About Cambria

Part One in a Series

San Luis Obispo County has no polar bears stranded on mini icebergs, no melting glaciers, no sinking island nations, no dissolving coral reefs – all effects caused by the growing  instability of our climate. This doesn’t mean San Luis Obispo County will escape the effects of climate change. Although most of the more drastic effects are being seen and felt at the poles and the equator, environmental changes in the more temperate zones of the planet are becoming more noticeable.

Last Wednesday I attended an very intriguing workshop hosted by the Local Government Commission (LGC) in San Luis Obispo: SLO Climate Change Adaptation Workshop. LGC partnered with the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy (NCCSP) and Susanne Moser Research & Consulting in collaboration with the City and County of San Luis Obispo to develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies for the region through a grant from the Kresge Foundation. The strategies will help local leaders, decision-makers, and governments prepare for the impacts of climate change in a way that provides benefits across multiple sectors and systems. Our goal is to develop strategies that cohesively consider economics, health, culture, social needs, infrastructure, ecosystem services, and natural resources.

Last week’s daylong event included presentations on the effects and potential needs for adaptation to changes in San Luis Obispo County and breakout sessions where participants discussed the priorities for our county as we plan for the future.  An abbreviated list of some of those in attendance:

David Church, Executive Officer, SLO LAFCO

Judy Corbett, Executive Director, Local Government Commission

Adam Hill, SLO County Supervisor

Ellen Carroll, Environmental Coordinator, SLO County Planning

Larry Allen, Air Pollution Control Officer, APCD

Ron De Carli, Executive Director, SLOCOG

Joy Fitzhugh, Legislative Analyst, SLO Farm Bureau

Marni Koopman, Ph.D., Climate Change Scientist, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy

Andrew Christie, Chapter Director, Sierra Club

Jan Marx, Council Member, SLO City Council

Chuck Stevenson, AICP, Long Range Planning for SLO County

Ray Weymann, Retired Astronomer

Michael Winn, Chair, WRAC and board member of Nipomo CSD

Paavo Ogren, Director, SLO County Public Works

Don Maruska, Strategy & Fisheries Policy Advisor, SLOSEA

Jerry Bunin, Government Affairs Director, Home Builders Association Central Coast

Maggie Macro, Initiating Team, Transition Paso Robles (one of about half a dozen Transitions members who were there)

Among the many others were residents of a number of communities and green business/energy folks. I was encouraged to see so many staff from many local non profit organizations and government agencies like SWAP, SLO County Housing Trust Fund, Caltrans, Creston Area Advisory Body, Los Osos CSD, Economic Vitality Corporation, ECOSLO, Central Coast Salmon Enhancement, Cal Poly, Cuesta, CA fish and Game, and planners from the cities of Atascadero, Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles and Morro Bay.

The morning presentations set the stage and helped build a shared foundation of information about changes that are predicted for this county and what adaptations might be required. Starting with the Importance of Adaptation, a look at adaptation and the connection to City and County mitigation work, SLO Climate Change Projections, Climate Change Impacts on SLO Socioeconomic Systems and a review of the Top Socioeconomic Issues and Strategies.

Briefly, the top 10 concerns for species and ecosystems under climate change:

