Road to conserve 

The Carrizo Plain Conservancy (CPC) was established in 2013 as an organization dedicated to continued conservation efforts in the Carrizo Plain area. It started as part of the establishment of two large solar power generating facilities there. These facilities created a fund held by San Luis Obispo County that can be used to purchase lots in the California Valley area for conservation purposes. CPC has been seeking access to that fund to support such purchases.

This Board of Supervisors agreed to it in 2022; however, efforts to seek road fee waivers for conserved lots have been unsuccessful. This situation calls for continued county involvement and some new support for the conservation effort.

First, some background: In the late 1980s, the SLO County Board of Supervisors recognized that several areas of the county had allowed land subdivisions that were inappropriate for a variety of reasons, including environmental concerns, flood or fire hazards, or the lack of basic resources such as water. This difficulty is illustrated by the large number of properties that went into tax default, where the owners simply walked away from the properties and stopped paying taxes on them. Supervisors established a policy that sought to place many of these properties into conservation, by allowing conservation organizations such as land trusts to purchase the properties for permanent conservation purposes.

Parts of three areas in the county were the main focus of this policy: Cambria, where many lots were too small, too steep, or too heavily forested to be feasibly built on, and the local water supply was (and still is) stretched to its limits; Cayucos, where steep slopes and a lack of water and sewer access made development infeasible; and the California Valley, where flood hazard, poor drainage, a lack of water, and general remoteness made the area challenging for development.

Cambria and Cayucos, being close to the coast, found sources of funding support at the state level, where agencies such as the State Coastal Conservancy provide funds to purchase undevelopable lots from willing sellers or to purchase lots in tax default through a process permitted under state law.

California Valley, however, does not have this advantage, and efforts to conserve areas with higher environmental value have not progressed like those in Cambria and Cayucos. In California Valley, a road fee of approximately $30 per year is also levied on each lot in the subdivision. State law allows properties placed into conservation to be exempt from general property taxes but not from local fees: That is up to the local governing body.

The California Valley Community Services District, which provides the road maintenance services, has been understandably reluctant to waive fees that it collects for those services. This has had a negative effect on the ability to acquire lots that are of high environmental value for permanent conservation.

In order to break this impasse, the county needs to provide some ongoing support for the Community Services District's services. We believe that the simplest and most direct way to do this is for the county to provide funding support to the district's road maintenance program. The county maintains the roads in Cambria. It maintains the roads in Cayucos. Why not at least help maintain those in the California Valley? A assistance program for road maintenance of the more important roads within California Valley could alleviate this issue and allow land conservation to proceed there.

The three main roads crossing the valley—Soda Lake Road, Elkhorn Road, and Seven Mile Road—are currently county-maintained. However, there are several other roads that serve as more than simple local accesses. In addition, many roads there have suffered from the heavy rains of the past storm seasons, and some need significant maintenance support. This helps to explain the Community Services District's predicament and its reluctance to waive road fees for conserved lots that won't place any demands on road maintenance requirements. The district just needs help.

CPC has spoken with the two fine ladies competing for the honor of serving as the new supervisor for District 5, which includes California Valley. Both appear supportive of the idea of assisting the California Valley Community Services District's road programs as a means of supporting land conservation. We hope that, whichever one becomes the new supervisor, she will be a champion for California Valley and will press for the support needed to help the Community Services District and conservation efforts succeed. Δ

Neil Havlik is the president of the Carrizo Plain Conservancy. Reach him through the editor at [email protected] or write a letter in response for publication by emailing it to [email protected].