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Santa Margarita property owners vote down water reliability tax

May 25, 2012

By KAREN VELIE

Santa Margarita property owners voted overwhelmingly against a San Luis Obispo County drought reliability plan that would have required the creation of an assessment district, according to San Luis Obispo County Clerk Recorder Julie Rodewald.

The plan, spearheaded by SLO County Public Works Director Paavo Ogren and Supervisor Jim Patterson, would have turned  Santa Margarita into a drought reliability assessment district. If it had passed, property owners would have been required to pay a yearly assessment for the connection to state water.

Currently, the residents of Santa Margarita utilize ground water.

“Prior to importing costly state water, it would make sense to explore our local resources,” said Santa Margarita resident George Sullivan.

Ballots for the proposed drought reliability assessment district were weighted according to evaluations of each property. There were $146,947 in no votes and $49,533 in yes votes.

Proponents of the project said it would have provided residents of the area the ability to use state water in times of drought.

Opponents of the proposed assessment district questioned the reliability of state water during a drought. In addition, they said that the town is fully built out, and in more than 100 years, they have never had to ration water.

A similar measure in Nipomo, which would have required property owners to fund a $29.8 million dollar supplemental water pipeline from Santa Maria, failed earlier this month.


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But, but, Jerrymander Jim said this was reasonable and needed?! What are we going to do now? I think that the smart people need to force this on the stupid people for their own good.


BTW when I was a kid, I made deliveries to a small office complex right next to a nursery on Old Morro Road in Atascadero. I found out later that J.P. used to own the nursery. The contractor got upset at me because I had parked a dew feet into the nursery parking area and he said to move the truck right away because the owner of the nursery was a real a-hole and would call and complain about anything. Seems that JP is very concerned when it is his own property but not so concerned about others’ property rights.


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I’ve read your posts before and you seem like a fart smeller, whoops, smart feller… Please explain how District 5 got gerrymandered? By leaving part of SLO in it as has always been the case? I don’t care whether I’m in 5 or not. I have family less than a mile away that are in 3. But who do you replace the SLO numbers with? 5 will be SLO-free when Paso Bakersfield’s enough (if there’s any water left) to shift the population center north. Debbie Arnold’s a given, given time. We’ll see if it’s this time in a week. Also, which nursery did Patterson own? I’ve heard it was Bay Laurel and now the one on Morro Road (no offices on Old Morro Rd. that I know of), maybe both?


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