1. Water withdrawals from groundwater basins and rivers are an urgent issue, regardless of climate change, but will become much more
   severe of a challenge under climate change. Workshop participants identified monitoring and regulation of water withdrawals as necessary. Changes in pricing, types of crops, and residual dry matter from land use practices were all recommended. Water conservation measures are urgently needed to reduce competition for water and retain supplies for protected species and important natural processes.
2. Connectivity of fish and wildlife habitat is vital under climate change, yet development is quickly reducing opportunities for connectivity. Longterm region-wide planning is non-existent. Planning for connectivity will require communication and collaboration across land ownership boundaries, incentives for climate change easements on private property, regional analysis of potential buffers and corridors, regional scale climate change consideration in all development decisions, and a better understanding of how and where species will move.
3. Sedimentation in rivers, streams, and estuaries is problematic and likely to get worse with more fires, increased storm intensity, and continued land use practices that lead to erosion. Sedimentation will have negative impacts on riparian and water delivery systems, both of which are already stressed by general drought and overdraft. Land use controls, incentives, newly developed best practices, and prescribed fire were all recommended to reduce sedimentation. Monitoring and adaptive management should be implemented to keep sedimentation rates within historical bounds, if possible.
4. Loss of riparian, wetland, and marsh ecosystems greatly reduces the resilience of the landscape to climate change. These ecosystems are disproportionately important as breeding grounds for fish and wildlife, habitat for rare species, flood abatement that protects nearby infrastructure, water filtration, water infiltration to groundwater storage, and oases during drought. These ecosystems should be protected, restored, and created across the County ASAP.
5. Sea level rise is a huge concern due to its potential to impact marine and terrestrial ecosystems, coastal development, tourism, recreation, and agriculture. Rather than armoring the coast, the coastline should be allowed to be dynamic in state. One suggested approach was rolling easements. Relocating some developments would be necessary, thereby allowing the sandy beaches, dunes, rocky intertidal zone, estuaries, and bluffs to shift over time but still persist. Persistence of these features is vital to tourism, fish and wildlife populations, local fisheries, recreational opportunities, public safety, and quality-of-life for residents. A statewide or regional policy will need to be developed specific to sea level rise and coastal armoring.
6. Loss of oak woodlands from increased fire, drought, and invasive species is of great concern. Reducing current stressors to oak woodlands, such as overgrazing and frequent fire, may allow this important vegetation type to be more resilient to climate change. Educating private landowners about climate change projections and best management practices in oak woodlands, as well as providing them with incentives to retain healthy oak woodlands on their property, would help. Propagating more drought tolerant varieties of oak may also be an option.
7. Many important strongholds for threatened and endangered species are not protected and are not included in critical habitat designations. Critical habitat needs to be revisited and revised to include these areas as well as buffers for climate change range shifts. Some species are already in perilous condition and climate change is likely to cause extinction. It will be important to identify which species can be managed for persistence and which ones are too costly to maintain. Revisiting critical habitat will assist in this determination.
8. Planning should be carried out on a watershed scale, with all major land use players brought to the table, including ranchers, agricultural producers, county planners, the Forest Service, BLM, USFWS, conservation organizations, and others. Planning is currently done in a piecemeal fashion, and regulation is insufficient and unenforced. Planning for development, agriculture, natural ecosystems, and other interests needs to be done collaboratively and through a long-term, climate change lense. Enforcing current laws and regulations (CWA, ESA, local regulations) that affect land and water management is an important first step towards increasing the resilience of species and ecosystems to climate change.
9. Monitoring of species and ecosystems needs to be increased to detect trends early on and adjust management quickly in an adaptive  management approach. Careful planning and thought will need to go into designing monitoring strategies. A central clearinghouse that makes data available from all monitoring and surveying efforts, would be especially useful and could lead to more informed, timely, and sophisticated management efforts.
10. Keeping options open and taking advantage of opportunities. San Luis Obispo County has more options than other areas. Much of the coastline is undeveloped, thereby making marsh and wetland migration possible. Climate change may make marginal farmland available for conversion to coastal wetlands or native grasslands. Topographic complexity provides climate change refuges for species across the County as they shift to new areas. Many areas are currently available for providing buffers and connectivity for natural ecosystems (primarily on private land), but these areas could be lost to development if new policies and approaches are not quickly instituted with climate change in mind.

Upcoming posts will summarize the presentations (and have the MP3s available for download) and the results of the afternoon discussions on priorities. Most of the research is in documents available on the Local Government Commission website.

From the North Coast Advisory Council email maven (aka Marty Main):

Hello Everyone:

We want to alert you that John Busselle, SLO County planner, will update the NCAC (North Coast Advisory Council) on the Vacation Rental Ordinance recommended changes to the amendments. If you remember, the Board of Supervisors requested the 5-yr review of the Ordinance. In July 2009, the staff report presented a list of suggested recommendations that would update the Ordinance to be more enforceable in their opinion. We, the residents, presented many of our concerns at that time. And staff actually took some of these suggestions under advisement and incorporated them into their report for recommended changes. The Supervisors listened and then requested staff to go back and rework some of the issues under discussion.

A copy of the ’09 staff report with the original recommendations for changes to the Ordinance is available. John Busselle will be reporting on the updates to these recommendations. Note, the Board has not voted on any changes to date; but is simply gathering information.

The NCAC meeting will be held July 21st at 6:30 pm in the Rabobank meeting room.

Please attend to know what changes the county plans. Also, it is important to give feedback. We, the residents of Cambria, are the only ones who know if these proposed changes will improve the quality of our neighborhoods with regard to the vacation rental home business. The county can make suggestions; but we need to let them know what will work and what are the real issues.

Again, July 21st, NCAC meeting, 6:30 PM, Rabobank meeting room. Please attend.

From the Marin Voice about a week ago:

THE PEOPLE have spoken, and they want a say in whether to build a $400 million desalination plant in Marin.

The Coalition for the Public’s Right to Vote on Desalination has collected over 17,000 signatures in support of their initiative, which would require that the Marin Municipal Water District get a public vote before expending funds on a costly and questionable desalination plant.

