Photo from February 2023, shows a tree crew taking down the last of a row of towering eucalyptus trees from the property at Coral and San Jacinto. The tree removals opened up a view of Morro Rock from Hwy 1 that hadn’t been seen in many decades. Photo by Neil Farrell
The Morro Bay City Council has approved a final vesting tract map for a small subdivision taking one more step in a long, long process to complete the build out of the Cloisters.
Located at 2783 Coral Ave., the 0.99-acre vacant lot (Tract 2859) sits at the corner of Coral and San Jacinto Avenues and backs up to Hwy 1.
It has a long history that started when it was originally being donated to the City by the original Cloisters developers, intended to be the future site of a new fire station. It was known as Cloisters Lot 124.
The Cloisters, which itself had a hard time being approved, included some 120 building sites and several parcels donated to the City for a park with extensive sand dunes given over to State Parks.
At the time, the project won a nationwide design contest and was hailed as forward looking in its preservation of open space and for providing parklands. To this day the park and bicycle path are used by local residents on a daily basis with the sand dunes off limits to people.
But the fire station use was put in doubt after the main fire station on Harbor Street was damaged in the 2003 San Simeon Earthquake, and subsequently condemned.
About a decade later, the City finished the current Harbor Street Fire Station, after building a temporary station house across the street. The temporary station was given over to new uses when they moved into their new digs.
That in turn led to the Coral Avenue property being declared surplus property and the City embarked on a journey to sell it, and use the money to help pay off a loan on the new Harbor Street Fire Station.
After languishing on the market for years, the City decided to subdivide it and went through the process to establish six lots with an interior cul-de-sac road.
The Planning Commission in August 2018 finalized a tentative subdivision tract map, issuing a Conditional Use Permit, Coastal Development Permit and Mitigated Negative Declaration environmental document.
Those actions were appealed to the City Council and the appeal was denied in November 2018. But the story didn’t end there. The Council’s decision was appealed to the Coastal Commission.
The Commission initially denied the subdivision claiming that the original Cloisters CDP didn’t allow for it.
The original 1992 Cloisters CDP permit, at the request of the Commission, was amended in March 2020, forcing the new owner to apply for his own amendment to change the map to just five lots instead of six and match what the Coastal Commission wanted done.
The City Council approved this change in October 2021, which was of course appealed to the Coastal Commission again.
The Commission denied the appeal in February 2022, a decision that reaffirmed the City Council’s work and started a 2-year clock ticking before the tentative map would expire in February 2024.
In August 2023, the applicant filed for a 1-year extension that pushed the clock back to February 2025, which was going to expire until the State stepped in.
A new State Law, AB 2729, further extended the deadline another 18 months to August 2026.
The project was required to provide parkland under the State’s Quimby Act or pay a park in-lieu fee, which the owner has already done based on a 5-lot subdivision.
The eventual project will include public improvements to include a street and utilities, sidewalks with a curb ramp along Coral. The new cul-de-sac will be called Verdin Court.
The new neighborhood will come under the Cloisters Home Owners Association, and will include landscaping, irrigation and private water and sewer lines that will be signed over to the City systems once completed.
Since the original purpose of the lot was for a fire station, it was not included in the HOA’s CC&Rs, under the Cloisters Landscape and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District that covers assessments paid by all the other Cloisters property owners and which the City uses to maintain the streets, sidewalks, street lights and Cloisters Park.
So after all that, the city will eventually get five new single family homes and bringing a close to what has to be one of the longest, most convoluted approval processes in town history.
However, now the owners will still have to go through the normal City approval process for constructing the new homes.
But because they are now under the Cloisters’ CC&Rs, that should not be too much of an issue, so long as they follow the established rules.
