By Neil Farrell~
The State of California has come through once again with a grant to help pay for Morro Bay’s update of its general plan, the City announced last week.
The City was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Coastal Commission to help with the first comprehensive update of the general plan and local coastal program in 28 years. Both documents have been amended here and there over the years, as projects have been processed, or to come into compliance with some new requirement from the State, such as the update of the Housing Element that was done a while back.
Money for the project so far has come from a previous $147,000 grant from the Coastal Commission, a $250,000 grant from Ocean Protection Council, and $600,000 from the City’s 2015/16 and 2016/17 general fund budgets.
Michael Baker, Inc., was hired to do the general plan/LCP update and RRM Design of SLO is helping with aspects of the work, which got underway a month or two ago with public outreach and meetings with the City’s citizen advisory board, formed specifically to work on the updates.
Community Development Director, Scot Graham, said MBI’s contract plus two amendments that have already been approved, totals just over $1 million and they are working on a third amendment, as the scope of work will increase to cover the work the Coastal Commission awarded the newest grant for.
The update includes a comprehensive rewrite of the general plan, the document that guides development in the future, the LCP, which specifically covers lands within the coastal zone (Coastal Commission jurisdiction) and a “Downtown/Waterfront Strategic Plan,” and a zoning ordinance update. All of these documents will be subject to Coastal Commission approval.
The Downtown/Waterfront Strategic Plan is being done by Baker for $100,000, Graham said. RRM Design is a sub-consultant for Baker and is doing a “comprehensive update of the zoning codes,” at a cost of $147,000. Prior to the second contract amendment, that cost was $47,700.
“We are working with MBI currently to develop a third contract amendment,” Graham said, “to cover the scope of the Round 3 August grant authorization from the Coastal Commission [$200,000].”
The City’s intent with the update is “to chart a sustainable future for today’s Morro Bay residents, businesses and visitors — and for generations to come.”
The City was awarded this latest grant at the Commission’s August meeting, after the City was urged in May by the Commission staff to apply for more funding.
It will be used to “complete additional key Local Coastal Plan update goals including development of the following: bayside lateral access plan, low cost visitor accommodations inventory and preservation strategy, and comprehensive update to the City’s Environmentally Sensitive Habitat or ESHA map,” the City said in a news release.
The goal is to complete the updates by the end of 2017, after which it will then go to Coastal Commission for review and approval.
