With an apparent positive election result in, the folks in Los Osos will now turn to the work at hand — finalizing the purchase of Sunnyside School.
Los Osos voters appear headed to approving the Measure B-26 tax increase at the June Primary Election.
The property tax increase will fund the purchase of the Sunnyside School site for future use for the town.
As of the June 11 accounting, “Yes” votes totaled 3,258 (53.90%) to 2,787 “No” votes (46.10%).
As a citizen’s initiative, the measure only needed a simple majority to pass. Had a government agency, like the Community Services District proposed it, the threshold would have been two-thirds and wouldn’t have even come close to passing, assuming the same vote ratio.
The measure increases property taxes $185 a year for private property parcels. That rate continues for 15 years to cover the expected purchase price and then drops to $100 a year in perpetuity until the law is changed by another vote of the people.
B-26 will raise over $1.1 million a year for that initial period and then about $602,000 a year after that. The continuing charges are meant to cover operations and maintenance for the property. The CSD will own and be responsible for the future uses, which is one of several questions that will be addressed as the purchase moves forward. Community sentiment leans towards parklands and office space.
Estero Bay News asked new CSD General Manager, Greg Kwolek, what the next steps are now that the money has seemingly been approved?
It should be noted that at this point the election results have not been finalized, as the County Elections Office is still counting late arriving ballots. The results won’t be official until the Board of Supervisors certifies the results, probably by the end of June.
“If B-26 passes,” Kwolek said, “our first job is to finalize a deal with the school district and bring it to the CSD Board of Directors for their consideration.”
The San Luis Coastal Unified School District put the old school site, which has been closed for about 25 years, up for sale last year after declaring it, and Morro Elementary in Morro Bay, surplus property.
The City of Morro Bay has agreed to purchase Morro Elementary and negotiated a purchase price of $5.3 million, far below the $10 million it was appraised for. That deal is scheduled to close escrow at the end of October.
The CSD will do the same as Morro Bay did — negotiate.
Kwolek said they would be entering into negotiations on “Price and structure of the deal. Very likely we will enter into a lease-to-own agreement. Stay tuned!”
As for Morro Bay’s successful negotiation, Kwolek said, “We would work to get the best possible deal for the taxpayer. It’s important to note that the Sunnyside and El Morro are very different sites, with different potential uses and different constraints.”
Like Morro Bay, once a purchase agreement is reached, they will conduct a “due diligence” study, looking at everything from the school’s title to environmental conditions, potential hazardous materials and site plans.
But all this is hypothetical at this point. “We’re still waiting for final word from the County to work out specific timelines,” Kwolek said. “There are still a lot of ballots not counted.”
That may be true, but if history is any indication, at this point in the ballot counting, whoever or whatever measure is ahead is more than likely to remain there, though the percentages may change a little up or down.
At the latest count on June 11 before EBN’s deadline, the lead for the Yes vote was 471, with about 300 votes remaining to be counted out of Los Osos.
Overall voter turnout at this point is 61.77%, according to the Elections Office.