The county Registrar of Voters is currently certifying the signatures, and if there are enough valid signatures, the measure will be on the November ballot.

Environmental and fiscal groups are united in support of this effort. The initiative was supported by the Marin Republicans and the Marin Democrats, as well as by the Surfrider Foundation and the Marin United Taxpayers Association.

Although the MMWD board members have voted unanimously to support the desal plant, they now have a chance to change course. They can issue a resolution stating that, before they start the building process and incur any further debt towards a desalination plant, they will put it to a public vote.

They can also vote to restart the Citizens Advisory Committee they have…

Read the full article here.

Or an article from the Contra Costa Times here.

Or the AP story in the San Francisco Chronicle here.

CCSD staff presented a draft budget to the Board at last month’s Cambria Community Services District meeting for the 2010-11 fiscal year. At this month’s meeting (Thursday June 24, 2010 at 12:30pm) the Board will consider adoption of the budget by resolution. A revised draft is expected in the next day or two, but in the meantime here are some of the highlights from the May 2010 draft.

The Cambria CSD has two primary income sources: Property Taxes and  Utility Sales. These are supplemented by a variety of fees, assessments, interest income, grant funds and other income sources. By state law, income from utility sales is restricted to covering expenditures in the water and wastewater departments. Property tax income is deposited to the General Fund where it is used to cover expenses for Fire, Parks and Recreation, Facilities and Resources, Administration and Resource Conservation department costs. Although General Fund monies can be used to cover costs of the water and/or wastewater departments, that practice is far from best management and recent Board policy is that General Fund money used for Water/Wastewater expenditures be accounted for as a loan that must be repaid.

I’ll leave the analysis and opinion to those of you with greater facility with numbers. What follows are charts showing the ratios of spending in various categories. The numbers are from the May 2010 proposed budget as entered into a spreadsheet and checked for accuracy. To view the spreadsheet used, click here.

Total Proposed Budget Expenditures (All Funds): $ 7,453,214.00

Total Proposed Employee Compensation, Payroll Taxes, Benefits, Allocated Personnel Costs(All Departments): $4,561,801.00

Total Proposed Professional Services (All Departments): $277,180.00 (Total 2009-10 – $314,550.00, Total 2008-09 -$297,290.00 )

The next meeting of the Cambria Community Services District is Thursday June 24, 2010 at 12:30 at the Veteran’s Memorial Hall. Highlights of the agenda are here, the full agenda is available at cambriacsd.org.

The Water Emergency Alternatives Citizens’ Committee will provide  a progress report on the committee’s work.

The Consent Agenda includes:
A. Approve Expenditures for Month of May 2010
B. Approve Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting, May 27, 2010
C. Consider Adoption of Ordinance 01-2010 Adding Provisions to the CCSD Municipal Code Establishing the Board’s Policy that New Hire Employees Pay 100% of the Employee’s Designated Share of the PERS Retirement Contribution
D. Consider Adoption of Resolution 28-2010 Authorizing Reporting the Payment of Member Contributions to the California Public Employees’
Retirement System for CCSD Management and Confidential Employees (MCE)
E. Consider Adoption of Resolution 29-2010 Approving VanScoyoc Associates Professional Services Agreement
F. Consider Adoption of Resolution 30-2010 Approving AGP Video, Inc. Professional Services Agreement
G. Consider Adoption of Resolution 31-2010 Approving TechExpress Professional Services Information Technology (IT) Agreement

HEARINGS AND APPEALS

A. Conduct Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution 32-2010 Approving the CCSD Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2010/2011

B. Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution 33-2010 Authorizing a 1.9% CPI Adjustment in the Fire Suppression Benefit Assessment

REGULAR BUSINESS
A. Receive Report by Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County on Cambria Vacant Parcel Assessment

The whole meeting (not including public comment) is estimated to take an hour and a half. Since they are considering the budget for next year and an increase in the fire benefit assessment, once again the estimated time is unlikely to be the reality. More on the budget when the board packet is available to me.

