Destiny for Power Plant Site Now Seems Clear

by Jack McCurdy

The Morro Bay City Council has taken the first big step in deciding what the future holds for the 107-acre site of the now-closed Morro Bay Power Plant. They have approved the hiring of a consultant to review and revise the city's local coastal program, which covers the site and determines how it can be used. It is almost certain that the California Coastal Commission, which must approve the local coastal program, will require public and visitor-serving uses and not further industrial enterprises, such as a new power plant or a whole range of other possible developments.

Where is the special, beautiful, and valuable power plant property along the north shore of the Morro Bay National Estuary headed, as far as future use? Well, the handwriting is on the wall. And it was written by the Morro Bay City Council.

It appears to be certain: the California Coastal Act will not permit another power plant or any industrial use on the 107-acre site. It has to be "visitor-serving," as the Coastal Act requires.

Not that the Morro Bay people would want another plant or industrial facility. But from the past to the present, there are those who would — for the money it would bring to the city. Roger Anderson was mayor at the time Duke Energy had bought the plant and was seeking to build a new, larger, and more destructive plant in 2000-04. He championed the Duke project — at the expense of people living nearby and of the environment, to which the now-closed power plant was also a giant threat (See: The Bay and Human Health at Stake). Duke would have been much worse.

Last month the Council on a 5-0 vote — in an action that drew little attention and no public comment — took the first step toward developing plans to review and revise the city's general plan and local coastal program. The latter, required by the California Coastal Act, mandates the Coastal Commission regulate uses of land along the coast. That includes a strip of the coast within the boundaries of Morro Bay from north to south, including the power plant site.

The plan is to "incorporate (in the local coastal plan) the Council-directed rezone of the Wastewater Treatment Plant and surrounding zone M-1 properties on Atascadero Road to visitor-serving uses," Rob Livick, city public services director, said. That is the current sewage plant sitting on the shores of Estero Bay. He said staff intends to "work in concert with our Coastal Commission staff representatives in rewriting plans."

It means that a large area will be rezoned for visitor-serving, which means the addition of many new commercial enterprises like motels, restaurants, and shops in that area. And the benefit of as much as $12 million for the city, according to a city consultant. Livick said he and the city staff favor forming a citizen review committee and having public workshops to enable local residents to have a say in what transpires.

Few people may be aware of the importance of revising those plans, but as Morro Bay residents, property owners, or investors, they will feel and see the impacts in coming years in significant ways.

On April 8 the Council authorized the city staff to search for and award a contact to a consultant whose job it will be to develop a new general plan for land use in the city. That is, how land can be developed and used for years to come. That key plan hasn't been reviewed and updated for 32 years. Land uses and needs change, but the general plan hasn't.

Revising the general plan and land use program is one of the top city priorities adopted by mayor Jamie Irons, Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler last year soon after they took office. Also being revised is the local coastal program, which governs the use of the power plant property. It's been 26 years since the local coastal program was reviewed.

The power plant was opened in 1955, long before the Coastal Act was adopted by the state Legislature in 1976. Had the Coastal Act been in existence in 1955, it is almost certain that the plant never would have been allowed to be built where it is. That is because the Coastal Act requires that public access to land in the coastal zone be "maximized" along with public recreational activities. And the Coastal Act also assures "priority for coastal-dependent and coastal-related development over other development on the coast."

So now that the plant is closed — meaning no industrial use is going on at the site — and the local coastal program is up for review, the 107-acre plant site is a prime candidate for rezoning so that it is brought into line with the public use that the Coastal Act requires.

The Coastal Act does not prohibit industrial uses, (like the power plant, which has been on the north shore of the Estuary for 59 years) if, as the Act states, the plant is deemed "necessary."

Today is very different from years past when such a plant might have been considered necessary along the coast, where water from the ocean could be used to cool its generators. The state needed energy. Now the need for such gas-fired plants is nose-diving with the skyrocketing increase in solar and wind energy in the state. California leads the nation in solar energy, raising questions about how long the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant will be needed — if it is, even now.

The Coastal Act requires that coastal property "maximize public access to and along the coast and maximize public recreational opportunities." And it also requires that "priority for coastal-development and coastal-related development over other development" be assured.

The Coastal Act says that "each local government lying, in whole or in part, within the coastal zone shall prepare a local coastal program for that portion of the coastal zone within its jurisdiction . . . to maximize public access to and along the coastline." That requirement, or anything like it, didn't exist in 1955 or before.

The revision of the general plan and local coastal program is being financed with a $250,000 grant through the Ocean Protection Council, California Coastal Commission and the Coastal Conservancy. The money is being provided mainly to prepare for climate change and sea-level rise impacts in the local coastal program.