Cambria buildout study continues; no ETA yet for report

Work continues on a citizen-prepared study and report about how many vacant properties there are in Cambria, and what it would cost to buy some of them and “retire” them, so no building would ever occur on them.

Once the Cambria Community Services District has 4,650 residential customers, it is to stop issuing new water connections, according to self-imposed restrictions the Board of Directors approved in 2003. According to CSD staff, the district has 3,781 accounts that are classified as residential, including 3,381 single-family, 135 multifamily and 265 vacation rentals.

The district’s Buildout Reduction Program (BRP) Citizens Committee has been researching such topics as how many vacant-and-buildable parcels are left in town, ranking each according to the need to retire them and what all that would cost.

Committee Chairman Ted Siegler is working on an outline of the group’s accomplishments and work still to be done. He said in an email interview that “our intention is to develop a comprehensive plan revision for the Buildout Reduction Program with sufficient detail that it can be adopted, implemented and tracked.”

While his “outline has not undergone any significant review by the committee, and it certainly hasn’t been adopted or approved,” he said that The Cambrian’s readers could “take it as one person’s opinion.”

The group of community volunteers appointed by CSD directors — working with San Luis Obispo County and local governmental agencies, as well as various nonprofits and land conservancies — has “identified approximately 790 water commitments (waitlist, grandfathered, affordable housing, etc.)” that the district already has, and “identified approximately 1,500 parcels that currently do not have development potential (i.e.: They’re not on list above.)”

The committee’s research includes: sources of financing for the BRP through local taxes and fees and/or the use of funds from outside the immediate community; potential organization structures to effectively acquire and manage undeveloped properties; and (the big one) estimating the cost to retire undeveloped properties.

Among the items on Siegler’s preliminary draft outline for the committee’s report are:

▪  Introducing the BRP and describing Cambria and its resource and growth limitations, including regulatory requirements and legal issues about limiting growth.

▪  Opportunities for preserving open space.

▪  BRP history.

▪  Describing buildout potential.

▪  Identifying undeveloped properties subject to being retired, including their estimated value.

▪  Identifying various methods for retiring those properties, including a menu of choices, “because there likely will be no single ‘silver bullet’ that will accomplish or largely accomplish the task.”

▪  How to acquire and manage the properties.

▪  Establish continuing oversight role for the committee, including revising the program as necessary.

▪  Conclusions and recommendations.

Siegler has said there’s no ETA yet for the report.

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Cambria buildout study continues; no ETA yet for report."