SLO County seeks fix for a century of mismatched zoning in Cayucos 

For nearly 100 years, a residential home in Cayucos has sat on a piece of land that is technically zoned as professional. Now SLO County is requesting approval to amend the land use to reflect what's actually there.

The California Coastal Commission approved the amendment at its Aug. 7 meeting.

Central Coast District Manager Kevin Kahn said he expected it to be approved since the land had already been used as residential for more than 90 years.

"The site in question is also located within an existing developed area in the center of town, does not implicate any sensitive coastal resources such as wetlands, streams, or beaches, and thus is not expected to lead to any adverse coastal resource impacts," the staff report read.

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• Photo From Central Coast District Staff Report
• ZONING MISMATCH SLO County is correcting a zoning mismatch for a residential home that's been on professionally zoned land in Cayucos for almost 100 years.

While the commission's review was a simple matter, Kahn told New Times he hasn't seen many requests like this before.

"This type of application is rare," Kahn said.

While the historical error didn't spawn any legal issues over the last century, Kahn said if the zoning hadn't been addressed eventually, he was concerned there would be pressure in the future to convert the land for its intended use.

More typical land amendments the commission has reviewed have had larger standards for development, Kahn explained, such as allowing residential usage in an already established professional zoning, or entirely rezoning larger sites for specific projects.

The .13-acre piece of land is located on the Central Business District border on Ocean Avenue, where a single-family residence has stood and remained occupied since 1932.

Within those 92 years, the rezoning issue only came to fruition when the current owners, who have lived on the property since 1984, wished to expand the residence by 600 to 800 square feet and were unable to do so under local zoning law.

"The proposed amendment aims to correct this historical mismatch, ensuring that the property's land use category designation accurately reflects its long-standing residential use and allows for future home additions," SLO County Deptartment of Planning and Development Executive Assistant Katie Martin told New Times by email.

According to Martin, the house was built before the current land use designations were set, and this is not the only time a similar amendment has been addressed.

"The [professional] land use category designation was applied later as part of broader community planning efforts that envisioned the area serving professional office uses," she wrote. Δ