Candidates vying for Pismo Beach City Council seats recently squared off during a public forum held at the council chambers.
Running for the office of mayor are current councilman Ed Waage and Sandra Nielsen.
Incumbent Erik Howell, Tom Brooks Burgher II, Marcia Guthrie, and Brian Craig Kreowski are up for two available seats on the council.
The six-year drought and water supplies were on the list of issues discussed. Candidates Waage and Howell are on the record in support of a regional recycled wastewater project.
“We are leading the South County really in trying to protect our groundwater by having our water recycling program. Pismo Beach has taken the lead,” Waage said. “We’ve been working with Oceano, Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach as partners to help to recycle our wastewater so we can re-inject it into the ground and protect our water supply.”
Howell also favors utilizing a variety of water saving programs including recapturing, better conservation practices and mapping the Santa Maria Water Basin to see what the numbers point to.
Nielsen said she believed that the city was building beyond its water supply.
“We can’t pray for rain,” Nielsen said. “El Niño is not going to come save us. We really have to look at this as a permanent situation. And if one day it rains, well then praise the Lord. Basically, we have to change the way that we live, and we have to understand the limitation of our water.”
She supports the wastewater project, but said it needs to be looked at more deeply to remove the “pharmaceuticals and hormones” that could wind up in the water supply.
Guthrie called predictions for this year’s water dire and supports the city moving away from rain-dependent solutions and looking at alternatives.
Kreowski said the city is wasting water and should look intently at a recapture program that can take runoff and store it in cisterns for later use.
Burgher said the situation was not dire, but was more a money issue.
“The technology is here to deliver the water we need,” he said. “The question is do we want to spend the money for it, and when do we want to spend it.”
Candidates also weighed in on the limited number of parking spaces in the downtown core as well possible solutions for traffic congestion.
During the evening commute Highway 101 is often at a standstill. The current council backed Measure J, the so-called self-help initiative on the ballot that would see a half-cent sales tax throughout the county. Funds would help support local transportation projects.
Although all candidates agreed that a new tax was not the desired solution, Measure J could be a viable way to get the job done.
Guthrie was the lone candidate that did not fully support the measure saying she was conflicted. “I wish the cities had been more proactive in creating some kind of assessment–maybe per square-foot, maybe per car on the road–to meet Cal Trans halfway.”
If congestion is a problem, parking isn’t very far behind in the tourist driven downtown core.
Waage said a recent study revealed that a parking structure would not be practical because the problem only occurs about four months out of the year, but that the option should not be taken off the table for future consideration.
Nielsen said she thought the parking study was “flawed. She supports a parking garage and perimeter parking with a shuttle service in some cases.
Guthrie agreed. “I am a huge perimeter parking fan,” she said. “I think if you get people out of their cars in any way possible, it is going to help with traffic congestion, air quality, and businesses. They [people] won’t be driving by businesses, they will be walking and go into businesses.”
Kreowski supported both structure and perimeter options while Howell and Burgher favored a structure.
“Parking structures are going to be empty a lot of the time, but they have got to be there when you need them,” said Burgher. “If you want to keep the tourist trade coming here and not going other places, you’ve got to have easy parking when they get here.”
The fate of the Chapman House was also discussed. There is contention over the number of events held at the estate. People in the neighborhood have expressed noise, traffic and parking concerns. The City views the property as a potential money generator that would cover upkeep and operation costs.
Howell said the issue has been a “rocky” one, but a balanced agreement could be worked out.
“We seem to be getting posed these false choices: that we either have to sell the Chapman House or we either have to open it up to raves that will go on till 2 a.m. every night, or we just need to open up our coffers and then just throw an outrageous amount of money at it, and I just don’t think that’s true,” Howell said. “I think working on this together, we are going to resolve our differences, and we are going to make this the gem and the gift that it was intended to be.”
Nielsen said she supported opening it up for public access.
“It should never ever be an event center,” said Nielsen. “This is completely wrong. It is in a residential neighborhood; it’s in appropriate.”
Kreowski said that the city’s plan to support maintenance and other financial needs through events was not enough.
“I don’t think events are going to pay for it,” said Kreowski. “There needs to be this cooperative relationship between the public and the city to achieve the goals that many want. I am in favor of examining this further, bringing it back potentially, having some more discussion and coming up with some more creative ideas.”
Other candidates supported broadening the input from the neighbors as well as the public at large and creating an organization or non-profit to work toward a solution.
The forum was sponsored by the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County.
