Stockholm Syndrome, the SLOGB mental anguish continues.....

Hello all,

Well SLO city has finally acted on my call through City Council public comment session and produced a report on rainwater harvesting! Good stuff. But they didn't let me know they had it on the agenda tomorrow night..as directed by the mayor. Sorry all for the late notice. Fortunately, city council members made me aware. Here's a copy for your viewing pleasure..

http://www.slocity.org/cityclerk/agendas/2010/051810/ss3rainwaterharvesting.pdf

Haven't gone through it all yet, but did anyone in SLO GB get consulted on this? They say that in the first line of the doc. They plan to consult with SLO GB throughout. If someone has been consulted, let me know who as I prepared lengthy documents for the City Council on legislative aspects and impacts that I can supply to the process - so they don't go to waste.

Come on along tomorrow night for some rainwater harvesting celebration that its on the agenda!! Thanks to all for supporting..

Jenny
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Please let me know about your push for Rainwater Harvesting Rights.

I will post it on my blog: www.yourgreenrights.blogspot.com

I was just elected to represent the disenfranchised middle class in the middle of Los Osos prohibition zone, on LOCAC (District 2).

Rainwater harvesting is a RIGHT not a privilege.

Nothing is governable by the County, a City, or the Water Board until the actual discharge. Before that anything is just a 'fixture'. If rainwater exceeds the quality of greywater in EPA documents, then I would suggest you blend it with greywater and use the State emergency mandated greywater law to use that water. Why not?

Why the distinction between greywater and harvest water?

I would suggest you are experiencing......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome


Where was SLOGB at the LOWWP Coastal Commission De Novo hearings?
I suggest you get on board with Keith Wimer, he was well received at the resent Water Board meeting (I have flip video).

Salt water intrusion is killing the LO water basin like right NOW! No one is paying attention. Where is SLOGB? Gee, nice handouts and sweet fuzzy relationships with County Staff while the LO water basin dies.........

Blakeslee AB 45, Locking urban homeowners into high cost grid power.

Sorry Folks, I'm afraid Sam Blakeslee has to protect his PG&E donors. We're too late on this one.

"(1) The parcel where the system is located shall be at least one acre in size and located outside an urbanized area."

"(3) Minimum setbacks for the system tower shall be no farther from the property line than the system height, unless a greater setback
is needed to comply with applicable fire setback requirements set
forth in Section 4290 of the Public Resources Code. "

Here's the full bill.

And just how does this law work with this wind power innovation?
Hummdinger LLC-- Micro wind power.

The 64 million dollar question. Property Rights and Your Septic Tank Component

These 11 slides outline your property rights, how they have been ignored, and what you can do about it. You shouldn't be paying twice for primary waste treatment. Take a look:

Boiling The Los Osos Frog (Homeowner). One assessment at a time...

Hey, wake up people, low end housing in Los Osos has a foreclosure rate four times higher than Cayucos. There are 85 foreclosures in Los Osos as of this Sunday on Trulia and only 20 in Cayucos. With the sewer already overpriced, more downward pressure on home prices on LO related to the sewer costs will impact the Los Osos middle class by reducing their property values.

And forget differing your taxes if you're a senior. The program is closed down. From the State website:
"On February 20, 2009, the Governor signed signed Senate Bill X3 8 (Chapter 4, Statutes of 2009), which immediately suspends the Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral Program. This legislation prohibits the filing of claims for property tax postponement and prohibits the Controller from accepting claims filed after February 20, 2009. " If you're a senior on a fixed income, you will be taxed out of your home. The County will foreclose on your property.
Don't believe me? Try here.....
http://www.sco.ca.gov/ardtax_prop_tax_postponement.html

Meanwhile the County of San Luis Obispo continues to abuse California tax law protections built into the State Constitution and mislead home owner's about the real cost of the LOWWP. How you may ask is the heat being turned up on the tax "FROG" here? Well here's my bullet points:

• I and I (infiltration) is not a "special benefit" to your property yet you are being charged for the 300,000 GPD overcapacity or redundancy built into the system. I and I is stormwater runoff, period. It is a general benefit. End of story. (HOWARD JARVIS TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION et. al., Plaintiffs and CITY OF SALINAS Appellants, H022665 Monterey County v. Super. Ct. No. M45873)
  
  
• Entirely fake "hearsay" figures on STEP. Its pricing and impacts and comparison. Why did they not use the Ripley report? That stated a figure 1/3 less than the engineer's report.
  
