A Brief History of Morro Bay Citizens in Action
by Jack McCurdy
Prologue
The small beachside community of Morro Bay and its residents have faced threats to its very existence and their security long before it became a city 46 years ago, and that peril continues today--as intense as ever.
Last year, a redevelopment plan that could have exposed many homeowners to seizure of their properties through acts of eminent domain was defeated by residents' protests. The city's illegal use of a major part of the Morro Bay Library for meetings by outside groups was stopped recently by residents demanding the entire library be made available for books and reading materials. And now, a plan has been proposed to redevelop the Morro Bay Power Plant property into a renewable energy university research center with housing for an estimated 30,000 faculty and students and possibly additional service employees--a potential 30% increase in Morro Bay's population.
In addition, after many years of mounting requests for action that was not taken, the community is faced with an uncertain supply of drinking water, leaking sewers that may be polluting the Morro Bay National Estuary--the sine qua non of Morro Bay's very existence--and questions over the planning for an estimated $27 million conversion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant into a facility that will comply with state and federal requirements and no longer contaminate coastal waters, as it has far beyond reason for many years. Property values are directly at stake if either--or both--the city's water supply and sewer system falter or fail, or the face of Morro Bay undergoes a makeover from a 30% increase in population.
The past--and now the present--contain many reminders that residents acting on their own behalf are the only certain savior of their unique town and their own fate, as has been the case for at least the last 60 years.
A Brief History of Morro Bay Citizens in Action
The Community's Proud Heritage of Activism Dates Back 60 Years
Imagine:
-- A deep-water seaport for oil super-tankers in Estero Bay north of Morro Rock.
-- Morro Rock decimated from uncontrolled rock mining on its eastern face.
--A power plant sitting flush on the estuary's north shore, and in addition to indelibly marring the beauty of the waterfront, it would have left no way to get around the plant using the Embarcadero to walk, bicycle or drive to the Rock.
--Uncontrolled growth within its boundaries that could have destroyed the small-town character of Morro Bay.
--Annexation to the city of vast acreage in hilly unincorporated area east of Highway 1 to allow the spread of development that would have vastly increased Morro Bay's size.
--High-rise condos, apartments and office buildings along the north Embarcadero that would have opened the way for Morro Bay to become another Monterey or Santa Barbara.
--A large shopping center across Highway 1 within the city's existing boundary that could have destroyed downtown businesses and also surreptitiously opened the way for condos and residences in that pristine area.
All these dire things could have happened, almost happened but didn't happen over the past nearly 60 years because courageous individuals and groups of Morro Bay's citizens organized and took action. They stopped them from happening time and again--and preserved the Morro Bay as we know and cherish it today.
Not elected officials, state agencies, business groups or outside organizations but average people like you and me who stood up and fought for their town's survival.
Significantly, the courts did, in at least three major decisions, uphold the group's actions as being not only within the law but within their rights as citizens.
Morro Bay has been extremely fortunate to be able to retain the small-town qualities that make it such a treasure, thanks to the determined efforts of residents who have banded together in a series of activist groups over the years. They established a rich tradition of citizen activism that succeeded in protecting Morro Bay from numerous serious attempts to destroy its small fishing-village character.
Those citizen groups, which often have had common ties dating back to the 1960s, have succeeded in avoiding the fate of many other small California beach towns that were swallowed by uncontrolled growth, which overwhelmed those communities.
Today it is the Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion (CAPE). A few years ago, it was the Voters Initiative Committee (VIC). Before that it was the Civic Action League (CAL) and subsequently the Advocates for A Better Community (ABC). And before that it was the Legal Action Watch (LAW), Don't Ruin Our Coast (DROC), Morro Bay Tomorrow and the Morro Bay Environmental Association. going back to the early 1970s.
