San Luis Obispo resident William Sievers wasn’t ready to fully let go of his troubled 46 Prado Road property, now owned by the Community Action Partnership of SLO (CAPSLO).
A 6,534-square-foot narrow sliver of land fell through the cracks when his property was sold to CAPSLO by a receivership group appointed to bring it up to code.
“He believed that it was eventually part of his property, which is true, and it ended up getting split up by the assessor’s office for a tax reason—tax assessment,” Sievers’ attorney Matt Janowicz told New Times. “This was more of a technical, weird issue.”
Sievers believed a parcel on his property known as the flag lot—a narrow land strip connecting to a wider portion of the property that looks like a flag on a map—was improperly sold to him and his family trust. In March 2024, when CAPSLO became the new owner of most of his former 46 Prado property aiming to set up another homeless facility, the flag lot was overlooked in the sale and Sievers retained ownership.
To establish and settle ownership over the fragment, Sievers filed a lawsuit, called a quiet title action, in September 2024 in SLO Superior Court.
Starting in 2018, the 2.2-acre lot that Sievers owned at 46 Prado Road received a notice of violation and a flurry of inspections from SLO Code Enforcement. The city found many vehicles and lots of debris and garbage crowding the area, blocking emergency access. Officials noticed several unpermitted and unsafe structures used for housing on the site. Two fires broke out on the property in December 2020 and June 2021.
In December 2022, a SLO County judge signed off on an emergency order filed by the city of SLO to appoint a receiver who could take over 46 Prado Road and fix the violations. The California Receivership Group undertook the task.
Receiver Mark Adams’ December 2023 report noted that people were found living in abandoned water containers on the property and using gas stoves for cooking.
In March 2024, the receivership group sold the property to CAPSLO for $1.3 million. Using more than $700,000 in state grant funds and $5 million from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Day 1 Families Fund, CAPSLO hopes to convert the property to a resource site for families battling homelessness. Once built, it’ll neighbor CAPSLO’s existing 40 Prado facility for the homeless.
But CAPSLO and the receivership group’s involvement became “a controversy” that complicated the quiet title action, according to Sievers’ lawsuit.
“In order to properly resolve the receivership case, a declaration quieting title in plaintiff must be made by this court,” the suit said.
The quiet title centered on two contiguous parcels situated on his property spanning 46, 48, 50, and 52 Prado Road. Sievers’ father acquired the property 30 years ago from seller and defendant Rod Herb.
Sievers’ father died in 2003, and the Sievers Family Trust—administered by Sievers and his sisters—held the property until 2007. In August 2007, the property was distributed to Sievers as an individual.
“Plaintiff [Sievers] is informed and believes and thereon alleges that defendant Herb does not claim any interest adverse to plaintiff and anticipates there will be no dispute as to plaintiff’s claim to title of the property, and more specifically, to Parcel 2,” the complaint said. “Plaintiff is informed and believes and thereon alleges that any mistake in title or as to recording was an oversight and ministerial in nature.”
The quiet title, in turn, affected CAPSLO.
When the nonprofit took ownership of the two parcels, it began assessing the extent of site contamination while also working on program and campus designs.
CAPSLO Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Leedale told New Times that Sievers’ quiet title action on the flag lot hasn’t slowed down the progress of building on the site but could impact design and cleanup of the property. The flag lot lies on the southeast corner of the parcel bought by CAPSLO.
“Since CAPSLO is not the owner of that portion, it has been necessarily excluded from the environmental site assessment and campus design considerations,” Leedale said. “[The quiet title action] does limit the activities CAPSLO can do regarding the property. If CAPSLO were able to include that land as part of the calculation, it means there could be more housing units built according to city code or other community benefits.”
Before breaking ground for construction, the 46 Prado campus design team will continue working with the city of SLO for project approval. So far, CAPSLO toured similar projects for homeless people hosted by other service providers. Most recently, a CAPSLO-appointed environmental contractor collected 56 soil samples from Sievers’ former property. The nonprofit is waiting for the lab results to compose a written report.
Sievers and his attorney, Janowicz, filed to dismiss the quiet title with prejudice on Feb. 28, meaning Sievers won’t fight for it again. According to Janowicz, the cost of litigation would exceed the value of the flag lot. Now, someone else—like CAPSLO or one of the current neighboring residents—can stake a claim on the flag lot through adverse possession if they wish, Janowicz said.
Receiver Adams told New Times that an entity acquiring the flag lot through adverse possession doesn’t mean they own it. Rather, they possess it for five years in a manner “openly, notoriously, and hostilely” to the actual owner.
“In California, you also have to pay the property taxes for those five years as proof of your claim of ownership,” Adams told New Times. “And of course, Sievers hadn’t done that, and so it was a waste of time and money for him to even file this quite client title claim. But he insisted on it.”
Janowicz clarified that the property became exempt once it was reassessed, and there’s no tax owed on it. A professional evaluation of the flag lot revealed that it holds a five-figure value. Janowicz declined to state the final value amount. However, in his 10th receiver’s report to the court, Adams said that the flag lot was “almost certainly unusable.”
The receiver told New Times that Sievers owns a house on O’Connor Way in unincorporated SLO County. He’s unsure if Sievers lives there or if it’s abandoned. Aerial photographs of the property showed large piles of pipes, planks of wood, steel frames, containers, and debris lining the interior of the property.
“He’s causing the same problem at this other property that he had on Prado Road,” Adams said. “We’re not doing anything with it, at least at this point. But … it looks like Prado did before we cleaned it out.”
Adams is hoping to finally be discharged from his receivership duties related to the CAPSLO sale. He’s circulated a stipulation, which would be an agreement to discharge him without court proceedings. It’s now up to Sievers and his attorney on how to proceed.
“I assured [CAPSLO] during the sale that I would make sure that Sievers gave up on what’s called an adverse possession claim on the flag lot,” Adams said. “The only reason I’m still on the job is because Sievers wouldn’t give up on this flag lot issue.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 17-27, 2025.