News - Local

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

SLO allows annexation proposal to move forward

Interested property owners can pursue change without waiting for General Plan update

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While it may be years before land at the southeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and Los Osos Valley Road is actually annexed to the city, the San Luis Obispo City Council on Tuesday narrowly decided to speed up the process.

The council voted 3-2 to allow some property owners of the land to pursue annexation independently of a more complex update to the city’s General Plan, which is its blueprint for development.

That broader process is not expected to be completed before 2012.

Against the staff’s recommendation, the council made the decision to let the interested landowners pursue annexation. Staff had argued that since the area under consideration is so large — at 1,380 acres—all of its ramifications needed to be addressed along with other land-use matters.

In 2006, the area was designated as the Cerro San Luis “sphere of influence” area, a designation that can lead to future annexation.

The move to start the annexation process sooner was promoted by private planner Carol Florence of Oasis Associates. She represents owners of 960 acres of the land in the Cerro San Luis area, including John and Susan Madonna, Congregation Beth David, Rowly and Catherine Twisselman and Tim and Karen Twisselman.

Nothing specific was proposed Tuesday for development of the land.

“It is like a lot of other projects,” Florence said. “The land will dictate what it will give us.”

There are physical constraints on the properties involved, including steep grades in some areas, serpentine rock outcroppings and wetlands that could not be developed. She said the annexation would also be governed by the city’s rule that annexations must give up 80 percent of their acreage to open space.

Florence does not represent other property owners in the 1,380-acre sphere of influence, including Dan De Vaul, Phyllis Madonna, Clint and Connie Pearce and those owning a few smaller pieces of land.

Councilmen Allen Settle and Paul Brown and Mayor Dave Romero gave the annexation the approval to move forward. Councilmembers Christine

Mulholland and Andrew Carter voted against separating it from the General Plan update.

Settle argued that General Plan reviews are cumbersome processes with multiple public hearings and can take a long time to complete. He said he doubts the next update will be done by 2015, despite the schedule.

“I ask myself, ‘Do I really want to hold this group hostage to that process?’ ”

Mulholland said annexing the land will lead to a loss of open space. And Carter said the prospect of developing the land is something the public will want to weigh in on at length.

“This would be a major change to the vision previously expressed by the residents of this city for that property,” Carter said.

The General Plan update is expected to cost $1.4 million. The council on Tuesday delayed making a decision on allocating that money until next year’s budget process.