Paso Robles - Atascadero area (Lomita, Live Oak: 2013, insurance, house)

[NW4me]

Any thoughts about this area as a retirement destination? How is the health care?

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Any thoughts about this area as a retirement destination? How is the health care?

The only info i have about the area is over the years we spent much time camping & fishing at Naciemiento & San Antonio Lake. We have many wonderful memories of fun times. Naciemiento had many tasty crappie.
We have friends who lived at Camp Roberts, & worked in Hunter Leggett.

[gemstone1]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Any thoughts about this area as a retirement destination? How is the health care?

Available water would be my concern....the proliferation of wineries is sucking the aquifer dry.

2013 article

2022 article

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by gemstone1

Available water would be my concern....the proliferation of wineries is sucking the aquifer dry.

2013 article

2022 article

That's concerning, indeed!

[AnythingOutdoors]

Beautiful area. IMO Paso Robles has more going for it, with a great downtown with a good amount of restaurants and shops. Lots of good wineries. Can get brutally hot during the summer months.

My biggest concern in that area is fire hazard. Check out the state fire hazard map and note that these cities are surrounded by High and Very High hazard zones, and much of the city of Atascadero proper is very high hazard. Rebuilding/recovering after a fire is very difficult, especially in retirement, and the process takes years. Even if your house never burns the insurance premiums have become quite high in these areas. I would avoid the WUI and rural forest/brush properties at all cost, and look more towards established urban areas in Paso Robles with lower fuel loads.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

Beautiful area. IMO Paso Robles has more going for it, with a great downtown with a good amount of restaurants and shops. Lots of good wineries. Can get brutally hot during the summer months.

My biggest concern in that area is fire hazard. Check out the state fire hazard map and note that these cities are surrounded by High and Very High hazard zones, and much of the city of Atascadero proper is very high hazard. Rebuilding/recovering after a fire is very difficult, especially in retirement, and the process takes years. Even if your house never burns the insurance premiums have become quite high in these areas. I would avoid the WUI and rural forest/brush properties at all cost, and look more towards established urban areas in Paso Robles with lower fuel loads.

Thank you for posting the fire hazard maps. I wanted to say something along those lines, but didn't have anything but my own impression from driving through there a few times, to go on.

There's a golf course in town with a housing development on one side, that has larger lots, and borders on the course. A location like that would be ideal (if Paso is a must): lots of open space, no trees, yet still scenic. The heat alone would be a no-go for me, though.

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

Beautiful area. IMO Paso Robles has more going for it, with a great downtown with a good amount of restaurants and shops. Lots of good wineries. Can get brutally hot during the summer months.

My biggest concern in that area is fire hazard. Check out the state fire hazard map and note that these cities are surrounded by High and Very High hazard zones, and much of the city of Atascadero proper is very high hazard. Rebuilding/recovering after a fire is very difficult, especially in retirement, and the process takes years. Even if your house never burns the insurance premiums have become quite high in these areas. I would avoid the WUI and rural forest/brush properties at all cost, and look more towards established urban areas in Paso Robles with lower fuel loads.

Thanks! Very valuable caution there. But what does WUI stand for?

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Thanks! Very valuable caution there. But what does WUI stand for?

Wildland Urban Interface. It's the transition zone between urban and wilderness/forest. At first glance it looks like a great place to build a house: close to town yet large lots in nature with lots of trees/brush. But it's very dangerous for wild fires because the patchwork of private forest usually isn't managed correctly (expensive to thin vegetation), and it's impossible to do proscribed burns. Just very difficult to defend.

[AnythingOutdoors]

As an example of the WUI, consider this house in Atascadero. Beautiful house in a lovely setting, but extremely high fire danger. One side of the house has Coast Live Oaks up to the roof line -- far too close for comfort. And then the back side of the house is near Chaparral, specifically chamise aka "greasewood." The greasewood moniker has to do with the high oil content, which means it burns fast and hot! In fact, it's a fire adapted plant and its seeds require fire to germinate. There's a little bit of defensible space between the Chaparral and the house, but not enough. Diablo winds (hot dry winds from the north east that typically hit at the peak of fire season) would blow embers directly towards the house. This entire area is a disaster waiting to happen

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

As an example of the WUI, consider this house in Atascadero. Beautiful house in a lovely setting, but extremely high fire danger. One side of the house has Coast Live Oaks up to the roof line -- far too close for comfort. And then the back side of the house is near Chaparral, specifically chamise aka "greasewood." The greasewood moniker has to do with the high oil content, which means it burns fast and hot! In fact, it's a fire adapted plant and its seeds require fire to germinate. There's a little bit of defensible space between the Chaparral and the house, but not enough. Diablo winds (hot dry winds from the north east that typically hit at the peak of fire season) would blow embers directly towards the house. This entire area is a disaster waiting to happen

The property looks like a sitting duck for coyotes and/or mountain lions. It also looks very isolated. Atascadero, you say? I don't see Atascadero anywhere.