  
• Omitted from STEP comparison was that many existing septic tanks installed after 1975 can be used for STEP collection using a secondary vault after the existing septic tank. Calculations show that gravity pipe leakage is equivalent to a three inch drop in water in your septic tank each day due to leakage. Savings 5000.00 per household. No torn up yard. Compare that to the scare tactic flyer that went out about step footprints on your property.
  
  
• Bait and switch the 218 vote, and I quote the addendum to engineers report on special benefits:
  "In the current project selection strategy, the STEP and gravity alternatives would compete through the construction bidding phase using a competitive bid, design/build, and/or build/own/operate/transfer process. " (Dean Benedix P.E., Assessment Engineer of Work)
  We voted on the project given this assumption. This option was taken away from us. IS THE 218 VOTE VOIDABLE UNTIL IT MEETS THIS EXPECTATION?
  
  
• No credit given for existing on site treatment. You are already are treating sewage. Here's the figures from the flow and loads report:
  "Table 10 Projected Characteristics of Wastewater,
  Gravity Collection System average loading: BOD mg/L 340, Suspended Solids mg/L 390, Total Nitrogen mg/L 56 58 Now compare that to STEP collection: BOD mg/L 140 , Suspended Solids mg/L 80, Total Nitrogen mg/L 56"
  Primary treatment is of no benefit to us. Septic tanks are a viable on site component that is not subject to the RWCQB's fines. The discharge after treatment is of the RWQCB's wrath.
  Primary treatment is therefore a general benefit. If the County wants to remove this processing is needs to do so at their expense. It is a working component.
  
  
• County advisory vote $24,000 per property. Ripley estimate $16,000 per property. Ripley using existing septic tanks- $10,000 per property! Ripley report claims existing tanks can be used after testing. Cost of test $600.00.
  
  
• Greywater reductions reduce the special benefit by 20% yet we are given no credit in the assessors report. New greywater emergency law makes the 218 assesment questionable.
  
  
  STEVE
  

33% of Homeowners With Mortgages Are Underwater

33% of Homeowners With Mortgages Are Underwater

According to Zillow.com, nationwide, the number is 22%, up from 18% Q4 2008. In California, 32% percent of homes are worth less than what’s owed on them. If we are thinking about the bank stress test, then unencumbered homes — those owned free and clear without any mortgages — are not relevant to the discussion. As we noted over the weekend, if you look at only the subset of homes with mortgages, the numbers are much worse. Nationally, 22% of all homes are underwater, then consider the total of homes purchased with credit. Back out the mortgage-free homes, and we get 33% of all mortgaged homes are underwater. This is significant in terms of the results of the stress tests, and the banks ability to withstand further deterioration of their balance sheets. (For stress test purposes, homes without mortgages are not relevant) Here’s Bloomberg:

"A growing number of U.S. homeowners owe more than their properties are worth after prices extended their two-year decline in the first quarter, Zillow.com said. Almost 21.8 percent of all owners were underwater as of March 31, the Seattle-based real estate data service said in a report today. At the end of the fourth quarter, 17.6 percent of homeowners owed more than their original mortgage, while 14.3 percent had negative equity three months earlier. Property values dropped 14 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, reducing the median value of all U.S. single- family homes, condominiums and cooperatives to $182,378, Zillow said. The gain in underwater homeowners will lead to more bank repossessions, the company said."

The recession cut home values by $2.4 trillion last year. In a separate survey of homeowner sentiment, 31 percent of homeowners said they would be at least "somewhat likely" to put their property up for sale in the next 12 months should they see signs of a recovery. This implies that any housing "recovery" will be about stabilization and stopping sales/price erosion — not about regaining higher prices anytime soon . . .

Californias NOD's Spike in March

CA foreclosure background - in mid-2008 the foreclosure wave was artificially held back as a result of the CA law SB1137 enacted in Sept 2008. This also kept NOD’s and NTS’s at much lower levels than the actual defaults that were occurring. Other bubble states and several banks/servicers also went on random moratoria and the foreclosure wave was held back for the past six months. But just like so many other intervention and moratoria in the past, the problem just comes out the other side even more violent than if they would have done nothing. Adding insult to injury, the GSE’s announced this week that they were coming off moratorium, which could increase foreclosures by 20-25% alone.

Prices off a cliff. Is this SLO good news?

SLO County 44 % down vs. 73% for Monterey County? Many properties in Los Osos are in negative territory compared to their loan.

Here's the Mix...

Center for Economic and Policy Research: Boomers Equity Down by 45 Percent.

