SLO County supervisors deny neighbors’ appeal of planned Pismo Beach home. ‘It’s not over’
Pismo Heights homeowners flocked to the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to present their appeal of the planned construction of a unique two-home property in the hills visible from their homes and the Pismo Preserve.
The group — which calls themselves Save the Canyon — are dead-set on stopping their prospective neighbors, Rémi Arnaud and Rita Turkowski, from developing the parcel of land they own in the Pismo Beach canyon.
One by one, residents of the Longview Avenue neighborhood and their two lawyers spoke before the Board of Supervisors to present their case, arguing that the project was visually and environmentally disruptive — but much to their dismay, the board did not agree with their pleas.
The five supervisors unanimously voted to uphold the SLO County Planning Commission’s prior approval of construction and grading variances for the work, giving the couple the green light to finally break ground on a project that has been in the works for years.
Designed by architect Bill Isaman, the project features one 2,881-square-foot home at the base of a 1,200-foot driveway that will run along the back of the homes on Longview and another house eventually planned to perch atop the mountain ridge, offering scenic views of the ocean and Pismo Preserve.
With the appropriate permits in place, Arnaud and Turkowski, who were not present at the hearing, ccan now start construction on their dream home.
“We are certainly pleased the Board of Supervisors upheld the approval of the planning commission and we can now move our project forward,” Isaman told The Tribune in an email.
But their future neighbors are not so pleased.
“At what point does the applicant’s property rights supersede the hundreds of Pismo residents?” Longview resident Elizabeth Burkhead told The Tribune on Tuesday. “What about our property rights? This is for two — excuse me, but entitled — people.”
Arnaud and Turkowski responded to The Tribune’s inquiry that they had no comment.
Pismo Beach resident Elizabeth Burkhead speaks to the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24, 2024, on behalf of Save the Canyon, a group appealing plans for a new home near the Pismo Preserve. The board rejected the appeal.
Pismo Beach neighbors battle with property owner over plans for ocean-view home
What concerns did the neighbors bring to the table?
Tucked in the canyon between Pismo Preserve and the neighborhood of Pismo Heights, the site for Arnaud and Turkowski’s future home is visible from their neighbors’ properties on Longview Avenue.
The site has been entitled for two residential building envelopes since 1999.
Save the Canyon appeared in front of the board on Tuesday to appeal the projects’ grading and permits on the grounds that site is not actually exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act — the environmental protection law that is considered for almost all new developments — as was previously found by a mitigated negative declaration.
Their appeal claims rested on the aesthetic, drainage and traffic impacts of the project, as well as the presence of two special status plant species — the black-flowered figwort and the paniculate tarweed — and oak trees on the property.
A tribal lands lawyer also claimed that it is not clear that the archaeological report included a sacred lands review.
Rémi Arnaud and Rita Turkowski want to build a home at the end of the middle dirt road below the communications tower on this parcel off Longview Avenue in Pismo Heights, overlooking the hills and sea. The plan is opposed by their neighbors, who have environmental and aesthetic concerns with the project.
Staff later said the sacred lands review was in fact included in the mitigated negative declaration. They also presented that Arnaud and Turkowski previously commissioned another archaeological survey of the project site in response to the appellants’ concerns, which resulted in no findings.
Among the neighbors’ chief concerns was the impacts from construction of the 1,200-foot driveway on land over the maximum grade allowed by Cal Fire of 20%.
According to the appeal by Save the Canyon’s lawyer Babak Naficy, projects on slopes greater than 10% grade must get a major grading permit and environmental determination under CEQA.
Most of the parcel is on slopes over 30%, but the couple previously secured a special conditional use permit that enables grading on steeper slopes and the negative CEQA declaration.
A grading map of the Longview project site parcel. According to neighbors’ appeal, projects on slopes greater than 10% grade must get a major grading permit and environmental determination under CEQA. Most of the parcel is on slopes over 30%.
Also, because it sits on a piece of land with a greater than 30-degree grade, the project requires the construction of a platform called a “hammerhead” that will support the foundation of one of the homes and allow Cal Fire emergency vehicles to fully turn around.
