Supervisors shoot down appeal against newly proposed Los Osos home 

Los Osos' tension between preserving its groundwater basin and building more development continues to find its way before the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

"Housing is an industry that's vital to the economic health of the region," county project manager Nicole Ellis said at the March 12 meeting. "The proposed project would provide Los Osos with an additional single-family home."

Ellis responded to an appeal filed by Los Osos resident and Los Osos Sustainability Group Chair Patrick McGibney. He objected to Planning Department Hearing Officer Nick Forester's October 2023 approval of a minor use/coastal development permit to build a 2,019-square-foot single-family home off Madera Street.

The proposed project, with Steven Brawer and Leanne Watt requesting its permit, would require extensions of existing gas, electric, and water lines within the site. It also received a will-serve letter from Golden State Water Company, which said it would provide 150 gallons of new potable water per day. The structure would include an on-site septic system that doesn't need to be connected to the Los Osos community sewer system.

McGibney argued that the project is incompatible the local coastal program, violated the coastal zone land use ordinance, would strain the overdrafted Los Osos Valley Groundwater basin, and that the will-serve letter doesn't indicate a sustainable water basin.

While the community has been burdened by a lack of building growth since 1988 and has an overdrafted groundwater basin, Los Osos community members hold opposing views about the severity of the area's water problems.

County staff refuted all of McGibney's claims, and the Board of Supervisors upheld Forester's approval with 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold absent.

"It was predictable, there's no question about it," McGibney told New Times. "The county can take up to 10 days to produce the notice of final approval to the California Coastal Commission. After that, I have 10 days to appeal to the Coastal Commission."

His appeal failed on every count, according to county staff. Ellis told the supervisors that the proposed project doesn't violate the coastal zone land use ordinance because the site isn't located between an urban services line and an urban reserve line. Rather, it's situated within the boundaries of both lines, making that land use ordinance not applicable in its case.

Ellis maintained that the Los Osos groundwater basin isn't in overdraft—something Los Osos real estate broker Jeff Edwards claimed, too, while representing the permit applicants during the appeal hearing.

"Since groundwater production from the basin is less than the basin's sustainable yield, the Los Osos groundwater basin is not in overdraft," Ellis said.

But the proposed project would be subjected to a 2:1 water offset requirement—a key reason that Forester approved the permit in October 2023.

McGibney said at the Board of Supervisors meeting that the county is snubbing the Coastal Commission. He added that while Los Osos did reduce its water usage, community members did so to save the water basin that's threatened by seawater intrusion, "not so that Mr. Edwards can build more houses."

"The Coastal Commission is still needing conclusive evidence of sustainable water supply, and there is no evidence," McGibney told New Times. "The county is pushing the myth that we're trending towards sustainability, but what does that mean?"