Reality Check: Does Pismo Beach owe taxes for Central Coast Blue properties?
The city of Pismo Beach may be on the hook for additional Central Coast Blue water recycling project-related costs this year — but the city is not in violation or overdue on its property taxes.
The question came up after Julie Tacker, a longtime San Luis Obispo County resident, activist and former Los Osos Community Services District board member, said she noticed that there could be an issue related to Pismo Beach’s property taxes on a pair of parcels in Grover Beach when she looked through the county’s tax roll for the parcels in early June.
“I looked on the tax roll myself, and the parcels were not even identified, like the (Assessor’s Parcel Numbers) were disappeared from the county website,” Tacker told The Tribune. “I was curious. ... Now, the parcels don’t even exist on the tax rolls — other times I’ve seen where they’re on the tax roll and exempt, but these APNs just didn’t appear, so it made me wonder a little more closely.”
From there, Tacker said she raised the question with San Luis Obispo County Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector Jim Hamilton, who told Tacker that they would reassess the parcels in question.
Representatives of the cities of Grover Beach and Pismo Beach and the San Luis Obispo County Assessor’s Office said that while property taxes weren’t paid on the properties between 2022 and 2024, no tax violations have been recorded by the county — mostly because the city of Pismo Beach hasn’t even received a bill yet.
However, Pismo Beach will likely end up paying property taxes on the parcels down the line, assistant county assessor Greg King said.
“Central Coast Blue is listed as of the owner of record,” King said in an email. “As the parcels are outside Pismo Beach’s jurisdiction, they may be liable for any property taxes.”
The Tribune looked into the question as part of its Reality Check series.
Does Pismo Beach owe property taxes on Grover Beach parcels?
Pismo Beach city manager Jorge Garcia said the city hasn’t received any inquiries or communications from Tacker or the Assessor’s Office related to a failure to pay taxes.
The two parcels in question — at 980 Huber St. and an adjacent undeveloped lot on Calvin Court — have changed hands several times in the past few years as they were considered as possible sites for part of the Central Coast Blue project, Garcia said.
The Huber Street property was originally acquired by the city of Pismo Beach, then transferred to the Central Coast Blue JPA before Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach pulled out of the project, Garcia said.
Around the same time, Grover Beach originally acquired the Calvin Court parcel, then transferred it to the Cental Coast Blue JPA, Garcia said. When Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande backed out of the JPA, leaving Pismo Beach as the only member city still pursuing Central Coast Blue, Pismo Beach bought out Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande’s parcels, making the city the sole owner of the two properties, Garcia said.
According to a June 26, 2024, letter from the Assessor’s Office to the Central Coast Blue JPA, the two parcels were not subject to taxation under section 4986 of California’s Revenue and Tax Code, which says that auditors such as the Assessor’s Office can cancel the taxation of properties acquired by the U.S. government, the state, or by any county, city, school district or other public entity such as the JPA.
That means that the JPA was exempt from paying taxes on the parcels from when they were acquired by the JPA on Dec. 16, 2022, until the other cities pulled out on June 30, 2024, King said.
Pismo Beach’s tax responsibility for the parcels for the period since then remains to be seen, King said.
King said the Assessor’s Office started working on reassessing the parcels in mid-August and will notify Pismo Beach of its tax responsibility when that process is complete, as the amount owed is unknown at this time.
“Once the tax rate is applied, property tax bills retroactive to the June 30, 2024, date will be sent to the city of Pismo Beach by the ACTTC,” King said in an email, referring to the Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office. “Payment dates, which are a function of when the bill is issued, will be listed on the tax bill.”
Tax burden still to be determined
Garcia said he expects to hear back from the Assessor’s Office on whether back taxes will be owed on the properties in the fall, when most property assessments are released by the county.
Garcia said previous coverage of the question by CalCoastNews falsely construed the lack of payment of property taxes on the parcels while they were owned by the JPA under all three cities as evidence that Pismo Beach “was not paying property taxes,” as the article’s headline stated.
“If they made a determination that the city or the JPA itself, the official landowner, is no longer eligible for (the exemption) for whatever purpose, we’ll pay whatever taxation is assessed on the property,” Garcia said. “We have never tried to avoid or otherwise not make payments on our taxes.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 10:00 AM.
