Help Los Osans Protect Our Aquifer

 

We are an unincorporated coalition of neighbors, Los Osans for Good Governance (LOGG) is a network of citizens in our small rural coastal community. We have retained expert legal council and we need your support to advance our cause holding the county of San Luis Obispo accountable for illegally permitting water consuming builds when technically there should be no further development taking place while our ecosystem is both recovering and regenerating during epic level drought conditions.

 

WHAT HAPPENED?

 

In response to a wrongly permitted guesthouse being built in Los Osos, a group of community-minded locals, driven by concern for the dire water situation from a compromised aquifer, we are suing San Luis Obispo County (SLO CO) to vacate the permit that was issued without any public notice. The effort is being led by sustainability expert Emily Miggins in coalition with concerned citizens throughout Los Osos. The citizens have formed a community association, Los Osans for Good Governance (LOGG) to demand transparency, the enforcement of laws covered under theCoastal Act , and to close potential floodgates of building without proof of adequate water supply. 

 

In May 2021, a group of Los Osos neighbors noticed a new guesthouse permit posted on a vacant lot on Highland Drive. Quickly construction crews arrived, and neighbors asked the owner about the build. The response was “a garage with a room above for my son”.

 

The simple garage evolved into a twenty-eight-foot tall, two-bedroom home over an extremely large garage for a recreational vehicle. It also included a wraparound deck and open-air rooftop deck. Neighbors from all over Los Osos would walk by the guesthouse and ask questions and were concerned about water availability and the long-standing Los Osos building moratorium.

Simultaneously, in July 2021 when both local news papers started publishing articles about water purveyors and their concerns over our  local … looming water use crisis that  LOGG began to form and take action to look into illegally permitted builds in our small Community Services District!

 

The Los Osos Valley Groundwater Basin, the town’s only source of water, has been in a decades-long crisis. The water supply is threatened by ever-increasing seawater intrusion from overdraft, according to the California Coastal Commission (CCC) and the Los Osos Water Basin Management Committee. Yet, SLO CO has plans to add 30% more housing to this water-depleted community.

 

LOGG members called and wrote to the County Department of Planning and contacted District 2 Supervisor, Bruce Gibson’s office numerous times to learn about the build. They were told by staff that everything was legally permitted. The group then went to the Department of Planning in person to learn how the building was approved, what their right to appeal was and were told that because the permit was given ministerially, no public notification was required. In addition, County Staff erroneously claimed that the site lay outside the Coastal Appealable Zone and required no notice or hearing. 

 

Miggins then requested an executive-level meeting with the Department of Planning, District 2 Supervisor Gibson, and his Legislative Assistant, Blake Fixler. Again, she and her neighbors were denied due process.

 

By contrast when Miggins contacted the CCC the staff returned her call within a couple hours and provided what information it had. CCC staff later told the group that the guesthouse was “illegally permitted” without the proper requirements of the Local Coastal Plan and without the required opportunity for a public hearing. Miggins learned that the CCC staff had also informed the County Department of Planning of this fact but received no answer or action from County Planning Staff.

 

Please support us in defending our community and aquifer from reckless development and illegal permits issued by our own government. Read more about the case and it’s background in a recently published Tribune article at the bottom of this page or reach out to us at LOGG via Facebook  to learn how you too can support our aquifer.

 

We hope to recapture all donations made. We would like the court to mandate the return of all legal fees so that LOGG can return these fees/donations  back to you the community members who supported LOGG. You can donate through GOFUNDME or simply email us and we will send you our mailing address or you can swing by one of our homes and say hello.

 

For our water and natural resources,

 

Thank you,

 

Emily & Becky

 

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article258220633.html

https://www.newtimesslo.com/sanluisobispo/facing-another-drought-and-a-teetering-basin-los-osos-will-investigate-new-water-sources/Content?oid=11628460&media=AMP+HTML

https://calcoastnews.com/2022/04/special-favors-benefit-slo-county-supervisor-anger-his-neighbors/