Joe Giannini
The father of Morro Bay's tradition of activism seems to be Joe Giannini, who recently died at age 94, a long-time fisherman from Oregon who happened on Morro Bay harbor when he helped another fishing boat in trouble find refuge. That was 1946, and he had lived here ever since--to the benefit of all of us.
PG&E Power Plant
After returning from a fishing trip in about 1951, Giannini discovered that while he was gone, the county had sold many acres on the scenic north shore of the estuary to PG&E for construction of a power plant. It was too late to stop building the plant, he found out. But he did succeed almost singlehandedly in getting the county to require PG&E to set the plant back several hundred feet from the estuary's shore so that access to the Rock via the Embarcadero--and the shore itself--could be preserved.
Morro Rock Blasting
In the early 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers began removing rock from the eastern base of Morro Rock to build a breakwater outside the harbor. "The mining was marked by blasts that rocked the town," Giannini remembers.
But no one seemed to object--except Giannini. He appealed to state and national elected representatives to help stop the mining, begging that "Morro Rock is being so defaced that it is not going to be Morro Rock any more," he recalled. But to no avail.
Then he and two local friends went to Corps headquarters in Los Angeles to plead for an end to the destruction of Morro Rock, which at that time was a scenic phenomenon, a soon-to-be historical landmark (the first land in California sighted by Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo as he sailed up the coast) and a growing tourist attraction--but with no official protections.
"But don't you need a breakwater?" the Corps commander asked Giannini. "Yes," Giannini said he replied, "But there is only one Morro Rock."
The official was amenable to Giannini's appeals and agreed to stop, and the work ended for good. In 1968, Morro Rock was officially designated a registered historical landmark--scars and all.
Morro Bay Incorporated
In the early 1960s, it was Giannini who organized the move to incorporate Morro Bay as a city, which officially took place in 1964. On the third attempt, Giannini's group succeeded in winning approval of an incorporation initiative from Morro Bay voters.
The rationale behind the move was "home rule," Giannini said, revolving mainly around tax revenues being collected in Morro Bay but not being returned sufficiently by the county in public services. And there was concern about county decisions affecting the community that were being made by people who did not live or work in Morro Bay.
Giannini gained residents' support for incorporation by going door to door, which probably also makes him the father of precinct-walking in Morro Bay, a strategy popularized in the 1980s by Bruce Risley, an otherwise unknown who came out of nowhere to win election to the City Council, which elected him mayor.
Morro Bay Environmental Association
Organized activism apparently began in the early 1970s when a group of citizens started the Morro Bay Environmental Association to encourage protection of the beaches, estuary, bay, and environs. Little is known about the group.
Then, still in the 1970s, Chevron of California launched a move to gain community support for an oil super-tanker port just offshore from the wharf (now gone) extending into Estero Bay west off Toro Creek. Some oil was already being on-loaded from central San Joaquin Valley into tankers through lines running from the Chevron storage yard on Toro Creek Road a few feet east of Highway One.
What Chevron sought was a major expansion into a port that could serve numerous tankers through the use of multiple mono-buoy lines and as a result, significantly expand the presence of the big ships in Estero Bay--within easy eyesight of Morro Rock and residences and businesses in between.
A group of residents became alarmed mainly because of the damage they were certain it would do to tourism as well as its impact on commercial and recreational fishing. Fishing boats would have had to--or want to--stay clear of the tankers and their lines, denying them access to fertile fishing grounds in those days. Chances of a spill or spills that would kill fish in the bay also were considered a high risk. There was no California Coastal Commission at that time to protect the coast and review such projects.
Don't Ruin Our Coast (DROC)
A group of citizens calling themselves Don't Ruin Our Coast (DROC) was formed and began debating Chevron representatives in forums around the city. It was chaired by Gene Shelton, a Cuesta College professor and subsequent city Council member and mayor.
DROC was successful in informing residents about what was at stake in the proposed super-tanker port, in part because they were able through being well organized and assertive to obtain something resembling balanced coverage of the issue in the local media, Shelton said.
