Mehlschau said the most controversial item he has dealt with so far as a planning commissioner is the housing development proposed behind Santa Maria Speedway. Mehlschau voted to give the developers a time extension on the project. Legally, he said, there wasn't much else the commission could do at this date, because the applicants had received an initial OK years ago. One of them is Bill Robinson, president of the Save the Mesa, a nonprofit group dedicated to keeping Nipomo rural. Though Robinson had never met Mehlschau, he was initially uneasy about his appointment to the commission.
Farmers have integrity.
You can't beat that. Farming has been in Eugene Mehlschau's blood from the start. His Danish grandfather, Hans Mehlschau, and great-uncle, Andrew Mehlschau, came to Nipomo in the 1860s, following a German takeover of their home region, Mehlschau said. The brothers went into dryland farming, settled down and raised families. Today, there are no fewer than eight Mehlschaus in the phone book.