Recent Activities and Meetings

• The February 2024  NCAC monthly meeting was on Wednesday, 21 February 2024, via Zoom. Agenda for the meeting is on "Meeting Agenda" page. Video of the meeting is available via YouTube at this LINK. Draft minutes of the meeting are on the "Minutes of Meetings" page. Below are some items discussed at the meeting:

  • The county Board of Supervisors is investigating an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) for SLO county. While the initial BOS meeting on this has passed, residents are still able to pass comments on the IRC to the BOS. Links on the website provide for comments to the BOS.

  • SLOCOG and SLO county Public Works have both expressed concern about Cambria roadways and the increasing number of deer strikes in the area. The  issue of deer strikes along Hwy 1 in Cambria is being raised by community members who are advocating the Transportation and Wildlife resources community for a timely solution. Here is the SLOCOG 5 year investment plan, which will be voted upon within the county. LINK

  • AT&T is requesting the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to allow AT&T to do the following:

  • Application 23-03-002: regarding the application of AT&T California to Withdraw its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Designation

  • Application 23-03-003: regarding the application of AT&T California for Relief from its Carrier of Last Resort Obligation

  • Instructions on the NCAC website provide info on presenting comments to the California Public Utilities Commission

  • Supervisor Gibson indicated that, as this is a California Public Utilities Commission responsibility, his office has no direct involvement. 

• Several people have indicated, over the past months, an interest in NCAC’s newsletter. In fact, we have a page where people can subscribe to the newsletter, and to any of four specific areas of interest. Unfortunately, because of a lack of people-power, we’ve been unable to get this newsletter going. In fact, we’re removing the page from our website. As you may know, we’re currently suffering from a lack of volunteers for various positions. So, we are doing, or continuing to do, the following:

  • Maintain our website (https://www.ncacslo.org/ ) so that we are up-to-date on meetings, activities related to NCAC, and issues related to the community – wind farms, Cambria incorporation, skate park, etc. We continue to do that, and welcome input from the community on issues, whether for agendizing at future meetings, or “spreading the word”.

  • Continue our email information outreach – we send out several emails each month (using bcc sends, so we don’t publish every address to every addressee) on upcoming meetings, presentations, videos, etc.

  • Continue our social media outreach – Our Outreach committee chairperson, Karen Chrisman keeps NextDoor, Facebook and the other social media sites up to date on our activities.

  • Articles in CambriaCA.org. We generally try to have an article in as many of these twice-monthly online newspapers as possible.

  • Issues related to Land Use (Minor use Permits, etc.) are included in the regular Land Use Committee report

  • Our monthly meeting agenda (PDF) contains links to reports submitted by various agencies (Public Works, Planning, Sheriff, etc.)

  • We welcome involvement in NCAC – whether as a delegate, alternate, or committee member (Land Use, Traffic/Transportation, Outreach).

  • So, all of the people who subscribed to the newsletter have been added to our email list (if they weren’t on it before). Hopefully, that will keep you up to date.

• The January NCAC monthly   meeting was on 17 January 2024; Video recording from the meeting is  HERE. The meeting covered a number of subjects, including:

  • Water Reclamation Facility – CCSD General Manager McElhennie and Jim Green, Utilities Department Manager

  • Status of Public Works repairs from earlier (including early 2023) storms – especially including the situation on Pine Knolls drive

  • Guest speaker – Amanda Davis and Sheri Hafer from REACT (Responsible Energy Adaptation for California’s Transition) – provided an alternative view to the Central Coast Wind Project. Link to the REACT presentation on Wind Farms is HERE. Additional links have been added, to allow residents to comment on the Morro Bay Windfarm project. These include:

    • Coastal Commission review of MBWEA -- HERE​

    • California Offshore Wind Fact Sheet from the CA Energy Commission -- HERE

  • Update on fire insurance (CFSFG)

  • Update on proposed and approved plans for bicycle/walking paths in Cambria (NCAC Transportation – Kermit Johansson)

  • Any update from county re storm damage repair (e.g., Lampton Park, seawall at Harvey/Sherwood, Leffingwell Landing, etc.)