With many residents watching intensely, the project went before the city Planning Commission, which voted 3 - 2 against it. The City Council decided to await an Environmental Impact Report before considering an appeal. Subsequently, Shelton recalls, the Council agendized the project at a meeting in the Vets Hall, which was overflowing. The crowd was stunned when the city administrator reported that Chevron had cancelled the agenda item. Chevron said the project would be reviewed, but a short time later, the corporation abandoned it and left town.
Morro Bay Tomorrow
Morro Bay Tomorrow was formed primarily to fight the City Council's approval of a 375-space recreational vehicle park on 25 acres between Morro Bay High School and the ocean. The plan also called for a beachfront road from Highway 41 north to the Beach Tract. The group was led by Willard McGonagill, an architect and former member of the city Planning Commission; Jane Bailey, who later spearheaded establishment of the Morro Bay Library, and her husband, Don, a retired university dean, as well as Giannini and Shelton, among others.
The group sued the city, arguing the project was in conflict with the city's General Plan. And they won.
Legal Action Watch (LAW) and Civic Action League (CAL)
Later in the 1970s, Bob Lane and Howard Gaines, who both had legal backgrounds, formed the Legal Action Watch (LAW) to review the city's financial decisions and in general to monitor the Council, which the local media were not doing and never have. They published and distributed a LAW newsletter, which may have been the model for the regularly-produced and widely-distributed CAL (Civic Action League) News starting around 1980 and hand-delivered by members to every residence in town.
LAW folded into CAL, which became the most active and effective citizens group in the city's history, led by M'May and Peter Diffley and Bruce Risley, with Lane as a key member, among others. Diffley, a former state department official who was extremely knowledgeable about government; M'May, a former teacher who was brilliant at strategizing and interacting with residents, and Risley, a former union organizer, were invaluable. But it also had many other dedicated members.
Candidate Support & Initiatives
CAL became active in supporting City Council candidates who were dedicated to serving the best interests of everyone who resides or earns a living in Morro Bay--as opposed to those with allegiances to special segments of the community.
CAL went to the ballot often to protect the unique qualities of life in Morro Bay, winning voter support for seven citizen initiatives.
One initiative limited Morro Bay's population based on growth management procedures tied to available resources. Another blocked a move by the Council to annex territory east of the city's boundary across Highway One. A third conceived by Giannini, restricted development along the north Embarcadero to recreational and fishing-related activities in 1981, thereby preventing high-rise business and residential uses that would have replaced the bedrock of Morro Bay's fishing village character. And another initiative prevented construction of any onshore facilities to support offshore oil drilling, which was beginning to spread along the California coast.
CAL perfected the initiative as a political art to give a direct voice to citizens seeking to preserve their community.
Remember: it was voters who were signing petitions to place the initiatives on the ballot and who approved them decisively. The initiatives empowered residents as nothing else could.
CAL published the CAL News regularly and distributed it door-to-door to inform residents about things going on in their city government that they would otherwise never know about.
At one point, CAL was sued for $1 million by former mayor Warren Dorn over a single word in a CAL News article. After a short hearing, the allegations of libel were thrown out by a local judge on grounds the word was simply opinion protected by the First Amendment.
With many of CAL's members aging and M'May's death, a new group came together after Williams Brothers markets in 1984 got about 30 acres rezoned from agriculture to commercial on the hillside across Highway One for a shopping center the size of Madonna Plaza. The idea was to provide residents with a modern, upscale center, an obvious improvement over the smaller, mostly-decrepit stores then bordering Quintana Road on both sides of Kennedy Way.
The rezoning was approved as a ballot measure in 1984.
But in 1988, remaining CAL members, led by Nancy Bast, won approval of another initiative to provide an alternative site for a new shopping center. It rezoned to commercial a large parcel where the Cypress Plaza was later built and is now anchored by Albertson's market.
