In November 2024 our voters will be asked to consider extending the1/2 cent sales tax originally passed as Measure F-14. Although a general tax that could be spent on many things. the city has spent all funds raised by F-14 on maintaining neighborhood roads.
This has resulted in over 30 miles of neighborhood roads being refurbished, from resurfacing to complete reconstruction and a significant increase in the city's overall pavement condition index.
Without the funds from F-14 that wouldn't have happened and without extending this 1/2 cent sales tax into the future, such maintenance and improvements to neighborhood roads will virtually stop.
Please vote yes on this measure.
On a related note I would like to thank Atascadero voters for approving Measure D-20, a one cent sales in November 2020. The funds raised from that measure have enabled our city to increase police staffing and raise officer pay to stop the loss of police and other personnel to other cities. Our staffing is still lean and efficient compared to other cities, but we are keeping them and making the most of their professionalism and dedication. Measure D-20 funding is also allowing us to replace the 70 year fire station #1 and upgrade fire station #2 and the police station to meet new requirements.
You can see it for yourself. Our downtown has seen substantial improvement in the last several years with the addition of numerous restaurants and other businesses leading to almost full occupancy of existing commercial space. The City was very supportive of seeing the La Plaza development come to fruition. We approved the plan and work is underway to make El Camino Real in the downtown area more pedestrian friendly and add more parking. Some people are still concerned about the loss of a lane of traffic but the fact is we want our downtown to be a place to go to, not a place to drive through. We still have a long way to go. I am open to allowing taller buildings with more housing on the second, third, and fourth floors to make commercial development on the ground floor more viable and bring more residents to support a more economically vibrant downtown and provide more housing opportunities for our residents.
Homelessness is an ongoing problem facing all cities in California including Atascadero. Charles believes it would be disingenuous to say that our city can fully resolve this issue. Still, our community is very generous in attempting to help the homeless. For many years we were one of only two cities in the county to have a year round homeless shelter, ECHO. The City has supported ECHO's expansion and ECHO's success in providing shelter and getting people out of homelessness is directly attributable to the generous and giving nature of our residents. In addition to ECHO, Atascadero also has supported a warming shelter and Charles and other council members have volunteered at both. While our community is generous, our citizens have every right to complain about inappropriate behaviors that occur in our parks and other city facilities. Our police department has and should continue to target criminal behaviors that interfere with the public's use of taxpayer funded facilities.
In Jan 2025 Atascadero will be the last city in SLO County to participate in Central Coast Community Energy. Residents and businesses will still receive their electricity through PG&E distribution lines, but the electricity is generated by CCCE. CCCE has a strong record of providing electricity cheaper than PG&E, and it is easy to opt out for anyone who wants to stick with PG&E, or changes their mind later. For Charles this has always been about two things, choice and the opportunity to save money, something people all across the political spectrum should readily agree with.
Economic development is critical to our community's future. Atascadero has a huge imbalance between housing and jobs that results in thousands of our citizens leaving the city everyday to work, primarily in SLO. As a result they spend their money elsewhere and Atascadero has less shopping opportunities and receives less sales tax revenue per person than any city in the county. Charles has been a consistent and strong voice on the Council for economic development and encouraging businesses to build and expand in Atascadero. Charles voted against changes in our zoning definitions that would make it harder for some businesses to build here and is constantly looking for ways to encourage commercial development.
Atascadero has built relatively more housing in the last 20 years than most cities in the county. Still, building anything in California is costly and time consuming and housing here remains expensive. The City has approved projects with smaller home sizes and numerous apartments that will offer somewhat more affordable housing options, especially for younger workers and families. Charles has supported these actions and, as mentioned above, supports the addition of more housing in taller structures downtown as a way to also have housing complement commercial economic development. This is important as housing by itself, generates insufficient revenue for the City to provide services to new residents. To be financially sustainable a city must have a better balance of housing and commercial development.