Los Osos CSD declines to pursue city bid

Despite a request by a citizens group, the board of directors for the Los Osos Community Services District last week declined to take formal steps toward turning the unincorportated community into a city.

Instead, the board instructed the CSD staff to organize an outreach strategy to inquire from local residents what kind of increased services or needs they would like the county government to address. 

Incorporating as a city would mean the community would have to finance it's own services, like police, fire, water, wastewater, roads, parks and more. A study would have to be conducted in coordination with San Luis Obispo County officials to determine if enough property and sales tax is generated to cover those expenses as an independent body.

The cost of staff time and studies to evaluate the viability of Los Osos incorporating was estimated at about $200,000. 

Before the meeting, staff contacted the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) - the local governing body that deals with issues like city boundaries and interelated issues.LAFCO staff recommended that the District answer the following questions before making a formal proposal. 

• What is the problem, if any, driving the desire for change in the existing governmental structure? Can the problem be addressed by other means? 
• What is the role of the County government in the community? Is the County willing or able to address the identified problems?
• What is the community’s relationship to other adjacent communities? 
• What would the proposed boundaries look like and how would that affect other agencies and communities? 
• What is the past history of local efforts to incorporate? 
• How is the community changing? 
• What is the community’s capacity for self-governance? 
• How are services currently provided and how would they change? Does the area have the ability to provide municipal level services if incorporated? 
• Who is likely to benefit from a change and who is likely to lose? 

"If the District is serious about exploring incorporation, then answering these questions would require an outreach effort to better understand what the community wants out of its local government and what they want the community to be in the long-term. Knowing this first would better guide the discussion of what structure of government could best serve the community and bring to light any alternative solutions," LAFCO said.