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The Los Osos Community Services District (CSD) is set to take up the question on Dec. 1 of whether it wants to get involved in a citizen push to incorporate Los Osos as a city.
Two Los Osos residents, Jon Erik-Storm and Kristin Horowitz, formed the Committee to Incorporate Los Osos and have requested that the CSD adopt a resolution that would set in motion an official incorporation process.
If that succeeds, the question of whether to become a city would go before voters.
"We believe Los Osos deserves more. We suffer from a democracy deficit," the committee wrote in a memo to the CSD board.
While a new city has not incorporated in California since 2011, the Committee to Incorporate Los Osos argues that the time is right for the coastal community of about 15,000 residents.
Leaders say that Los Osos is underserved by county government and point out that it's also about to lose supervisor representation for two years due to redistricting.
"Maybe we can break the logjam," the committee wrote. "You, the Los Osos CSD board of directors, have the power to remedy all of this."
The key question for the CSD is whether it wants to take the lead on any push to incorporate. One route to jumpstart incorporation is for a local body like the CSD to adopt a resolution of application.
Another route is for the citizen proponents to gather the signatures of at least 25 percent of Los Osos' registered voters or landowners.
In a staff report released ahead of the meeting, CSD officials indicated that the citizen petition route might be preferred.
"The district may not have sufficient staffing or funding resources to pursue incorporation at this time," the staff report stated. "A community group may have more resources available through fundraising and ... they may have access to more advantageous funding from the state than the district does."
Any application to incorporate Los Osos would have to go through the SLO County Local Agency Formation Commission, which reviews new agency applications and approves or rejects them based on detailed studies and analyses.
The Committee to Incorporate Los Osos responded to the CSD staff report by urging the district to at least commission a preliminary fiscal analysis of incorporating before dropping the effort.
"Keep control of the process. Start small," the committee wrote. "See what it brings about."
The CSD—which manages water and other services for the town—also noted in its staff report that a successful incorporation application would require additional public outreach "to better understand what the community wants out of its local government."
"Knowing this first would better guide the discussion of what structure of government could best serve the community and bring to light any alternative solutions," the CSD report read.
Regardless of which entity spearheads an incorporation application, the basic feasibility of Los Osos as a city remains uncertain.
Any new city is required by law to generate sufficient revenue to provide at least the same level of service that the county provides, with reasonable reserves, too.
"With your help, we can find out," the committee wrote to the CSD. "A new town would face many challenges, but it would also create many opportunities—most importantly, it would give us a powerful voice in critical questions about our home, over questions of land use and development, the environment, and law enforcement, and strengthen our voice in the vital matter of our water supply." Δ
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