Recent Activities and Meetings

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• The Cambria Community Health District (CCHD) is planning Wellness Workshops in October and November -- a link to these workshops is HERE.

• Recently, the Cambria Community Healthcare District (CCHD) initiated a survey within the community to better understand what health services are most urgently needed now, and for the longer term. These surveys are available, in both English and Spanish, at the links below:

  • English LINK

  • Spanish LINK

  • These surveys will help the CCHD to optimally focus resources to best meet the needs in our community.

• The March 15 monthly meeting covered a number of topics, including:

  • Public discussion on resources to address a significant fire event in the North Coast area.  Discussion was led by John Nilon and Jeff Kwasny, and included input from Chief Vincent of CCSD Fire Department and David Pierson of the Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group. Discussion covered clearing of potential fuels from  unimproved and improved parcels, fire insurance rates, and the upcoming wildfire preparedness event to be held May 6 at the Vets Hall in Cambria. Details of the discussion are included in the draft minutes (“Minutes of Meetings” page).

  • Supervisor Gibson discussed recent storm damage and county response, including FEMA activities, and early repair activities. He also discussed the new overnight camping ordinance for the county, as well as increasing treatment facilities.

  • Savannah Gil, a staff member at San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG), asked for feedback from the public on the draft Regional Transportation Plan for 2023, which can be viewed at this LINK.

  • San Simeon and Cambria CSD representatives provided reports of their activities during the month.

  • Kip Morais, our new liaison with county planning, discussed questions about permit length, tree removal and stop work orders, which had been asked prior to the meeting.

  • Again, details of reports can be found on the “Minutes of Meetings” page

• The February 2023 NCAC meeting was held on 15 February, via Zoom. The meeting agenda with links to the various reports and presentations is available on our “Meeting Agendas” page.

  • In addition to regular reports from various county agencies, law enforcement, SSCSD, CCSD, and our county Supervisor, the meeting included a presentation from Vice Chair John Nilon, outlining our near-term activities focus on disaster preparedness.

  • Also, we had a presentation from Monica Stillman, county Public Works Environmental Specialist, on the Santa Rosa Creek Road restoration plan. Link to the plan is HERE, as well as via the agenda.

  • As part of his Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group, David Pierson provided a link to the most current Calfire Fire Hazard Zones map, Click HERE for the link. Note that this is an interactive map, allowing you to zoom and move to different areas.

The January 2023  NCAC meeting was held on January 18th at 6PM, via Zoom.    Special presentations at the January meeting included a “community input” session, hosted by John Nilon (Vice Chair), where NCAC can hear from the community about their most pressing concerns. Also, at that meeting, we heard from Beautify Cambria about their plans to do a historical mural, jointly with Chumash tribe artists on the currently blank wall at the Cambria Post Office, along with a planter box of native plants.   As you may have noticed, Beautify Cambria is doing a number of projects in our area, from the Tin City Entrance, to the Spaghetti Bowl, to the Main Street medians.

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NCAC is planning an increase in our outreach activities to our Hispanic community, in the form of Spanish language presentations at various venues, furtherance of our work on housing availability (including home-sharing), transportation improvements, and interface with local churches and support agencies. Ms. Lourdes Nilon, our Hispanic Outreach committee chair, will host the discussion.

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At the October 2022 NCAC meeting, Tom Gray (CCSD) and Dr. Cornelius Nuworsoo (Cal Poly)  presented an updated evacuation analysis for the Cambria area. The earlier analysis was conducted in 2019 for two parts of Cambria – areas south of Fiscalini Ranch and West of Highway 1, and areas east of Highway 1. With this study, Cambria now has analyses for all of Cambria under scenarios for different potential evacuation areas and alternate evacuation routes. Grants from CalFire funded the studies. The full report may be found here. This presentation is an excellent follow-on to David Pierson’s presentation at the September meeting on wildfire preparedness. See the “presentations” page for that report.

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The September 2022 meeting included a presentation and discussion on wildfire preparedness and safety, by David Pierson of the Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group.  The presentation and related files are available on our “Presentations” page.

The August 2022  meeting included  a public discussion on the increasing problem of homeless camping in the area. The discussion included approaches to improving the situation  (housing, treatment, clean-up) as well as the public safety concerns as the camps move into more residential areas. See the SLO county  “Point in Time” report which contains latest information on population and distribution of SLO county homeless, on the “Presentations” page. . A summary of that report is linked here.

The July 2022 NCAC meeting  had presentations from SmartShare Housing Solutions SLO and from Beautify Cambria. The first presentation offered some proven solutions for matching renters with affordable and safe housing through home sharing. The second provided some updates on Beautify Cambria’s current and planned activities on planting, cleanup and beautification. Presentations may be found on the “Presentations” page.

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Recent Community-related Items 

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• Link to Beautify Cambria’s current and planned activities around Cambria — Median, Spaghetti Bowl, Tin City entrance
• See the Tribune or CambriaCA.org articles on the California Coastal Commission’s “Notice of Violation” regarding Cambria building permits and “Intent to Serve” letters.
• Farmers and ranchers (and increasingly, residential homeowners) are facing not only serious shortages of water, but also blanket cancellations of fire insurance. NCAC had a speaker on this subject at June’s meeting. Chris Raders, with Ted Hamm Insurance in Paso Robles, is an expert in the issues surrounding fire insurance, for Ag, business and residential properties. He’s an excellent resource for anyone concerned about fire insurance, and is available at (805) 238-1818