Voters Initiative Committee (VIC)
The new group of residents--VIC--emerged to make sure that the size and scale of the Williams Brothers center east of Highway 1, if built, would be appropriate for Morro Bay, and out of concern that such a new shopping center would draw shoppers away from and damage downtown businesses. Plus hidden in the Williams Brothers plan was authorization for a few condos, which, it was feared, would open the whole hillside to unchecked residential development.
VIC's members included future Council members Ben Luna, the VIC chair, and Susan Mullen. VIC decided to better inform residents about the development and then give them a chance to vote again. VIC published a newspaper providing a full discussion of the issue that was distributed door to door by members.
VIC in 1990 then placed another initiative (Measure H) on the ballot to reduce the size of the proposed shopping center to about 13 acres with commercial zoning and eliminate the condos.
Voters responded by approving it, reversing their approval of the 30-acre plan. But to get Measure H enforced by the Council, VIC had to go to court and obtain a judge's order to do so, which it did.
Williams Brothers responded by dropping any plans to build across Highway One. But during the city's review of the Williams Brothers project, an Environmental Impact Report concluded that the best site for a new shopping center would be where Albertson's and Rite-Aid are now, not across Highway 1. That is where it wound up as Cypress Plaza.
Advocates for A Better Community (ABC)
In 1992, ABC was formed among members of CAL and VIC as CAL disbanded and VIC evolved into a political action group. ABC emerged as the focal point of efforts to promote participation in government, encourage responsive government, support environmental awareness and sustainable resource-based growth policies, inform the public on important issues, support local candidates who reflect the principles we believe in and work to maintain the uniqueness of Morro Bay.
Later in the 1990s, Tri-W, the corporation that Williams Brothers became, sought to make permanent the vesting tract map containing the 13 commercially-zoned acres it still owned on the hillside. The corporation would not divulge what its future plans for the property might be, but the city Planning Commission approved it anyway.
So several former VIC members appealed the decision to the Council, which rubberstamped it, and then to the Coastal Commission, which rejected the permanent zoning because there was no longer any project to go with tract map. And afterward, the Commission staff indicated that should any future development be proposed there, the hillside would likely be deemed "viewshed," which means those panoramic slopes will probably never be built on.
Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion (CAPE)
In 1999 four citizens founded the Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion (CAPE) after Duke Energy announced plans to build a new, larger and more environmentally-devastating power plant. CAPE, a nonprofit, is focused on a single issue: informing residents about the effects of the proposed new plant on citizens and the Morro Bay National estuary. CAPE discovered that a new power plant would put public health at serious risk not only in Morro Bay but also farther downwind from smokestack emissions. And it also would destroy up to 33% of the aquatic life in the estuary, putting property values and businesses in jeopardy throughout the community because of the danger to the estuary's life.
The plant owner has indicated it now has no plans to build a new plant, and state regulations are being drafted that would prevent further withdrawal of water from the estuary and possibly other water bodies for power plant cooling involving 18 other plants along the coast, which take a devastating toll on sea life.
The different names of Morro Bay's activist groups reflect a change or consolidation in organizations as well as an evolution of membership. But the philosophy that has bound them like a family never changed. The mission of all seven was, and is still, to try to retain the character and charm of Morro Bay as a small-town fishing village for the benefit of its residents and also to protect their well-being.
What does that mean in terms of growth? It means supporting the kind of growth that will harmonize with, not destroy, the surroundings that make Morro Bay so special. And it means being compatible with our limited water, sewer, police and fire resources. Rapid or large-scale growth is very costly to taxpayers, research shows, and we want to see city funds spent on what the community really needs--good roads, safe streets, adequate services, reasonably-priced water and sewer rates and so forth.
Morro Bay would look a lot different today without the contributions of the members and supporters of Morro Bay Tomorrow, DROC, LAW, CAL, ABC, VIC and CAPE and the rich heritage of activism we have in Morro Bay. It badly needs to be carried on today and in the future by the same kind of people who deeply care about their community.
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