News Round Up… Seismic Testing / Morro Bay Incubator Plan

Central Coast Seismic Testing Gets State Lands Commission OK

A legal notice as been posted that is a State Lands Commission Record of Decision(ROD) as of 8.20/12. The project has drawn opposition from people concerned the seismic testing will harm sea creatures off the coast.Critics are urging people to contact the California Coastal Commission as well as the California Fish and Game Commission.

The subject of a PG&E EIR this Spring, Lands Commission  says the project consists of a high-energy seismic survey to better characterize various fault zones in the vicinity of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, in Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo County. The Project includes (1) an offshore survey component, consisting of a geophysical vessel towing a series of sound-generating airguns and sound-recording hydrophones, and (2) a nearshore commercial of onshore geophones, strings of seafloor geophones and onshore sound generation. The Project will be conducted between October 15, 2012 and December 31, 2012, including mobilization and demobilization, and between October 15, 2013 and December 31, 2013, if the Project is not completed in the first year. State Lands Commission action is a non-exclusive Geophysical Survey Permit valid from October 15, 2012 through December 31, 2013.

Morro Bay Chamber Incubator Center Plan Still Pending

Morro Bay Chamber wants to move to the soon-to-be vacant city fire station at 695 Harbor St.The city council is considering the chamber proposal to lease the 2400sf building for $1 year for three years with the chamber promising to operate a business incubator center in the building. The incubator would be called the Small Business Resource Center.
According to CEO Craig Schmidt, council at their most recent meeting, heard some push-back from some property owners in town that the city should not subsidize new businesses, But the chamber CEO points out that “these new start-ups are not ready to make a go of it on their own” and that helping them launch will result in more rented space in town and the new jobs more mature businesses would bring.

According to the chamber, the center will offer help to access capital for fledgling businesses,affordable but time-limited rent,counseling,education,marketing and other measures of support.

Schmidt says the chamber has a $58,000 contract to do economic development for the city but longer will do marketing for visitors. That has been assigned to a new tourism bureau who will hold forth at the chamber’s current location at the Visitor Center on the Embarcadero as of January.

Schmidt expects council,who tabled a city staff approval of the plan most recently, will get enough clarification in the next month to make a decision.

The alternative is the transportation building that would not have room to add the incubator program but only space for the chamber and its Economic Development program says Schmidt.