From housing to water: Here’s where SLO County supervisor candidates stand on the issues

With the primary election approaching, all eyes are on the District 5 race for the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

Current supervisor Debbie Arnold announced plans to retire when her term ends next January — leaving room for two newcomers to compete to replace her on the board.

Atascadero Mayor Heather Moreno and Atascadero Mayor Pro Tem Susan Funk are in a showdown for the seat.

So where do they stand on the issues?

Moreno, a businesswoman, was appointed to the City Council in 2012 and later elected mayor of Atascadero in 2018 — going on to serve three terms.

“I care deeply about this community, the health of this community, and about our future together,” Moreno told The Tribune. “It’s learning, in a community like ours, how do we grow in a way that supports the things that we need in a way that also honors our small-town feel and our rural nature.”

Funk, who was elected to the Atascadero City Council in 2018, also serves as chair of San Luis Obispo County’s Homeless Services Oversight Council.

“The fifth district, by its nature, has a supervisor with one foot in the land of cattle ranches and vineyards and one foot in the land of bike lanes and brew pubs,” Funk said. “These are very different worlds. It’s not a competition between them. It’s a matter of taking the time and caring to listen to people in each of those environments about what makes that environment work.”

Here’s a look at where both the candidate stand on key issues facing the district.

How would the candidates increase housing and jobs?

Many San Luis Obispo County residents complain that there are two major hurdles to staying local: a lack of affordable housing and a limited supply of head of household jobs.

Moreno suggested a two-part approach to developing more affordable housing.

The first step, she said, is simplifying the permitting and building process for developers, which could include deferring impact fees for low-income housing projects and hiring more staff to the county’s planning and building department to accelerate their processes.

“We need to increase the supply, and one of the ways you increase the supply is you make it easier to build,” Moreno said. “When you are short-staffed and when procedures are taking too long, you have people that would invest in building housing, but they don’t.”

The second step is allowing nonprofit organizations to build affordable housing on vacant, county-owned land, Moreno said.

Meanwhile, Funk supported “a whole package of solutions” for increasing the supply of affordable housing. She said it’s critical for the county to diversify its housing supply, from investing in everything from “missing middle” housing to tiny homes.

Funk was also interested in publicly supported, cooperatively owned mobile home parks, she said.

“That system is not well set up to protect renters,” Funk said. “It’s too easy under the law for an investor to come in and jack up the rents.”

Funk supported building tiny homes on wheels, because they’re regulated by the Department of Motor Vehicles instead of the building code — reducing some red tape during development, she said.

Additionally, she said it’s critical for the board to provide consistent direction to the county’s planning and building department about the type of projects it will approve.

“I want people to bring us projects that we can say ‘yes’ to,” Funk said, and consistent guidelines will make that easier for them.

To attract more head-of-household jobs, Moreno advised the county to work “as a partner rather than an adversary” with people trying to open businesses locally, while making the permitting process more efficient and affordable.

Moreno also supported keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open, as it produces carbon-free energy and creates well-paying jobs for the community.

Funk advised the county to prioritize the development of workforce housing to attract industries with head-of-household jobs.

She said she envisions job development opportunities with businesses incubated at Cal Poly, agricultural technology and the spaceport. Additionally, the county could become an “energy hub” with the wind farm proposed off the coast of Morro Bay and Diablo Canyon, she said.

How to reduce homelessness, increase support services

In 2022, the board approved a plan to reduce homelessness by half in five years.

As a member of the Homeless Services Oversight Council, Funk helped develop the plan. She said the plan improves collaboration between the cities and county while providing a helpful blueprint for responding to homelessness.

Funk said the county should increase the supply of permanent supportive housing. She also supports “bridge housing” paired with support services, like the Cabins for Change project in Grover Beach. That program offers 20 cabins, each housing one person or couple, with support services on-site. Residents can stay for 90 days, unless extenuating circumstances keep them on site.

“We need to have additional places for this mix of intensive services in a thoughtfully structured, mutually supportive community — because you help people help each other,” Funk said. “What it does for pride and dignity is powerful.”

Meanwhile, Moreno said she’s skeptical of the county’s five-year plan, calling it “a lot of words on paper.”

“We had a 10-year plan before that,” she said. “You look at all these plans, you look at the millions of dollars that have been spent, and we continue to see the problem gets worse.”

Moreno proposed the county conduct a performance audit on funds spent by it and partner organizations to assess which programs work. Then, the county could reallocate funding from failing programs to the successful ones.

Moreno also supported policies that relocate people from the streets into transitional housing, she said.

“Most residents that I talked to don’t believe that the homeless have the right to the streets, to the parks, to the sidewalks — that they should be moved as soon as possible,” Moreno said.

She acknowledged that the county doesn’t currently have enough transitional housing to support the entire homeless population, and called for the county to allocate funding towards such housing.

Where do candidates stand on public safety?

When it comes to public safety, Moreno’s priority is to provide emergency responders with any funding and resources they need, she said.

“I’m not there to micromanage what the sheriff does,” Moreno said. “It’s not up to me to set policy for him, but to make sure that the sheriff and others have the resources they need to do the best job that they can.”

