010, it imposed a special provision that prevented the facility from serving new developments on vacant lots and significant modifications to existing development that would intensify the water use. The facility can only serve such properties if the local coastal plan is amended to establish sustainable limits for the area’s development potential.
Dick and Edwards contend that the special condition shouldn’t apply to the property because it once held a building that would be replaced with another structure if the Coastal Commission doesn’t find any issues with the permit. The water infrastructure extending from the street that serves the old property still exists there.
In a July 25 letter to the Coastal Commission, Edwards stated that the Los Osos groundwater basin isn’t in overdraft—something the SLO County Board of Supervisors also concluded based on sustainable yield estimates. According to the Los Osos Basin Management Committee, the latest groundwater production estimate, as of 2021, is 2,000 acre-feet. That’s 84 percent of the 2022 safe yield estimate for the basin, which is 2,380 acre-feet. SLO County concluded that the basin isn’t in overdraft because its groundwater production is less than the sustainable yield. Edwards agreed with the county assessment.
Dick and Edwards added that they even secured an appropriate water service provider for the proposed property: the Los Osos Community Services District. The district indicated its readiness through a “will serve” letter, but commission staff felt that the document alone doesn’t satisfy local coastal plan requirements. Coastal Commission staff added in its report that county’s determination of the basin not being in overdraft isn’t sufficient conclusive evidence. And the Los Osos Sustainability Group that filed the appeal agrees.
“It is a vexatious appellant advancing the narrative that Los Osos doesn’t have enough water for those who live here,” Edwards told New Times.
Patrick McGibney, chair of the sustainability group, said Dick’s project is just one of the many Los Osos proposed developments that the group has successfully appealed to the Coastal Commission.
Both McGibney and the Coastal Commission staff balked at the numbers presented by Edwards, with the latter calling them “conflicting data about basin health metrics.”
Coastal Commission staff is now working with SLO County officials to amend the local coastal plan to allow more development in Los Osos in the future. Staff hopes to bring that modified version back to the Coastal Commission for approval by the end of the year.
Even if the local coastal plan is amended, it’s unclear whether those changes will bring Dick’s project into compliance. Kevin Kahn, district manager of the Coastal Commission’s Central Coast office, said it was premature to determine if the project would hypothetically be allowed under a revised plan.
“The intent is to identify sustainable buildout limits in town, including identifying the amount of development that can be served by the groundwater basin without impacts to sensitive aquatic resources, as well as provisions to address sensitive land-based habitats in town,” Kahn said.
The Coastal Commission now has jurisdiction over the permit SLO County granted to the Dick project. It will meet for a de novo hearing on that permit at a later date. Δ
This article appears in Aug 17-27, 2023.