When a majority of SLO County supervisors tentatively approved the transfer of 5,070 acres of prime SLO County agricultural land to Santa Barbara County, the decision puzzled many people. The buzz phrase by the opposition was that there was “no compelling reason” to allow it.
Santa Maria City Manager Tim Ness said that the city hadn’t been approached about the transfer, nor was it interested.
SLO County Supervisors Jerry Lenthall, Harry Ovitt, and Katcho Achadjian didn’t object to a petition by Suey Ranch owners H.D. and Carol Perrett to move a portion of their 39,000-acre ranch across county lines when it was brought before them on Aug. 26.
In a 180-degree move on Sept. 16, however, supervisors voted 4-0, with 1st District Supervisor Harry Ovitt absent, to forego the possibility of transferring the land to Santa Barbara County.
Suey Ranch borders Santa Barbara County and a portion of Santa Maria. The Perretts put in a request for the transfer in 2005, but it was unanimously shot down. Three years later, the request was back on the table under the same premise as before: The Perretts believed the ranch would be better served by Santa Barbara County law enforcement.
The enormous property—with rolling hills covered by lemon groves, grazing land, vegetable crops, and thick forests of avocado trees—provides SLO County with $58,000 per year in property taxes and is said to have some of the best agricultural soil in the state, producing 26 percent of the county’s avocados.
Turning the ranch over to Santa Barbara County would also have turned over any local say on future land-use decisions. And that loss of control worried critics of the move, who didn’t want to see Suey Ranch become a sea of residential development. The Perretts have stated that they intend to keep the ranch in agricultural use and would profit less if the land were developed or sold.
The original approval by the majority of the supervisors raised watchdog eyebrows because the Perretts have given some of their profits to Republican political campaigns at the local, state, and national level. Locally, H.D. gave Lenthall $1,000 in 2007 and another $1,150 in 2008. Carol contributed $1,000 to Lenthall in 2008. Ovitt received $1,000 from H.D. in 2007 and $1,000 again in 2008.
Both Lenthall and Ovitt denied that the contributions had any influence on their initial votes. H.D. said that he hasn’t seen a direct connection between contributions and how responsive government is.
SLO County supervisors James Patterson and Bruce Gibson were adamantly opposed to the transfer from the start. Neither of them received contributions from the Perretts. Supervisor Katcho Achadjian also didn’t receive any of the Perretts’ money, but has been one of their main proponents.
William Boyer, public information officer for Santa Barbara County, had said that the county was waiting for San Luis Obispo County to “do its thing” before making any decisions of its own.
The SLO County Planning Commission, Port of San Luis Harbor District, SLO County Agricultural Liaison Advisory Board, the Environmental Center of SLO County, and an increasingly vocal sector of the public had all urged SLO County supervisors to oppose the transfer. The Nipomo Community Services District was also against the land shift.
This article appears in Sep 18-25, 2008.