Lot Line Rules May Block Housing Plan

The first development project on a historic San Luis Obispo County ranch may be headed for a collision with a new state law restricting the juggling of old lot lines.

The new owners of Central California’s Santa Margarita Ranch have rearranged boundaries within a 550-acre portion of the property slated for housing. A county board approved the changes but with conditions that prompted an appeal.

The appeal will not be heard until next month, by which time legislation barring such lot readjustments will have taken effect, possibly canceling the Margarita changes.

That may not spell the end of the project, however. Rob Rossi, one of the owners of the 13,800-acre ranch, says he and his partners would probably then sell the parcels in their present form.

Still, opponents of ranch development believe that without changes, the lots will not be nearly as attractive to buyers.

“I don’t think they would be very marketable,” said Jude Rock, a member of the board of directors of Santa Margarita Area Residents Assn.

The lot boundaries are the latest issue in years of controversy over the future of the ranch, which was originally attached to the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, founded in 1772.

Rossi, a Central Coast architect and developer who bought the ranch with several other people a couple of years ago, has been vague about plans for the property. He says he and his partners want to maintain most of its rolling, oak-dotted hills and grasslands as a working ranch and farm. They are putting in 2,000 acres of vineyards and drawing up plans for orchards and olive groves.

Property Lines Date to Undeveloped ‘20s Plan

Margarita Farms, on 550 acres in the ranch’s northern reaches, represents their first development proposal. They want to change the boundaries of 36 parcels--dating from a 1920s subdivision that was never developed--to cluster housing on smaller lots, something the county supported.

The county has recognized the old parcels, granting the owners certificates of compliance.

When legislation was adopted this fall outlawing modification of old parcels, county officials decided the Margarita Farms application was far enough along to fast-track it before the new law takes effect Jan. 1.

The county subdivision review board OKd the lot changes earlier this month but added a condition, related to road plans, that Rossi said was impossible to live with. His appeal to the county Board of Supervisors pushed the matter past the new law’s effective date.

Kami Griffin, supervising planner for San Luis Obispo County, said the county counsel’s office has not yet advised her how the appeal will be affected by the new law.

The legislation was prompted by concerns that developers and real estate speculators were using a loophole in subdivision regulations that allowed them to move the boundaries of old parcels into prime coastal property, driving up its value and circumventing planning controls.

In this case, the county viewed the boundary changes as good, but development opponents have complained that the county was rushing through lot changes that would make it easier for Rossi to sell the land for houses.

Rossi has previously spoken of placing much of the ranch under conservation and agriculture easements. But no deals have been struck. A trust proposal that would have allowed construction of fewer than 60 homes, a guest ranch, bed and breakfast and other visitor facilities stalled when ranch neighbors complained it would permit too much development.

Rossi said last week that he was still talking to conservation groups and that protective easements remained a possibility.

As for development plans, he added, “No one is anxious to pursue anything at any specific pace. . . . It isn’t to say the ranch might not someday have projects, but we bought it because we love the ranch.”