The wastewater treatment plant at the corner of Atascadero and Embarcadero roads in Morro Bay was built in 1953, but has not been in use for a while now.
“During the past 13 years, the City and Cayucos have both gone separate ways and have created their own wastewater treatment facilities, and so that led us to the plant being shut down,” said Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom.
Cayucos Sanitary District General Manager David Athey said they currently own 40% of the property.
“We don’t use that site for anything. We’ve never been actively on the site or used it for Cayucos Sanitary District activities,” Athey said.
On Tuesday night, the Morro Bay City Council voted to approve the purchase of Cayucos' share of the property for $3,867,800, with the money coming from existing sewer funds.
Mayor Wixom said it’s taken about three and a half years of planning to get to this point, and now they can work toward the future of the site.
The California Coastal Commission changed the zoning to a visitor-serving area, meaning the property can be used in a different way.
“[The] Waterfront Masterplan that we need to put in place, it’s included in the talks as we go about thinking about the next 30 to 50 years of our Embarcadero and how that looks, this site is included in that,” said Morro Bay General Manager John Craig.
The Cayucos Sanitary District is expected to vote on the sale sometime this week.
“So the next step is to get escrow open and Morro Bay can start their due diligence that is in the agreement. Once that is complete and both our board has agreed that they want to move forward with the escrow, then escrow can close," Athey said.
If all approvals go through in a timely manner, it is expected to close by late June.
