A-24 Ensures Local Control 

Morro Bay residents are currently being inundated with mailers “paid for” by Morro Bay Citizens Opposed to Measure A-24. The mailers contain several misstatements such as: the measure would “Undermine City Council’s control and give it to Sacramento;” and “… would strip local decision-making, wreck zoning laws, and do nothing to stop the battery plant.”  First of all, under the Morro Bay general plan adopted in 2021 by the City Council and approved by the California Coastal Commission, the current land designation for the former power plant property area at issue is visitor-serving commercial. This comprehensive plan took several years to develop with input through workshops attended by local citizens. The current power plant property owner is in the process of seeking a land use change to industrial in order for its proposed battery energy storage system {BESS} project, the world’s largest, to move forward.

Measure A-24 simply states that any such change in land use approved by the City Council for this particular project land area would require a subsequent vote and approval by a majority of Morro Bay voters. If the City Council rejects the BESS project, then the current land use remains visitor-serving commercial; no further action by the City voters would be required. This provides an extra layer of local control for the citizens of Morro Bay on such a major change to its general plan. How does this “wreck zoning laws”?

As far as undermining the “City Council’s control and give it to Sacramento “, the current power plant property owner can go directly to the State to try to get approval of the project. Under newly enacted AB 205, power companies at any time can circumvent the local political process and go directly to the newly formed California Energy Commission [CEC} to get approval. However, under this legislation, any approval by the {CEC} would have to get final approval by the California Coastal Commission for any proposed energy projects located within areas protected under the Coastal Act. The Coastal Commission’s staff letter dated August 2, 2024 in response to the BESS project draft environmental report has already outlined serious issues about the location of the project. In summary, they stated that the future hazards of flooding and sea level rise and the impact on the environmentally sensitive habitat area are acute. 

In conclusion the staff stated “… that such a project doesn’t require such a sensitive shoreline siting and can readily be sited at inland locations not near the coast.” If either the Morro Bay City Council or the citizens of Morro Bay pursuant to Measure A-24 reject the land use designation change to industrial, the BESS project will be stopped at the local level. If this ultimately ends up before the California Coastal Commission, this body will have heard the overwhelming voice of the people of Morro Bay. They will have a strong local political mandate to uphold their staff’s report and maintain their support of the current land use designation of visitor-serving commercial as stated in the Morro Bay General Plan. Measure A-24 ensures local control, it does not in any way undermine it.

Norm Williams

Morro Bay

You May Also Like…

Police Blotter is a Hit

Thank you so much for your wonderfully hysterical Police Blotter. Friends of ours who are regular visitors to Cambria...

Beware of Measure A-24

I am writing to warn Morro Bay voters of the dangers hidden in the misleading language of Measure A-24.  My authority...