Cambrian letters to the editor, Nov. 23, 2017

More housing options are needed in Cambria

It’s great that there was such good turnout for the SLOHomeShare presentation.

I have known Anne Wyatt, a former Cambrian, for years and we served on the board together of Hopes Village, which is planning to start a tiny home village in the county somewhere.

Cambrians also should consider starting what San Luis has which is called SLOVillage (slovillage.org), in which 50 individuals support one another in their own private homes and have a network of helping services that are vetted.

It should be easy to start something like this locally now that there are more than 1,300 local residents in five Cambria neighborhoods on NextDoor.com.

For my part, I am starting a retirement consulting/counseling business with offices in San Luis Obispo. See williamseavey.com.

SWF helpful in case of fire in Cambria

Cambria residents have positioned themselves to have a reliable water supply with our Sustainable Water Facility (SWF).

In addition to adding to our water supply through periods of drought we will no doubt face in our future, I was reminded yesterday (Nov. 15) of another huge benefit of our SWF.

I was driving south on Highway 1 between and was between Cambria and Cayucos when I passed signs along the highway noting a controlled burn was underway. The smoke in the sky and the smell made it obvious there was, in fact, a nearby active fire. Cambria, of course, is at risk of fire within our community, far more so than many communities. So, fire safety is a huge benefit of our SWF.

Current CCSD policy is aimed at earning a regular Coastal Development Permit (CDP) to allow our SWF to be used as appropriate for both the use and safety of our residents.

In conclusion, we must continue to have a CCSD board consisting of members supporting and acting on behalf of our residents to earn this needed CDP.

Conservation alone is not enough

Diane and I collect rainwater at our house. We mulch heavily and planted drought-tolerant landscaping. We take short showers. We don’t always flush. We run graywater from the laundry to the yard. I was even featured in a KCOY newscast a couple of years ago for all this.

We know we can conserve water. But we cannot solve Cambria’s ever-present water supply problem by conservation alone and a prayer for rain. We need the supply security of the Sustainable Water Facility. We need it now. And we will need it in the future. I support the SWF.

Don’t repeat other communities’ mistake on water

I am voicing my support to keep the SWF operational.

We have seen examples of other communities (Santa Barbara, Morro Bay) who have let theirs go dormant only to incur significant reinvestment to bring it back online when the need predictably returns. Let’s not make that mistake.

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 8:27 AM with the headline "Cambrian letters to the editor, Nov. 23, 2017."