Save the Canyon has expressed concern about the visual impacts of the structure, claiming it would add an eye-sore to the otherwise spotless canyon that will be visible to all Pismo Preserve hikers and Longview residents.
“This site is over 17 acres,” Longview resident Rogger Emmons said during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting. “Surely there is a less destructive location.”
Monte Soto, a civil engineer who presented his expert analysis of the site plans to the board, said there isn’t.
“It is really the most logical place for the hammerhead considering the topography,” Soto said.
He also said that grading would not impact neighboring properties and estimated construction of the driveway to be about six months, give or take.
Burkhead, one of the neighbors, claimed the project increases the likelihood of “setting off a fire that would reach the homes bordering the properties in minutes.”
“We’re like 50 feet away uphill, and the prevailing winds blow right up those canyon walls,” Burkhead said. “It would be a wildfire disaster for the Pismo Beach residents.”
But Ortiz-Legg said she actually saw the driveway and hammerhead turn-around as a benefit to the neighborhood that would increase their fire accessibility to emergency services.
Isaman also emphasized that the large, concrete hammerhead that neighbors are imagining is far from the final product. He presented images of his former projects to give the board and idea for what the structure will look like once a house is built there in future steps of the project.
Side-by-side renderings of the hammerhead turnaround to be built on the Longview Project site. On the left is the architect’s rendering and on the right is Save the Canyon’s rendering that they produced by looking at project plans on a County computer.
Another concern was over the impact on the city’s roads, schools and emergency services.
Normally this would not be a concern, but because the project site sits on the San Luis Obispo County side of the border between Pismo Beach and the county, the homeowners would be using the city’s infrastructure but paying taxes to the county.
In response, Supervisor Oritz-Legg said that she’s been in communication with Pismo Beach and that they have no concerns with the project.
County staff added that Pismo Beach has been aware of the project since January. Isaman’s firm had previously told The Tribune that the city has been in the loop since 2022, finding no issues.
Still, Naficy, Save the Canyon’s lawyer, said that road and traffic damages would be especially bad during construction.
“The hauling of the dirt through the narrow streets of this neighborhood is going to generate a lot of noise, dust and vibration,” Naficy told the board during the hearing. “These impacts are significant impacts to humans who live there.”
He estimated that it would take between 169 to 270 truck trips just to remove the dirt from the driveway out through the streets of Pismo.
Soto put his estimation closer to 63 trucks, subject to change depending on the size of trucks used.
Save the Canyon lawyer Babak Naficy speaks to the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24, 2024, during the group’s appeal of a home proposed near the Pismo Preserve.
Board of Supervisors dismissed the appeal, giving the green light to project
Ultimately, the board unanimously voted against the appellants’ claims and upheld the ongoing mitigated negative declaration that ensures all environmental concerns can be contemporarily analyzed.
The hammerhead turnaround and future residence were found valid as they exist within pre-approved building envelopes, and visual impacts from public viewpoints and were deemed less than significant.
With the board’s ruling, the work is set to start — with the minor additional requirement of a traffic mitigation plan for construction that takes school hours into account — a ruling that frustrated the Save the Canyon team.
The site of the Longview project near the Pismo Preserve has been entitled for two residential building envelopes since 1999.
“Because of the site limitations here — the steep slope and the narrow roads — everything’s going to take longer,” Naficy told The Tribune. “Every single part of this is just going to be a nightmare.”
Naficy and the neighbors said that they found many inconsistencies with the project and applicants’ presentation, for example, that the maps of the building envelopes as drawn when entitled 25 years ago appear much smaller than the maps drawn today. Naficy said when he questioned the county about this, no one could give him a straight answer.
Even after the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing, however, Arnaud and Turkowski’s future neighbors aren’t giving up or going down without a fight.
When asked whether Save the Canyon plans to take legal action against the couple, Naficy said that “a decision has not been made yet, but a suit would be against the county and the property owner would be named as real party.”
“It’s not over,” Burkhead said.
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