SLO County redistricting plans could combine Cambria, Paso Robles. Why that’s a bad idea
Combining Cambria and Paso Robles in the same district on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors would be a strange move.
As political siblings, they’d be frequently at odds, with concerns of the much smaller coastal town coming second to the bigger inland city.
As most of us know, San Luis Obispo County is divvied up into five geographical districts, each one represented by a county supervisor.
Once a decade, state election code requires supervisors and other governmental agencies to look at their districts’ boundaries and, if necessary, adjust them to balance population counts or other demographic considerations within them.
The Board of Supervisors is in the midst of doing that now.
As long as decisions are made done fairly and squarely, with the right goals in mind, redistricting can be a just and needed process, especially for rapidly growing areas.
Unfortunately, that isn’t always the motivation.
When the adjustments are made for political gain, such as tilting the balance to emphasize the philosophies of a reigning supervisor and negate those of opponents, it’s called gerrymandering. And it’s illegal.
That’s where you come into the picture. Yes, you.
Your input on this issue could be important to your future and that of your community. It’s time to express your opinion — loudly, forcibly and often.
How would redistricting change SLO County district?
The supervisors are reviewing four maps produced by Redistricting Partners. One map drawn by Arroyo Grande resident Richard Patten has also attracted a great deal of interest from residents.
Three of the four Redistricting Partners maps — Plans A, B and D — are very similar to the current map.
Plan C would remove San Luis Obispo from District 5, setting off a string of changes that would break up the North Coast and put Cambria, San Simeon and its neighbors in a district with Paso Robles and other inland communities.
Patten’s map also involves putting coastal communities in the same district as some North County areas.
That would effectively slice up current coastal representation, separating so-called “communities of interest” that share similar needs and concerns as well as political views.
It’s an understatement to say many, if not most, of the coastal residents don’t like that idea. However, Patten’s redistricting plan seems to have support from a lot of people, including Supervisor John Peschong.
Opposition builds to redistricting proposal
From what I’m hearing at ground level, a lot of North Coast residents are absolutely opposed to crawling into a political bed with the North County.
They say they’re ready to fight to keep coastal communities within the county’s current District 2, which covers from Los Osos to the Monterey County line.
Karen Pearson of Cambria sent an email Nov. 5 urging people to attend the supervisors’ Friday meeting on redistricting.
“This is our last best chance to demand that, of the many proposed redistricting ideas on the table, Map A is chosen,” she wrote. “It is the only option that meets federal mandates and keeps the North Coast communities together. The proposed Map C tears us apart from the other coastal communities and makes Cambria to the Monterey border part of District 1, which is Paso Robles.”
Pearson concluded that, if Plan C is adopted, “We will lose our voice and the current power of our vote.”
The Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council sent a unanimously approved, beyond-firm letter to the supervisors urging them to basically leave district boundaries the way they are.
“There is no legal mandate nor reason to make changes to the current boundaries — there have not been enough demographic shifts to warrant moving boundaries,” the letter read. “The current district boundaries have continuity and support regional communities of interest, including the North Coast.
“Cayucos is a part of the North Coast and should remain in a North Coast district that includes all coastal communities from the Monterey border to Montana de Oro State Park.”
“Any significant changes at this point, such as breaking apart the North Coast, are clearly for gerrymandering purposes,” the advisory council concluded.
The agenda for the Cambria Community Services District board of directors’ Thursday meeting includes a draft letter on the topic.
“Being unincorporated, we are significantly impacted” by county Board of Supervisors’ decisions, “such as land use, road paving priorities, garbage rates and vacation rental growth,” the draft letter states. “It is essential that this coastal corridor ‘community of interest’ remain in its current District 2 designation and not be redistricted to communities without shared commonalities.”
“Realignment into any urban-based inland district would,” the letter states, “in effect, suppress the voice and needs of the coastal unincorporated communities, while damaging an historically defined community of interest.”
Plan C specifically “presents serious dilution of coastal interests and creates a lack of compactness,” the letter continues, “ignoring two of the five criteria” in community-of-interest guidelines.
Should North Coast and North County be combined?
The differences between San Luis Obispo County’s coastal and inland areas are hard to ignore.
As weathercasters will tell you, the county is a sprawling area of microclimates. You want a 50-degree temperature difference at the same time of the same day? Drive from Cambria to Paso Robles in August.
That’s not the only variance between the areas and interests therein, of course.
One is coastal. One is valley. The North Coast has the county’s highest proportion of retirees. The North County has more wineries than any other county area.
The North County has lots of industry and franchise businesses. There are certainly not many of those in the affected North Coast communities, villages and towns.
Sure, there are some similarities between the areas. Both have tourist-oriented businesses. Both have ranches and farms, although agricultural industries are much more plentiful and large in the North County.
Cambria is densely forested with a rare native stand of Monterey pines. Paso Robles gets its namesake from its oak-covered hills.
Although both areas have water supply issues, the cities of Paso Robles and Atascadero are developing apace while unincorporated Cambria and San Simeon have had zero growth for decades. Cayucos growth, meanwhile, has been very slow.
During my decades living on the Central Coast, I’ve observed that politics, too, tends to divide those areas about at the Santa Lucia ridgeline.
Sure, there are liberals in the valley and conservatives on the coast, but the percentages are different, at least according to voter registration logs.
It’s all those differences that have a lot of North Coast residents from San Simeon to Cayucos ready to battle against proposals that would shimmy the district boundaries.
How to make your voice heard
So should North Coast residents give way to disinterest and apathy, assuming that the decision’s a done deal and their wishes are about to be tossed under the proverbial bus?
No.
The next redistricting discussion is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 19. But there’s still time to send a letter, make a call, send an email and even attend into the hearing to tell the supervisors what you want.
Is it a futile effort? Don’t bet the farm on it.
I’ve seen regulatory minds shifted by massive turnouts of determined people expressing passionately held opinions backed up by facts.
What about the 1999 California Coastal Commission hearing on updating the North Coast area plan?
So many people showed up to listen and speak on proposed changes that the conference rooms, lobby, bar and restaurant of San Luis Obispo’s Embassy Suites hotel were jam packed, with the overflow spilling out onto the sidewalk and parking lot.
After a very long meeting, commissioners turned down the update.
A direct result of that decision produced the $95 million Hearst Ranch conservation easement plan, which scrapped the update’s proposal for a resort, homes, golf course and more on the western portion of the ranch, and replaced it with stringent development restrictions. Most of the coastal strip of land between Highway 1 and the ocean was donated to the state.
Here’s another case where turnout made a difference.
A previous general manager of the Cambria Community Services District fired the town’s popular and well-respected fire chief. More than 350 people turned out at a board of directors’ hearing about her actions, packing the Veterans Memorial Building with high emotions and fervent endorsements of the fire official.
Ultimately, the board rehired the fire chief and fired the general manager.
So, if one of those redistricting proposals seems wrong or right to you, now’s the time to speak up.
Find out more about the redistricting proposals at www.slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Administrative-Office/Countywide-Projects-Programs/Redistricting.aspx. Then share your redistricting thoughts with county supervisors via email at redistricting@co.slo.ca.us and/or by showing up in person at Friday’s meeting.
Here are some other key dates.
Nov. 21 is the last day for the public to submit maps of redistricting proposals.
Three days later, on Nov. 24, the latest maps will be to be published.
The final hearing to approve redistricting is Nov. 30, and the deadline for drafting a redistricting ordinance and revealing it to the public is Dec. 3.
On Dec. 7, the ordinance amendment will be introduced.
The final vote on redistricting is on Dec. 14 and the effective date of new districts is Jan. 14.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
