2019 May Colony Magazine

TIDES | MORRO BAY
City of Morro Bay
land use changes spark concern
By Neil Farrell
Could Morro Bay’s new sewer system and
the land use changes it requires lead to a
major growth spurt as well?
That’s what a group of wary citizens wanted to
know at a March 27 meeting with a City official
and the executive director of the County agency
that deals with annexations, organized by a local
conservation group.
Morro Bay Open Space Alliance or MBOSA,
organized the public meeting to hear about the
annexation process, in particular how it pertains
to the so-called Tri-W property at the terminus
of South Bay Boulevard, where the City is planning
to build a new sewer treatment plant.
Former City Councilman Noah Smukler emceed
the event and explained that they were there
to discuss Tri-W corporation’s ranchland properties
that essentially “surround the east side of the City
of Morro Bay.” He noted that one of the three large
parcels — directly above the end of Morro Bay
Boulevard — was the subject of a voter initiative
in 1990 that sought to limit a major commercial
development that the property owners, the Williams
Family and now called Tri-W, had proposed.
Indeed, that issue was practically a political battle
royale in town and led to Measures H being passed.
Measure H changed the zoning on that land (it had
been commercial-visitor-serving) and limited the
size that could be developed to just 13 acres.
Another pertinent law, Measure F ( passed in
1980), requires the City to get a vote of the people
before it annexes any land into the city limits,
with some exceptions, such as for public facilities,
i.e. a sewer plant.
Community Development Director Scot Graham
said with the Tri-W property that includes
the sewer site (Tri-W2), the plan is to annex
30 acres needed for the plant and create a legal
parcel. But Tri-W also requested, as part of the
memorandum of understanding for the purchase,
that the City would seek to have the remaining
396 acres brought into the City’s “sphere of influence”
or SOI. That arrangement was put onto
paper and the City’s planning maps changed in
June 2018, he said.
So far as he knows, there is no guarantee that
request would be granted by the Local Agency Formation
Commission, or LAFCo., just that the City
agreed to make the request when the time comes.
Graham also said that Tri-W has not indicated
why they want the change made.
LAFCo., Executive Director, David Church,
explained that his agency’s focus is on good planning,
avoiding urban sprawl, making good use of
resources and protecting agriculture, among others.
LAFCo. oversees incorporations of cities, he
said, the formation of special districts, dissolution
of special districts, annexations by cities and
detachments, which he said is when a City takes
land out of its City Limits.
They also update the sphere of influence areas,
which he defined as lands adjacent to cities where
logical and planned expansion might take place.
The sphere of influence gets updated every 5-7
years, Church said, or as needed. That helps to determine
the “probable service area 20 years out,” he
explained, calling the SOI a “decision-making tool.”
“The sphere of influence doesn’t require annexation,”
Church said. “Annexation is a whole separate
process.” It’s also involved and requires public
meetings and several studies be done.
He said that back in 2007, LAFCo. stripped
just about all of Morro Bay’s sphere of influence,
which he said he regrets doing. That was done after
a required “municipal service review,” which is done
to judge a city’s ability to provide services such as
water and sewer, to the areas. At the time, Morro
Bay was seen as unable to do so.
“If you have a city with a tight water supply
[like Morro Bay],” he said, “that goes into the
mix and decision making on annexations.”
If a property was being annexed for agriculture
or open space, he said, LAFCo. would put a conservation
easement over it in perpetuity.
Former City Councilwoman Susan Mullen
recounted the wars that were fought over the
Tri-W property back in the 1980s and ‘90s,
saying that she and others were fighting to save
“Morro Bay’s small-town character.”
She said the property owners tried to get voters
to approve an 80-acre development but failed.
Then they succeeded in passing a 32-acre development
at the polls, which led to Measure H,
which cut the development envelop down to 13
acres, and also led to she and former Councilman
Ben Luna being sued. They won, and in 1999,
the Coastal Commission wiped out the map that
voters had approved too.
Mullen admitted to being “a little biased” over
the issue but cautioned residents.
“I think to put a 13-acre commercial development
within the sphere of influence is one thing,”
she said. “But more than 300 acres is scary. We have
to really scrutinize this project.”
Graham explained that the City “has no desire
to do anything.” He explained that the updated
land use map was finished more than a year ago
and “then this issue was brought back up. I was
unaware of it, and I guess that’s my fault.” He had
to go back and amend the land use maps being
included in the general plan update that’s winding
down and the Tri-W2 property was included
under an agriculture zoning. The other property,
above Morro Bay Boulevard, is mostly already
within the City Limits.
Church cautioned that being included within
the sphere of influence “doesn’t convey any extra
authority” to the City, and it “doesn’t convey any
rights” to property owners.
Graham said the annexation of the treatment
plant site’s 30 acres would be done at the same time
as the request to expand the SOI onto the rest of
the property.Should the City want to annex the
remainder of the property someday, it would have
to get permission from voters, he said..
“There is some question as to the legality of
the voter initiative [Measure H],” he said, “but
we still have an ordinance in place” which codified
the initiative.
However, “No one’s said they want to expand the
City out there except for the wastewater treatment
plant,” Graham said.
Also, the City’s new SOI maps also include hundreds
of acres of the Chevron property, which is
essentially the hillsides above the residential neighborhood
in North Morro Bay and extending north
along Highway 1 to the old Chevron Marine Terminal
Shore Plant at Toro Creek Road and Highway
1, and including the so-called “Dog Beach.”
Graham said there is a “big effort to conserve
those properties” involving numerous agencies including
the Trust for Public Land, Cayucos Land
Conservancy, MBOSA, SLO County, the City
and others. Last year the State Coastal Conservancy
granted $1 million toward the purchase of
the Toro Creek Ranch and Dog Beach, which has
a price tag of some $5 million.
Barry Branin, a vocal critic of the City’s sewer
project, said it looks like the City was opening the
door to litigation.
Mullen noted that in 2015, an economic development
initiative sought to get rid of Measure H,
which would open some 177 acres up to development,
and in turn potentially open the nearly 400
acres of the Tri-W2 parcel to development.
Graham said, “People can ask for whatever they
want but the City of Morro Bay is not required to
support it.”
May 2019, Colony Magazine colonymagazine.com | 47