Judge reverses Board of Supervisors' approval of Los Osos housing project map (2025)

In a win for champions of the long-term viability of the Los Osos Groundwater Basin, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ruled that San Luis Obispo County must vacate its approval of a tract map for a 98-housing unit development in Los Osos.

Judge Craig Van Rooyen's April 8 ruling granted a petition filed by Los Osos Sustainability Group Chair Patrick McGibney more than a year ago. McGibney's lawsuit disputed the county Board of Supervisors' 3-2 vote green-lighting the Anastasi Development Company's final map, which plots boundaries to subdivide a 20-acre parcel on Pecho Road into 100 lots. Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson and 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding dissented in the 2023 decision.

"Almost complying with the Subdivision Map Act is not enough to pass muster," Van Rooyen wrote in his ruling. "Nor is there legal authority for the restrictive covenant workaround the county creatively implemented in an apparent attempt to extend the Subdivision Map Act deadline. The court is compelled to grant the petition and vacate approval of the final map."

The lawsuit against the county, its supervisors, and the Redondo Beach-based development company detailed that officials approved a tentative version of the map along with a coastal development permit in 1991.

But the then Board of Supervisors also placed two conditions on the map to ensure sufficient water supply and sewer capacity for the project before approving a final iteration of the map.

Those conditions stated that the project must connect to a communitywide sewer system approved by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Anastasi company must show an adequate available water supply before filing the final map.

Los Osos has been tackling a lack of building growth and an overdrafted groundwater basin since 1988. Residents like McGibney and other members of the sustainability group asserted that the basin continues to be in overdraft—a stance the county disagrees with.

The Los Osos Water Recycling Facility provides sewer service to existing developments, but projects like Anastasi's cannot be hooked up to it because of a California Coastal Commission caveat in the coastal development plan. It prevents SLO County from providing sewer service to new development in Los Osos until the commission approves a change to the county's general plan.

At the time of the supervisor's 2023 vote, the Coastal Commission hadn't accepted the county's proposal for the amendment.

McGibney and his group also argued that the county didn't have enough evidence of a reliable water source for the proposed 98 homes.

"When the supervisors approved this on Oct. 31, 2023, they did it because the extension was about ready to expire, and it had to get done before the expiration date," McGibney told New Times. "So, they made up all sorts of reasons that the judge just didn't buy."

The extension he referred to prolonged the project's shelf life in the hands of the state, supervisors, the county Planning Commission, and through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"During the building moratorium in Los Osos, the 1991 Anastasi development map had been 'kept alive' for 34 years by a series [of] time extensions," sustainability group member Charlie Cote wrote in a press release.

While Judge Van Rooyen said the court was "sympathetic" to the argument that the residential project is sustainable in the face of a dire need for housing, he found that sewer hookups for homes in the proposed subdivision weren't legally available at the time of the map's approval.

"The narrow question at issue here, however, is not whether the development makes sense and is sustainable, but whether there was substantial evidence to support the county's decision on Oct. 31, 2023, that sewer hookups were available at that time and that there was an adequate water supply," the ruling said.

McGibney frequently appeals permits for Los Osos development projects that land on the county supervisors' desk. He told New Times that the two unfulfilled conditions are what made him take the supervisors and Anastasi company to court.

"We had a lot of support from the community," he said. "We did a GoFundMe page, and we had a lot of people in the community that donated to that because they realized that this subdivision was not something that was going to be suitable for Los Osos."

County Counsel Jon Ansolabehere told New Times that the county doesn't intend to appeal the court's ruling at this time, but the Anastasi company could still do so.

"The ruling effectively means that the tentative subdivision map expired, and that the property owner would need to submit a new subdivision application," he said. Δ

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include an image and a link.