Funk agreed, adding that she supports increasing mental health resources for law enforcement.

She also said public safety includes creating an equitable, welcoming community.

“It’s also important that we create a social environment in which people feel safe in their own skins,” Funk said. “That’s about learning to respect a range of people who may not be the same as your family or my family, but you know, different configurations of families, different shapes and sizes and colors and orientations and configurations. We can all live together respectfully.”

How to proceed with the Bob Jones Trail

For decades, San Luis Obispo County has been working to connect San Luis Obispo to the sea via the Bob Jones Trail. County staff originally designed a 4.5-mile pathway to link the Octagon Barn in San Luis Obispo to the existing Bob Jones Trail in Avila Beach.

The project halted because at least one property owner, Ray Bunnell, refused to sell a sliver of his San Luis Obispo land to accommodate the original trail design.

In order to keep a $18.2 million state grant funding the project, the county must complete land acquisitions and the state must approve the project design for construction by February 2025.

County staff presented two alternative trail designs to push the project forward. One design would break the trail to avoid Bunnell’s property, while the other would move a portion of the trail to the shoulder of Highway 101.

Moreno said she needs to review the various trail designs before deciding which one she supports. She wants to know which trail design is best for user safety, improving traffic congestion and respecting Bunnell’s property rights, she said.

“I don’t take eminent domain lightly because I have to think, if it were me and the government’s coming to me for my property or a piece of my property through eminent domain, it would need to be for a very important purpose,” Moreno said.

Funk, however, said she would support using the eminent domain process to complete the original trail design.

The trail would stretch through a few rural areas where certain properties only have access to one exit. The trail would provide a second emergency exit for those properties and an entrance for first responders, Funk said.

Th trail also provides a bike path away from Highway 101, improving traffic safety, she said.

“It’s safer for everybody and it creates a really important emergency route,” Funk said. “These are win-win solutions and I support that.”

Water management solutions

Water management is a recurring topic presented to the board.

Moreno said she supports multiple solutions to managing the water supply, such as desalination on the coast. She noted that Atascadero receives more water for Lake Nacimiento annually than it can use — so they city could sell some of that extra water to Paso Robles.

In the Paso Basin Land Management Area, Moreno said she would prioritize ensuring that water is distributed fairly between small and large farms. She also suggested the county compensate farmers who voluntarily fallow their land — which frees up water for other farms.

“How do we make things fair?” Moreno said. “How do we make sure everybody is taken care of?”

Funk agreed the county needs a “balanced, equitable approach” to water. She said it is critical for the board to prevent the county’s groundwater basins from being further depleted.

She said she didn’t support the planting ordinance, which increased the amount of water small farms could draw from the basin to irrigate their crops. The new board majority repealed the ordinance in February last year.

“We’ve got to continue to maintain limitations until we can get better supply options,” Funk said.

To increase the water supply, Funk suggested the county pursue opportunities for recycled water. She also supported the creation of a feasibility study that examines using blended water and Lake Nacimiento water to recharge the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.

How do District 5 candidates feel about cannabis ag, brick-and-mortar stores?

Last year, Cannabis business owners complained that high taxes and fees coupled with stringent regulations make it difficult to keep their operations open. In response, the board voted to reduce the the county’s cannabis business tax from 8% to 6% to relieve some pressure on the industry.

The board also could consider allowing brick-and-mortar cannabis shops in unincorporated areas of the county.

When is comes to cannabis agriculture, Moreno said she’s most concerned about “neighborhood compatibility.”

She said she also wants the county to balance the cost of regulating cannabis operations with tax revenue it generates for the county.

Funk agreed, saying she supports people’s right to establish a cannabis farm, as long as they are mindful of their neighbors.

“I’m not a huge fan of ag cannabis,” Funk said. “It soaks up water and it smells bad, potentially creates issues for somebody next door.”

Moreno and Funk agreed that individual communities should decide for themselves if they allow brick-and-mortar cannabis shops on a case-by-case basis. Neither candidate would support an ordinance that allows cannabis shops in all unincorporated areas of the county.

“We need to look at what the needs are for different communities,” Funk said.

The board could pass policies limiting where cannabis shops could be built, Funk said. For example, cannabis shops should not be built near schools.

Meanwhile, Moreno said she’s concerned about the long-term health impacts of legalizing cannabis, and wondered if allowing cannabis shops could send teenagers the wrong message.

“Is our youth more likely to see it as acceptable if you have retail establishments?” Moreno said.

Want to hear directly from the candidates?

The League of Women Voters will co-host two candidate forms for District 5 this week.

The first forum is Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Atascadero Community Church on 5850 Rosario Ave. Voters can watch a live stream of the event at youtube.com/@AtascaderoAAUW.

The league is co-hosting the forum with the Atascadero American Association of University Women and the San Luis Obispo County chapter of the NAACP.

The second forum will be co-hosted by the Latino Outreach Council at the Pavilion on the Lake at 9315 Pismo Ave. on Wednesday.

A meet and greet with the candidates will start at 5:30 p.m., and the forum will start at 6 p.m.