About Cambria

There are essentially three classes of Cambria property owners: those who have homes on their property, those who own property that is included on the “Waiting List” for future water connections, and those who own undeveloped property not on the CCSD Wait List.  There are property owners in the latter two classes who are interested in building homes on that property to live in. As a result of the CCSD Board’s determination that Cambria’s existing water demand equals or exceeds the dependable supply and declaration of a “water emergency”,  owners with undeveloped property are not able to build here.

The CCSD currently serves water to 3,926 developed properties and sewer to 3,816 properties¹. There are approximately 666 single family residential properties on the CCSD’s waiting list.² There are 35 multi-family residential properties on the list.   The waiting list was “closed” in 1990, when the County adopted a Growth Management Ordinance. According to the research in the Buildout Reduction Report and the data on lot mergers to date, a conservative estimate is that there will be 1,502 potentially buildable, legally zoned residential lots that would be left over inside the CCSD service area when the CCSD has said they would stop issuing connections (4,650 residential).  If the undeveloped lots in Special Projects Areas 1 and 2 are included, the number goes up to 2,418. It is unknown how many property owners that own legal lots will be excluded from building.

The CCSD does not have authority over Land Use, that is the responsibility of the County and the California Coastal Commission. But its the CCSD that has essentially controlled development by not issuing “Intent to Serve” letters. This seemed like the CCSD was acting outside its authority with no objections from the County or the Coastal Commission. I am in favor of local control over community planning, but since we are not incorporated, the County is responsible for land use planning and permitting (authorized by the Coastal Commission’s approval of the Local Coastal Plan in December 2007).

To get a better understanding of the situation, in February, I sent an email to the County with some questions about growth in Cambria and a “county waiting list” I had heard about. Jim Hofschoer of SLO County Planning provided some useful information.

The CCSD is under a declared “water emergency”, which allows them broad powers to prevent new building, etc. from worsening the water availability. The County has not adopted an building moratorium, instead letting the CCSD implement the appropriate measures.
To give the CCSD control over who builds and when, we developed the following regulation in the North Coast Plan:
” 8. Cambria Community Services District Review. Prior to application acceptance, land use and building permit applications shall include a written verification of water and sewer service from the Cambria Community Services District. A water and sewer service
condition compliance letter from the Cambria Community Services District shall be provided to the Department of Planning and Building prior to final building inspection.” (NCAP p 7-31)

On October 23, 1990 (Ordinance No. 2477) San Luis Obispo County adopted a Growth Management Ordinance (GMO), Title 26 of the San Luis Obispo County Code. Subsequently, an allocation waiting list for the community of Cambria was initiated in accordance with the GMO. Customers fill out an allocation request form and pay an application fee to get on the allocation waiting list. The list is prioritized by the date and time the customer applies for an allocation (i.e., #1 on the waiting list is the “oldest” request on file).

Prior to the adoption of the Growth Management Ordinance, the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) kept a list of customers that wanted to build residences in Cambria. This list is solely managed and administered through CCSD, not the County Planning and Building Department. After the GMO was adopted the “next” customer that wanted to get on the CCSD waiting list was directed to the County to get on the allocation waiting list per the newly adopted GMO. The County’s allocation waiting list does not include those customers on the CCSD list. All of the customers on the CCSD list submitted an application to CCSD prior to the first customer that applied to get on the County’s allocation waiting list. Once the CCSD list is exhausted then the next customer in line would be #1 on the County allocation waiting list.

Currently the County has 343 single family allocations, and 9 Multi-Family and residential unit ownership project allocations (49
dwelling units) on a Cambria allocation waiting list.

Based upon guidance provided to date by the Board of Supervisors (adopted ordinances), the Cambria allocation waiting list is valid and will remain so until such time as the Board of Supervisors directs planning staff otherwise.

On May 23, 2006 the Board of Supervisors  adopted changes to the GMO (Ordinance No. 3091) that became effective on July 1, 2006. The Cambria growth rate has been set at 0% for the period from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2009 and the County Planning and Building Department cannot accept general allocation applications during this period. The Department can only accept allocation applications with a building permit submittal that are accompanied by an intent-to-serve letter from the Cambria Community Services District for replacements, transfers and grandfathered water meters.

Next Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors’ agenda includes an amendment to the GMO mentioned above that would extend the 0% growth rate through June 30, 2012.  This ordinance is additional support for our current No Growth atmosphere. And yet another blow to those who would like to build a home here.

I don’t support unchecked growth, but neither do the County or the Coastal Commission. Prior to 2006, the County had a policy of allocating 1% of the total current dwelling units in Cambria as permits for new dwellings. Since June 2006 they have allocated 0%.   Once the CCSD resumes issuing Intent to Serve letters, the County plans to set growth at 1%. The rest of the county (with a couple exceptions that are at 1%) is at 2.3%. Runaway growth just isn’t possible. And if the County suddenly does an about face on its policies, I find it highly unlikely that the Coastal Commission would allow uncontrolled growth.

I think we would have to be crazy to think those property owners are just going to hand over their property for a pittance or continue to have patience indefinitely, waiting for the day when we’ve declared the water emergency over. It almost seems like the CCSD is doing what it can to make it more attractive to sell than to wait.

Here’s some food for thought: if the 1% growth was resumed in 2012, in 10 years (2019) there will be 4277 dwellings (if that many people apply for building permits.) It will be 2027 before permit number 4,650 is issued.  In 2027, we’ll be gearing up for the fifth presidential election since Obama’s election last year, Nicole Kidman will be 60 and kids born today will be halfway through high school. That’s not forever, but it is an awfully long time before anyone NOT on the list could even apply to build. It would be 25 years before the buildout number the county estimates (6,130) would be reached.

¹”Parcel Count Information for Proposed Rate Increase” CCSD, April 30, 2009

²”Peliminary Draft of the Buildout Reduction Program” CCSD, October 2005