Coastal Commission denies permit to build new home in Cambria due to ‘water supply’ issues
A recent decision by members of the California Coastal Commission may send a message to those who want to build on residential properties in Cambria: No new projects until the town’s long-standing water supply situation is solved.
Commissioners on Nov. 13 denied a permit that would have allowed Alireza Hadian to build a two-story, 4,000-square-foot home with a detached 1,000 square-foot garage and 750-square-foot workshop on a nearly three-acre vacant property at 6775 Cambria Pines Road.
The hearing on a second proposal to build a single-family home at 5752 Moonstone Beach Drive was postponed.
Both permits had been appealed by coastal commissioners Linda Escalante and Katie Rice.
As commission staff advised in summaries of the two reports, the commission should deny the permits in part because San Luis Obispo County’s approval of them may not conform to planning regulations and because of “water supply inconsistencies, and the lack of available water to serve even existing development in Cambria let alone new water service to facilitate new development.”
“It is fair to say that the commission’s recent action provides fairly clear direction to the county and the (Cambria Community Services District) that new private residential development projects on vacant lots within Cambria are not likely to be supported by the commission until such time that an additional water supply for the community is secured,” coastal planner Brian O’Neill wrote in a Nov. 18 email.
“That said,” O’Neill added, “the facts of every case are different.”
“Additionally, staff’s analysis was based in part on information regarding the current health of the San Simeon and Santa Rosa creek systems and the impact of the CCSD’s water withdrawals,” O’Neill wrote. “If new peer-reviewed scientific studies indicate that the situation has changed and that additional water can be sustainably withdrawn in the long term without impact to the creeks, the outcome could be different.”
The Cambria Community Services District provides water, sewage treatment, parks and other services to the community.
Water supply management in Cambria
District officials have been trying for years to get a permanent permit for the town’s Sustainable Water Facility, which was called the Emergency Water Supply when the county issued an emergency permit so the CSD could build it during the most recent prolonged drought.
A permanent permit would allow the district to operate the plant at will rather than only during droughts and long dry spells. That’s when the town’s water supply can dwindle to dangerously low levels in wells that dip into aquifers alongside the two creeks.
A report on the status of efforts to qualify for and get a permanent permit is on the agenda for the district Board of Directors meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in the Veterans Memorial Building in Cambria.
District consultant Paavo Ogren, board president David Pierson, general manager John Weigold and others have been working toward the goal of getting the plant’s permit, Pierson said recently.
“We’re working hard to get the CDP (Coastal Development Permit application) to the county as soon as possible,” Pierson said in a Nov. 11 phone interview.
Pierson said they had discussions with county and coastal commission officials on Nov. 6 and 7, but he said the district still needs “more direction” from both agencies.
“The county wants us to finish our application by revising our project description, get rid of some of the stuff that isn’t there any more and bring it up to date,” Pierson said. “I think we’ve got a good path to go forward for the next three months or so — with the county and district people in agreement about what we need to get done so the county can finish their work to get it in front of the planning commission, hopefully early next year.”
There are a lot of potential potholes on the regulatory road to that goal, however.
Pierson said Coastal Commission staff is concerned how the district will address sensitive environmental habitat concerns and the health of the streams. “I don’t know if we can get all the information they want quickly enough” to meet the county’s planned schedule, he said.
A series of studies and reports likely will be needed, according to Ogren’s report on the topic.
Those include a feasibility study “relating to location, impacts and mitigation requirements,” as well as an ongoing evaluation of groundwater hydrology “to help insure that an adaptive management plan” meets the requirements of regulators and a study of alternative uses for the impoundment basin or brine pond, possibly for stormwater capture so water can be saved and used during the dry season, the report said.
Ogren also noted that the district doesn’t yet have funding to pay for converting the pond. He said the distric’s current state water board license includes the right to divert water, but doesn’t include “diversion to storage.”
