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San Luis Obispo County needs a building moratorium

December 10, 2018

OPINION by JEFF HORTON

Is it just me, or are things starting to look too “city” around here? At this time, I am beginning to lose the idea that it is just me because I hear the same complaints everywhere I go. These factors that have lowered our quality of life can be reduced or even removed. It’s just now time to figure out if that’s what ‘we’ want to do.

It is not too late to close the door on all the development that is causing the traffic and crowding. All this time that San Luis Obispo County residents have spent bragging up our natural beauty, that’s been kind of off the mark in my opinion. Not that we don’t have it, but so does everywhere else in coastal California. It’s just harder to see in the built out spots like Long Beach or Huntington Beach.

Not long ago, (in this lifetime) those places looked like Pismo Beach. As children in Southern California, we all had lemon, orange and avocado fights on the way to school through the ubiquitous orchards. In the span of a generation, that was gone. Most of us wouldn’t give you a vacant lot in Oceano for all of San Gabriel Valley now. We currently have people here who are marketing the area heavily; houses have become the products for sale on most billboards.

Those houses are not filled by the county’s homeless. Ever. Instead, they are sold to people who live in formerly-awesome-but-now-blighted-by-crowding dumps like the Bay Area.

I saw a solid line of headlights last night that stretched all the way from Arroyo Grande to Orcutt. I was coming home from LA (the city) but I had gotten home to LA traffic and not a small number of that city’s former inhabitants.

The perfect Petri dish for this experiment has been Nipomo. There are literally thousands of houses there that were not there fairly recently and seemingly no end to the building in sight. Nipomo isn’t a city, has still nowhere near the resource or infrastructure for this influx of new residents. What the hay, let ‘em shop and buy gas in Arroyo Grande, right?

Wrong! Everybody here has stuff to do and it doesn’t include waiting in line for a pump or a cashier or anything else. We had the last greatest place because it was beautiful and un-crowded.

This is a massive elephant-in-the-room type issue. I am leaving out the obvious-you all know we either don’t have the water or will be asked to live with less of it.

Personally, I’d like a building moratorium. I already have enough money and business; I won’t be able to create more time to do more work. It seems ultra stupid to introduce tens of thousands of more job seekers, students, health care consumers and terrible drivers.

Let’s discuss and consider a ban on building so we can at least have this one spot that doesn’t suck.


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Drive around Orange County….see if you can find an orange tree.


1

Life time resident of SLO county, I have always loved our county’s SLOw growth. We get some development, and new things but not too much to handle. The past decade has seen too much, too fast. Our county Board of Supervisors has failed to require the requisite infrastructure upgrades that the developers should be required to pay for. In an attempt to squeeze more tax revenue out of our region we have lost some of our best, most productive farm land to big box stores and “work force” housing which no one who works here can afford. The same fiscal planning our boomer supervisors used for their retirement is now being forced on our community.

We are spending all the equity of our fine county and not paying off the principle. We think that because its worth more now as houses, we can extract that liquidity and make water out of low interest rates. But once we have ruined the things that make our county desirable and we get rid of our farming, ranching and industry to plant more villas and vineyards there will be no more quaintness to sell to the OC and Silicone Valley.


7

I agree that this area doesn’t need more housing or businesses. When is enough an enough? Our roads and water sources cannot support what we have now. I personally live in this area for the small town experience and nature. If I wanted to live with traffic and high cost/limited water I would move to a bigger city environment. This area provides a lot of tourist places to visit. Maybe we should just be happy with revenue from tourists. Just saying. You know everyone has an opinion. This is just mine. Sorry if you don’t agree.


17

It’s too late. We have already grown to the point in SLO county where there will never be enough water for everyone to use…except the vineyards of course.


19

SLO and the surrounding area is DONE. In big part because it’s in the State of California and leaning heavily in the direction of this pitiful state’s disgusting politics and practices. People keep telling themselves “there’s so much here”. None of it is worth the price of admission unless you’re part of the Sheople class and have a ton of money. Aside from a very few cool aspects, the cost of living here is nowhere close to the return. After 40 years, I cannot wait to get the hell out of here and across state lines.


19

I’m always available to help you pack. Think I’ve read this from you about 10 times on this site. What’s the hold-up? Plenty of good places to live in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, etc, and cheap, too. One less malcontent in my area.


-14

Mercut. You are obviously a transplant. Go back to LA!


1

The guy that moved here from somewhere else complains that there are now too many people. Go figure.


But, he’s not wrong, it was better before he moved here. So here are a couple modest proposals to fix it.


I propose that we institute the one child policy, like China, and also thin the herd of retirees by de-funding medicare, that would open up a lot of housing.


Another way to get SLO county back to the good old days would be some forced migration. There are some examples of how to do it in our own history books, or just google “trail of tears”.


-5

heartless creep.


-2

One of the best posts I’ve ever read on this site.


0

Too much conservative crying. Jeff, you should consider moving back to southern California with a few other nimby whiners. That’ll free up some space around here.


-17

It’s ok if I move here but it’s the developers and county fault for letting someone else?


6

Local govt is always looking to “improve” things, which many folks think means bring more stuff here, which means developers which means goodbye to whatever you had before.


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