Avila Beach USL
One of the most confusing areas in SLO County for USLs is in the Avila Beach area. In this area there are multiple USLs defined by the LCP, some of them overlapping. There is the ABCSD USL, the CSA-12 USL, and the Avila Beach USL. Confused? Let me try to explain.
First, there is the Avila Beach County Water District (ABCSD) USL. This is defined by the SLO LAFCO map as a Sphere of Service. ABCSD also serves some people that are outside of it’s USL (but I don’t know where they are – maybe on Avila Beach Road?).
Second, there is the USL of CSA-12, which is also defined by the SLO LAFCO map as a Sphere of Service. CSA-12 was formed in 1966 before the LCP and the Coastal Commission existed. When CSA-12 was first formed all of the Avila area got water service from it (including Avila Beach), and only later was ABCSD carved out of CSA-12. That is why the Hartford Pier and the Union Oil pier are in CSA-12, but not connected to the rest of CSA-12. Aside from having ABCSD carved out from it, CSA-12 hasn’t changed. So CSA-12 is the oldest USL in the Avila area, and the only USL in Avila that predates the creation of LCP and the Coastal Commission.
And third there is the “Avila Beach USL”. This USL is defined only by this sentence in the Avila Beach Specific Plan on page 148, and it is never referred to as the Avila Beach USL in the LCP – in fact it has no name in the LCP (but the Planning Dept staff refer to in in their internal documentation as the Avila Beach USL):
This area includes the townsite of Avila Beach, the Union Oil Company property and the Port San Luis Harbor District lands. This total area is contained within the Urban Services Line.
This Avila Beach USL is the really weird USL. It isn’t created by LAFCO, and it doesn’t match any Sphere of Service boundary of anything. It contains all of ABCSD, and just the part of CSA-12 that is west of ABCSD, but not the part of CSA-12 that is in the Coastal Zone and east of ABCSD. It appears to have been created by the Planning Dept in 2001 without reference to any outside agency like LAFCO.
And what is the corresponding URL of this Avila Beach USL? There is a map on the SLO County Planning Dept website here that shows an Avila Beach URL, but that map doesn’t seem to be part of the LCP. So how can Avila Beach USL even be a legally defined USL if it isn’t inside a URL that is defined by the LCP? The only way that Avila Beach USL is even legally a USL is because it is inside the URL of CSA-12.
And then there is this line from the Coastal Zone Framework For Planning page 4-5:
Expansion of a USL is accomplished through an amendment of the Land Use Element and Local Coastal Program and should occur after LAFCo has amended the corresponding sphere of service line.
Well, this Avila Beach USL doesn’t even have a LAFCO map that shows a Sphere of Service line. So how is the Avila Beach USL even a legal USL under the LCP? I don’t know.
I finally gave up and wrote a document containing everything I know about the different USLs in the Avila Beach Area. Here it is: