Should Morro Bay get massive battery storage plant? City will let voters decide

Community members clad in bright blue “Save Estero Bay” T-shirts filled the Morro Bay Veterans Memorial Hall on Tuesday, urging the Morro Bay City Council to support a citizen initiative designed to block a massive battery storage facility on the Embarcadero.

After more than 1,000 registered voters signed a petition to support the initiative, the City Council voted 4-0 to place it on the November 2024 ballot.

Councilmember Jen Ford recused herself from the vote “out of an abundance of caution and respect for public perception for the integrity of the process,” she wrote in a text to the Tribune.

Ford said her role as a field representative for the California State Assembly and as a City Council member could create a conflict of interest with the project.

Local group Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation gathered 1,327 signatures in support of the initiative, far exceeding the city’s requirement of 815 signatures to be eligible for the ballot, according to Morro Bay City Clerk Dana Swanson.

“Something of this magnitude needs to be decided by the citizens,” group member Betsy Gaudette-Cross said at the meeting.

The council had three choices: Place the initiative on the ballot, pass it into law or request staff to present a report within 30 days on the impacts of the initiative, Swanson said

Mayor Carla Wixom voted to place the initiative on the ballot without requesting the report, she said, because the city has more than a year to educate voters on the impacts of the initiative.

“You can pro and con it all night long,” Wixom said. “We can be here for days, and that’s not going to change what our options are as far as whether to adopt the ordinance or put it on the ballot.”

Adding the measure to the ballot will cost the city $4,000 to $5,000, Swanson said.

What does Morro Bay ballot measure do?

Texas-based energy company Vistra Corp. wants to build a 24-acre, 600-megawatt energy storage facility on the property at 1290 Embarcadero — replacing the dormant Morro Bay Power Plant and its iconic emission stacks.

The battery storage project would feature three Costco warehouse-sized buildings housing 180,000 batteries, which could hold enough electricity to power 450,000 homes, according to Vistra’s website.

If passed by voters, the citizen initiative would freeze the land use designation of the property as commercial-recreational fishing and visitor-serving commercial, which allows developments including hotels, shops and restaurants, according to Citizens For Estero Bay member Rachel Wilson.

“Morro Bay really values three things: We want a safe environment. We want a strong and vibrant tourist and fishing industry. We have a world-class waterfront that we want to expand,” Wilson said, noting that the battery plant doesn’t align with those values.

The City Council must vote to change the Embarcadero property’s land use designation to “light industrial” to approve the project, according to Morro Bay Community Development Director Scot Graham.

Right now, the council can change the land use designation by a majority vote.

If the initiative passes, however, a majority of city residents would have to vote to change the property’s land use designation.

Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation is concerned that the battery plant isn’t safe to locate next to the harbor, Morro Bay High School and tourist attractions on the Embarcadero.

The group wants the property to pass to a developer who will clean up pollution left behind by the power plant and build an attraction that is more tourist-oriented, such as an amphitheater.

“If we listed the property out in the world, there would be multiple billion-dollar corporations that would see this gorgeous iconic location and they would jump on it,” Gaudette-Cross said.

Could blocking battery plant discourage future development?

A handful of speakers at Tuesday’s meeting worried that freezing the property’s land use isn’t the right solution.

Opponents of the ballot measure say that Vistra could use Assembly Bill 205 as a loophole to approve the project. AB 205 allows developers to submit large renewable energy projects to the California Energy Commission for approval.

Morro Bay resident Casey Cordes said the City Council should be empowered to make decisions about the project and negotiate with Vistra.

“If we pass this measure, if we leave this decision to voters in the future, it will be announcing to private industry that no one in the city can negotiate in good faith,” Cordes said. “We will be giving state regulators the nod. We’ll be telling them they have to act on our behalf because we can’t present a united front.

“I think the result will be less local control over the future of our city, not more,” Cordes added.

Blocking the battery facility could discourage future developers from building in the city, Morro Bay resident Lee Johnson said.

“I can tell you with confidence, no developer will propose a project in this city that deviates so far from the normal process,” Johnson said. “Their money and their projects will go elsewhere.”