6. MANAGER’S AND BOARD REPORTS
A. GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT
(Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
B. MEMBER AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
(Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
7. CONSENT AGENDA
All matters on the consent calendar are to be approved by one motion. If Directors wish to discuss a consent item other than simple clarifying questions, a request for removal may be made. Such items are pulled for separate discussion and action after the consent calendar as a whole is acted upon.
A. Approve Expenditures for Month of April 2010
B. Approve Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting, April 22, 2010
C. Consider Adoption of Resolution 19-2010 Authorizing Award of Fire Hazard Fuel Reduction Contract
D. Consider Approving Letter of Support for the CCSD Fire Department  Designation as an Advanced Life Support Agency in San Luis Obispo
County
E. Consider Approving Extension of Intent to Serve Letter for Cambria  Shores Inn, Kim Eady, Applicant, APN 022.381.002
F. Consider Approving Extension of Intent to Serve Letter for a Senior Care Facility, Michael Clark, Applicant, APN 024.191.052
G. Consider Adoption of Resolution 24-2010 Ratifying Side Letter No. 2 to  Amended Payment and Compensation Plan (Management and
Confidential Employees)
H. Consider Adoption of Resolution 23-2010 Reinstating CCSD Employee Health Reimbursement Arrangement Benefit and Approving Services
Agreement with BusinessPlans, Inc.
I. Consider Adoption of Resolution 25-2010 Requesting CCSD 2010 Biennial Election be Consolidated with San Luis Obispo County for the
November 2, 2010 Consolidated General Election CCSD Agenda
J. Cast Ballot for Director Muril Clift as LAFCO Alternate Special District Member
K. Consider Adoption of Resolution 27-2010 Revising Utilities Department Reorganization for Succession Planning
(Estimated Time: 15 minutes)
8. HEARINGS AND APPEALS
A. Public Hearing to Confirm Itemized Report of Water and Wastewater Standby or Availability Charges as Provided in Government Code 61124
1. Receive Financial Report
2. Conduct Public Hearing
3. Consider Adoption of Resolution 20-2010 Confirming Water and
Wastewater Standby or Availability Charges
(Estimated Time: 30 minutes)
9. REGULAR BUSINESS
A. Consider Introduction of Ordinance 01-2010 Adding Provisions to the CCSD Municipal Code Establishing the Board’s Policy that Employees
Pay 100% of the Employee’s Designated Share of the PERS Retirement Contribution
B. Consider Adoption of Resolution 21-2010 Authorizing First Amendment to Franchise Agreement for Integrated Solid Waste Management Services between the CCSD and Waste Connections, Inc. d/b/a Mission Country Disposal, Inc.
C. Consider Adoption of Resolution 22-2010 Approving Agreement Between the CCSD and Brad Clark
D. Consider Adoption of Resolution 26-2010 Authorizing a Loan from General Fund Reserves to the Water Fund for Completion of the
Environmental Review Process for a New Stuart Street Tank and Rodeo Grounds Pump Station Replacement and Amend RBF Consulting
Agreement to Extend Term to June 30, 2012
E. Receive DRAFT FY 2010/2011 CCSD Operating Budget
(Estimated Time: 60 minutes)

From an article by DANIEL LOPEZ, staff writer in a recent edition of the Monterey County Herald:

A guide to assist in planning and operating future seawater desalination plants beside the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was released Monday.

The 20-page document prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service addresses some of the most common project concerns, including site selection, construction and operational impacts, plant discharges and intake systems.

The final draft was published after three years of work with the California Coastal Commission, Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and several other state and local entities.

“The guidelines are designed to protect the sanctuary’s unique and sensitive environment, while also addressing the practical challenges surrounding water supply along the Central Coast,” said Paul Michel, sanctuary superintendent.

The sanctuary stretches along 276 miles of coastline — from Rocky Point in Marin County to Cambria — and encompasses more than 6,000 square miles of ocean.

Read the rest of the news story by clicking here.

Read the report by clicking image

An item was posted on the website FedBizOpps.gov in the category “Opportunities” soliciting interested qualified vendors for Cambria’s “Geotechnical Feasibility Investigation Study”. The solicitation outlines what is expected of the company that gets the business and (as of today 5/5/10) includes 6 interested vendors from as near as Paso Robles and as far as Florida.

Check it out to gain some insight on the process. The on May 10, 2010, watch the California Coastal Commission hearing on the federal consistency determination (if it isn’t postponed for some reason.) Click here to link to the agenda for that meeting.

If you missed the forum on water alternatives on March 16, 2010, you can now view it here on aboutcambria.com (in four parts). Use this link or the link in the header menu. If you were there, watch it again! Thanks to Steve Figler for the video.

93428, cambria

Washingtonwatch.com tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available. They also provide earmark data like the request for Cambria CSD by Lois Capps for $2,000,000 for desalination. Visit the site and make your comments there or here.

This earmark request can be attributed (at least in part) to the work of our lobbyist federal advocate.  Our community has spent a small fortune on this part of the project. How much? Thanks to OpenSecrets.org, it’s easy to find out. OpenSecrets.org is a federal watchdog site that provides information on lobbying expenditures, searchable by client, lobbying firm, individual lobbyist, industry, issue, agency or bill. View the report on Cambria Community Services District here.

93428