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Morro Bay City Council votes to purchase school site

August 29, 2026

Morro Bay City Council

By KAREN VELIE

The Morro Bay City Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday to purchase the Morro Elementary School property from San Luis Coastal Unified School District for $5.3 million, with Councilwoman  Cyndee Edwards dissenting. The property was appraised at $10.2 million.

Built in the 1930s, the school was closed in 2001.

Escrow is slated to close on Oct. 31. The city will then have three years to pay for the property.

Casting the lone vote against the purchase, Edwards voiced concerns over funding the purchase.

Moving forward, city officials need to look at a funding plan and formalize plans for the 9.7-acre site. The City Council has considered relocating city hall into a portion of the school and selling some of the property to developers for housing.

 


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5 Comments

The worst part of this is how people are trying to rationalize this. There is no rationality involved. This looks like a big emotional HUG for those people who have fond memories of the school. Meanwhile there is no plan on how to pay for it. Instead of developing the property people want to keep the soccer field intact. That will be where the soon to be 80+ year old demographic can hold their weekly soccer games.


The property can have value, but only if people do something with it other than creating a MUSEUM/MAUSOLEUM in the middle of town.


1

This is the second incident of the government scamming taxpayers by purchasing property using money belonging to those who already own the property. At least this time there does not yet appear to be any new tax associated with the purchase, but don’t count on this being over.

I have heard a couple of obscure, but plausible reasons why the government might want to do this.

First possibility: Suppose the city wanted the school district to spend more on a different school. They could make a deal with the school district to give them money to do so, an act that would not normally be permitted. In exchange, the city holds the closed school for the district until it wants it back.

Second possibility: The school district and the city agree that they do not want any more work to do, even if paid handsomely for it. So, they pass this property back and forth between them to avoid selling it to a developer for twice as much money. Such a sale would ultimately result in additional obligations and work for both entities, plus a possible windfall they might end up having to return to taxpayers through reduced future taxes.


0

So the school district originally used taxpayer money to purchase the property for the school, now more taxpayer money is going to be used to purchase it from the school district???? Make it make sense? Didn’t the taxpayers already own the property?, shouldn’t it just be a a asset transfer?


10

Dig a little deeper, I believe the Quantana family donated that property to the district for the school.


7

Smart move….


0