Paso Basin Land Use Planting Ordinance
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors has directed staff to develop a land use ordinance and amend General Plan policies to require ministerial land use approval (“a planting permit”) until 2045 for new or expanded planting of irrigated crops irrigated with water from groundwater wells located within the Paso Basin Land Use Management Area (PBLUMA), with a two-tier framework: 1) plantings using up to 25 acre-feet per year (AFY) of total groundwater per site, and 2) plantings maintaining neutral groundwater use on site with a 6-year rolling lookback period. Plantings using groundwater outside of these two tiers would not be allowed. General Plan elements to be revised include the Agricultural Element and Conservation and Open Space Element.
Please click here to view a map of the PBLUMA area.
Please click here to view the PBLUMA area in our interactive web map.
Project Contacts
Comments and questions regarding the project may be submitted via email to [email protected] or mailed to the following address:
Department of Planning and Building
ATTN: Planting Ordinance/Kylie Hensley
976 Osos Street, Room 300
San Luis Obispo, CA 93408
Project Updates
Notice of Availability of Draft Program Environmental Impact Report
Notice of Availability – Draft PEIR
Paso Basin Planting Ordinance – Draft PEIR
Appendix A – IS/NOP and Received Comment Letters
Appendix B – Groundwater Use and Acreage Estimation
Appendix C – Draft Planting Ordinance GPAs
Appendix D – CalEEMod Model Results
Appendix E – Energy Calculations
Appendix F – Special Status Species with Potential to Occur
Appendix G – General Plan Consistency Analysis
Draft Planting Ordinance Overview for November 1, 2021 ALAB Meeting
ALAB Presentation 11-1-21: Draft Planting Ordinance Overview
30-Day Review Period for Draft Ordinance: October 25 - November 24, 2021
Public Review Draft Planting Ordinance and General Plan Amendments Public-Review-Draft-Planting-Ordinance-10-22-21.pdf
Initial Study (IS)
The Initial Study describes the project description, location, and a preliminary assessment of potential environmental impacts
Preliminary Initial Study
30-day Review Period for NOP/IS: August 12 - September 13, 2021
Submit comments using the contact information above.
Virtual Scoping Meeting: Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 6:00-7:30 pm
Virtual Scoping Meeting
Project Milestones
Step |
Tentative Timeline |
Board of Supervisors authorization |
Completed |
EIR Contract approval |
Completed |
NOP/IS 30-day public review period |
August 12 - September 13, 2021 |
EIR Scoping Meeting |
September 1, 2021 |
Draft EIR 45-day public review period |
May 23 - July 6, 2022 |
Final EIR Distributed |
October 2022* |
Planning Commission |
November 2022* |
Board of Supervisors |
December 2022* |
Effective Date |
January 2023* |
*Tentative, subject to change based on the extent of public comments received for the Draft EIR.
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