Posted by Anne Winburn. This is just my opinion.

What a great turn out, last night at the PROs meeting with the community on the Community Park EIR. The new designers of the park…”FIRMA” were there to present, answer questions and take in feedback, along with the PROs board and a couple of CCSD Board members and staff. The plan is beautiful and top notch professional.
HOWEVER, I HAVE SOME CONCERNS. Some new information for me as a result of attending the meeting was the discovery that:

  • FIRMA, the new design firm, was never given the results of the 2004 CCSD PROs (Parks, recreation and open space committee of the CCSD) survey. read here nor the PROs summary outline of the survey results, read here.
  • With direction from CCSD, FIRMA has been designing to someone’s personal interest decision to mandate a sports mutiplex extravaganza. Based on the hard data that is available to date and contained herein, the multiplex that is being developed does not match the solicited and stated recreational needs/wants of the community.
  • The Project was to be a community park, to meet the needs of the community of Cambria and also to be enjoyed by residents of and visitors to SLO county. The official terms of the agreement between the County and the CCSD for development of a community park can be read here.

EXCERPT: In 2003, The CCSD was ” seeking to purchase certain property known as the East/West Ranch to preserve for open space preservation and public recreation use and intends to set aside approximately 50 acres of said property as a community park serving the recreational needs of Cambria.” The desired outcome by the County in exchange for $500,000 is “the district and the county and its residents will have the benefit of increased outdoor recreation facilities.

  • I am afraid a lot of community money has been spent on design development without relevant and on-target design objectives. To remedy that, I suggest the design objectives be reviewed and ammended by the community before any more design work is paid for. I don’t know exactly how much has been spent. Perhaps someone can find that out.

While the intent of the agreement between the County and the CCSD was, I am sure noble and generous; the project has escalated to one that is:

  • Largely off base from the stated recreational needs of the community
  • Does not design to the demographics of the community
  • out of scale with our small community
  • Fraught with “Significant, adverse, and unavoidable environmental impacts” on every environmental category

NEED FOR MORE SOCCER FIELDS There was one speaker who stated that there are not enough soccer fields for the 7 soccer teams (not sure if that includes adults and children ) that exist in Cambria. That is a lot of soccer teams for Cambria.

  • Where do those 7 soccer teams play now?
  • Are they allowed to use sports fields at the three different schools in Cambria? If not, why not?
  • Can sports fields be added where some already exist like at schools or even a church, for instance? (utilize existing parking, bathrooms, etc)
  • Is there anywhere in San Simeon that could handle the addition of Soccer fields? What about somewhere at San Simeon State Campground?

IN CLOSINGI have received many calls and drop-ins from people in the community who feel similarly. We will get together to discuss all of this soon. If you would like to get together with a group to discuss possible strategies to stop this heinous and blatant over-development of our environmentally sensitive open space please e-mail me or call me. I am in the Book. Thank you.