A View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham
What a great Fourth of July in Morro Bay! It was wonderful to see more than 750 residents, guests and visitors at the ribbon cutting for our new bridge and start of the bike parade.
The new Morro Creek Bridge represents a bridge to our future in some ways, so I thought I’d use this column to provide the community a quick update on a bunch of the objectives our City Council has set for this year.
Public Works: We will award the facilities master plan contract for our new Water Reclamation Facility next week. We are now moving decisively forward toward construction of a regional facility operated by the City of Morro Bay that will clean our wastewater and recover the 1 million gallons of treated water we dump into the ocean.
Speaking of water, this winter we will begin a conversation about improving the City’s water supply diversity. We have seven years left on our State Water Project contract, and it is time to begin talking about what happens when that contract expires.
The Council will consider in October financing options to improve our streets more quickly. This could include using our current Measure Q sales tax revenue to fund a loan that would allow us to complete a significant amount of work in the next few years.
That concept will be presented at the Public Works Advisory board in August. Also in August, as part of our water conservation program, the City Council will consider a contract to install automated (wireless) water meters — a program that would provide consumers with far better visibility on how much water they use and when, immediate notification of undetected leaks and likely save the City money, perhaps even slightly reducing our planned water rate increases.
Community Development: The Council appointed nine citizens to a General Plan Advisory Committee to provide some of the critical public input to our 3-year General plan rewrite.
The General Plan and Local Coastal Program are more than 20 years out of date and there will be tremendous opportunities for public input into this critical process, beginning soon as we work to develop our community “Vision and Values Statements.”
In early fall, the public — and especially our downtown and waterfront businesses — will be critical, as we work on conceptual designs for two possible projects.
One, the “Downtown/Embarcadero Link,” envisions major work to better connect the Embarcadero with the Downtown at Centennial Parkway.
Another, the “Embarcadero Promenade,” will vision widening the sidewalk on the bay side of the Embarcadero to about 14 feet, providing a lovely wide promenade instead of the current rather narrow sidewalk.
Community Enhancement: In early fall, we will begin to better implement our community enhancement/code enforcement program. Staff is working now on our processes, technology and hiring.
Once our systems are in place, we intend to begin an in-depth community awareness campaign, using public information, and warnings, to better educate our residents on some of the key areas of our municipal code that are not being enforced as proactively as they should be.
After several months of education, and with opportunity for the Council to consider changing parts of the code that we may not like, the City will begin to more proactively enforce our codes, with warnings and, when appropriate, citations.
With our “Interim Residential Design Guidelines” nearly completed, the City will focus on updating the Sign Ordinance, beginning in August and concluding near the end of the year.
Also this fall, we will begin a conversation on parking, including implementation of some of the recommendations from our Parking Management Plan. From changing parallel on-street parking to angle-in, or street-center parking, to enforcement of timed parking using either attendants or parking meters, to acquisition of one or more Downtown parking lots, the City — with substantial community input — will consider all methods to further improve our already adequate downtown parking.
We know how crucial well-managed parking infrastructure is to increased economic development, and bringing more shoppers to our local businesses.
There is a lot happening in Morro Bay. And, as with everything, keeping you informed is important but getting your input is critical!
We look forward to our residents’ active engagement on these topics, and the 50-plus other goals the City Council has established for this year. Be sure to check our website calendar for the dates of community meetings, board and commission meetings, and Council meetings.
In meantime, contact staff directly if you have particular questions – or send me an email at: .
David Buckingham is Morro Bay city manager. His “A View From Harbor Street” column is a regular feature of The Bay News.