1) The median household with a person between the ages of 45 to 54 saw its net worth fall by more than 45 percent between 2004 and 2009, from $172,400 in 2004 to just $94,200 in 2009 (all amounts are in 2009 dollars). If the median late baby boomer household took all of the wealth they had accumulated during their lifetime, they would still owe approximately 45 percent of the price of a typical house and have no other assets whatsoever.

2) The situation for early baby boomers is somewhat worse. The median household with a person between the ages of 55 and 64 saw its wealth fall by almost 50 percent from $315,400 in 2004 to $159,800 in 2009. This net worth would be sufficient to allow these households, who are at the peak ages for wealth accumulation, to cover approximately 90 percent of the cost of the typical house, if they had no other assets.

3) As a result of the plunge in house prices, many baby boomers now have little or no equity in their home. According to our calculations, of those who own their primary residence, nearly 30 percent of households headed by someone between the ages of 45 to 54 will need to bring money to their closing (to cover their mortgage and transactions costs) if they were to sell their home. More than 15 percent of the early baby boomers, people between the ages of 55 and 64, will need to bring money
to a closing when they sell their home.

These calculations imply that, as a result of the collapse of the housing bubble, millions of middle class homeowners still have little or no equity even after they have been homeowners for several decades.

CNN 40% of renters risk eviction from foreclosures.

Case Shiller SLO Housing Value Drop 39%!!!

For Many Seniors in Los Osos, Less Than 20% Equity Means No Sewer Tax Help.

The Property Tax Postponement Program allows eligible homeowners to postpone payment of part or all of the property taxes on their residence. To participate in this program, the homeowner must complete the claim form and submit it to the State Controller's Office. A claim form must be filed each year the individual desires to have their property taxes postponed. Upon approval of the claim, the State Controller's Office will mail Certificates of Eligibility to the homeowner. The homeowner must mail or take the Certificates of Eligibility to the county tax collector's office to postpone the property taxes due.

OUCH! NO EQUITY MEANS NO POSTPONEMENT!
SEE EQUITY REQUIREMENTS FROM THE STATE WEBSITE BELOW.

Click to see larger image.
UNDERWATER PROPERTIES WON'T GET THE BREAK.

Is SLO County hiding the actual low income demographics in Los Osos?

Buried in the LOWWP Sewer project EIR Appendix "O" that claims no impact on on low income homeowners, is a simple environmental shell game. The document uses a 3.5 mile radius to identify the economic demographics of Los Osos instead of the "Prohibition Zone" where the sewer is going to be built creating an economic 'happy face' picture to paste up on glossy broschures about the project. Thr real truth is alot more dismal. It is reflected in census information, an avoided study done by the LOCSD, school lunch program data for low income homeowners, and the boundries of the real area affected.

San Diego, many properties under water. Los Osos on site costs ignore lack of low income funds.

The County of San Luis Obispo has not addressed any of the present and future financial stresses on low income homeowners in Los Osos prohibition zone. It continues to ignore them. The draft EIR claims that the sewer project has no negative financial impact when actually the project costs hit within the present RE meltdown causing a mass exodus of low and middle income homeowners destroying the social fabric of this family oriented community.

Los Osos Home Prices Plummet 19% Y to Y.

28% price drop Y to Y for three bedroom homes? Since there are more of them I assume that this is a more reflective price fall. If you put 20 percent down is your morgage underwater?

20% of Los Osos homeowners have no equity for on site sewer costs and face RWQCB fines if they don't hook up.

According to CoreLogic Inc.-----

"One in five borrowers in the $10.5 trillion U.S. mortgage market owes more than their property is worth, according to First American CoreLogic Inc., a real estate data company based in Santa Ana, California."

Overall View of Housing Prices

Loss map of Banking Stocks 2/20/09

MAY THE LOS OSOS HOUSING DEATHWATCH BEGIN

The new California law had little effect on foreclosure inventory. As of February first, there were 42 Bank Owned and foreclosure distressed properties in Los Osos amounting to almost 42% of all sales. This has been driving down the cost of low end housing while more expensive housing is affected less. Arm resets will put more downward pressure on LO Non-jumbo financed housing.

DOUBLE WAMMY!

ARM resets plus your sewer bill could add as much as $1000 dollars to the monthly payments for low end homeowners.

Here's the Los Osos list from foreclosureradar.com

Low end housing prices are tanking in Los Osos. Leaving many owners in a negative equity position and no money for on site improvements.

This is leaving them exposed to RWQCB fines and no way out. Differing payment under the state law that the County was claiming requires "at least 20% equity" in the property. Big omission for SLO County Staff when claiming fixed income homeowners had a way out using this law.

With no equity for on site improvements, the completion of the sewer project will stall having an adverse enviormental impact.