Yesterday, I found a bright green half-page postcard notice from the CCSD labelled “Official Notice to Remove Vegetation”. All Cambria lot owners were sent one. Here’s mine:

Now, I’m completely in support of doing whatever we can to minimize the risk of the town having a runaway fire. I also like living in a forest and understand the risks of living here. But what I’m concerned with here isn’t the arguements for or against the clearing of lots to reduce the fire hazard. That is best left for another day. What I want to point out here is that I DO NOT OWN THE LOT ON THIS NOTICE.

To protect the privacy of the lot’s actual owner, I obscured part of the number. The lot is about 15 blocks from my lots, on a different street. Since I was able to get the address of the owner of record, I did a bit of detective work and was able to find a name and number. If the County’s information is correct, I left a message for the owner to call me back.

I DO own two lots in town. But I didn’t recognize the APN on the notice, so I went to the County website to check it. The San Luis Obispo County website has a very useful Interactive GIS mapping tool anyone can use to get information about any legal parcel in the county. By entering a street address or an APN # (like the one on your notice), you can get quite a bit of information about the property. For privacy protection, the site doesn’t list an owner’s name, only the address of record. You can get names and phone numbers from the County, but you have to go into their SLO office in person for that.

The GIS mapping tool doesn’t necessarily have the most current information. There’s a lot of time involved in keeping the system current and the county is understaffed and still playing catch-up from when the system was first implemented. But you can enter the APN on the notice YOU got to make sure it is the lot you own. If the number is incorrect, you might want to let the district know. Or the owner of the property….who will be billed through the tax assessor of SLO County for the cost of abatement plus the $400 administrative charge.

UPDATE:

This issue may be more widespread…if you get a notice, PLEASE check the APN against the one on your property tax notice. Yesterday I was able to confirm another Cambrian who received the notice had the wrong APN listed. This could become a bigger story. If you get a notice with the incorrect APN contact the CCSD about correcting it and please email amanda at aboutcambria.com or call me 927-4191.

UPDATE:

I contacted CCSD Board Member Muril Clift about the issue. He sent an email indicating he’d check on in. Less than an hour later, I got an email that said, in part:

“There was a mistake made in the initial data input that resulted is APNs and names not matching on a significant number of cards sent. A letter correcting the mistake and confirming the appropriate APN is being sent to all people who received a card. Those letters were being signed today and should be in the mail later this week.”

Thank you to Director Clift for taking such quick action to address this issue. His appointment to the Board when Director Villeneuve retired is one of the best decisions the Board has made for our community.

From the CCSD’s website: A notice to everyone who received the weed abatement notices: Download it Here.

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Last 5 posts by Amanda Rice