Rural Land and Viewshed Protection

By Bruce Gibson

Reasonable planning standards and effective ag land protection programs are critical for San Luis Obispo County.

Protecting working landscapes has been important to me over my many years of land conservation work. Today, we are fortunate to have easements protecting important ag lands from the Arroyo Grande Valley to the Adelaida area to the 80,000 acres + more than 100 square miles + covered by the Hearst Ranch conservation project. As Supervisor, I would certainly support the efforts of land trusts, big and small, to carry forward this important work.

We must also have reasonable development standards to protect our rural landscapes. Right now, there is tremendous pressure to build more and more upscale homes on land zoned for agriculture. Landowners certainly have a right to build, but they also have a responsibility to do so in a way that respects the scenic qualities + and neighboring property values + that we all have a right to enjoy. We don't have to suffer the fate of other counties where mega mansions dot the rural skyline.

With my neighbors, I have worked for more than four years to see reasonable viewshed protection standards developed for the rural area of Cayucos. These standards would require that houses be designed, sited and screened so that their visual impacts don't degrade our scenic rural area. Similar, and in some cases more stringent requirements already exist elsewhere in our County, such as in the Edna Valley and along the Morros.

The proposed standards have been discussed at public meetings of the Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council and the Planning Commission, which sent formal hearing notices to 1500 property owners. After two public hearing at the Board of Supervisors, these standards are in the final stages of consideration.

In the end, strong viewshed standards will protect property rights + both the rights of the land owner to build and the rights of surrounding land owners and the public to avoid the exploitation of our rural scenery. In the long term, I believe this will enhance everyone's property values and our quality of life.