  • Meet the new Fire Chief

• The October 2023 NCAC monthly meeting was held on Wednesday, 18 October at 6PM, via our normal Zoom video meeting. Zoom link for the video recording is HERE. Chat file (text) recording from the meeting is HERE. 

  • At the meeting, Kermit Johansson of the NCAC Transportation/Traffic committee discussed some planned and proposed trail and pathway plans for Cambria. These include:​

    • SLO Council of Governments (SLOCOG) Regional Transportation plan for 2023-2045

    • Trail under Santa Rosa Creek bridge on Hwy 1, LINK

    • Burton Drive pedestrian trail, from Eton Dr. to Tin City, Cambria, LINK

    • Approved Burton Dr. pedestrian path, LINK​​

• The October Land Use Committee meeting was held on Friday, 13 October at 1PM. Two referrals have been received this month: the first is for the conversion of the old Brambles restaurant into a 26-unit motel (reviewed in a previous form about a year ago by the LUC). The second is for a request by Gary and Patricia Browns for a MUP/Coastal Development Permit for mods at property on 1923 Thomas Avenue, Cambria.  At the last NCAC meeting, the NCAC voted to pass forward the Browns project, and for the Brambles conversion, we delayed a vote until next month, to give time for public comment for the referral. Anyone interested in the Brambles renovation project is directed to the SLO county project package which is available at this LINK. 

• The September NCAC meeting was on Wednesday, 20 September 2023 at 6PM, via Zoom. The tentative agenda for the meeting is on the "Agendas" page, and the YouTube video recording of the meeting is HERE. 

• The  Land Use Committee met regarding the proposed Cambria Skate Park.  Files to support the Skatepark proposal are linked below:

  • Elevations​

  • 3-d Depictions

  • Landscape and Fencing

  • Grading and site plan

• The NCAC August meeting was held on Wednesday, 16 August at 6PM, via Zoom. Minutes from that meeting are available on the "Minutes" page. Video of the meeting is available on YouTube at LINK 

• The NCAC July meeting was held on Wednesday, 19 July at 6PM via Zoom. Draft minutes from the meeting are available HERE. Link to the Video from the meeting on YouTube is HERE.

• Besides the normal county presentations, the meeting focused on residents’ concerns about traffic-related issues — accidents (especially at intersections with no stop signs and limited visibility), speeding/reckless driving, ignoring “one-way” street signs,  and road conditions. Following the meting, Blake Fixler (legislative aide to Supervisor Gibson) reached out to the local CHP office and SLO Public Works, and hopefully a representative from both will be at future meetings to provide information on some of those issues.

• We also included a presentation from Beautify Cambria for NCAC support for community grant to provide Cambria Historic District street signs. Examples of the signs may be found at this LINK (final signs may be different colors).

• The June NCAC monthly meeting was held on 21 June at 6PM,  The video recording from the meeting is available using this YouTube LINK.  Meeting included normal county agency presentations, plus 2 guest presentations– — the first was a discussion on a proposed plan for native plant restoration at Lampton Cliffs County Park. The second presentation will be an update on mural plans for the area in front of the Cambria Post Office. The Lampton Park presentations are available on the “Presentations” page, while the proposed mural is available with this LINK.

• The May  NCAC monthly meeting was held on Wednesday, 17 May at 6PM, via Zoom.   Minutes from the meeting are included on our “Minutes” page. Some of the items discussed in our last meeting included:

  • Presentations/Discussions

  • Fire Safety, follow-up from 6 May event. The Focus Group worked with the local schools to design new Fire Safety message signs to be placed in the three message signs in town. The message signs are at the Spaghetti Bowl, the south entrance into town and at the Firehouse. The new designs were done by the youth of our community including students from the four local schools. The contest winners were announced at the Wildfire Preparedness Event and are posted on the NCAC website, HERE.

  • SLOCOG interactive map, to report traffic/transportation issues.

  • Kip Morais (SLO Planning) discussed storm repair procedures, including park stairs, seawalls and other.

  • 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