The SLO County Planning Commission approved the Dana Reserve Specific Plan to move forward, paving the way to build more than 1,400 housing units in Nipomo should the Board of Supervisors agree.
After two days of public hearings on Oct. 23 and 24, commissioners voted 4-1 to incorporate recommendations into the plan and ultimately proposed that the Board of Supervisors approve the project. Planning Commissioner Anne Wyatt dissented.
“The reason I voted no on this motion is I still see some internal and external inconsistency in this specific plan, which we haven’t looked at,” Wyatt said during the meeting. “I see some questions in the development agreement and some opportunities for clarification, and I haven’t had a chance to ask any questions about the fiscal analysis, which I think there’s some legitimate questions about the assumptions involved in the fiscal analysis.”
The Dana Reserve applied to develop a 288-acre community with up to 1,318 residential units, 203,000 square feet of recreation, and related roads and infrastructure. The site also proposes a village shopping center, a California Fresh Market grocery store, a South County Cuesta College campus, and neighborhood parks.
During the meeting, staff presented recommendations to incorporate into the plan based on recent community input.
Some of these changes include increasing the number of deed-restricted affordable housing units from 75 to 104, reducing the number of age-restricted units, relocating two roads to avoid removing 200 oak trees, and reclassifying a 10-acre public neighborhood park to a 7-acre passive neighborhood park to avoid removing 110 oak trees, according to the staff report.
The Planning Commission asked that staff to recommend additional changes for supervisors to consider.
These recommendations include removing the age-restriction requirement completely, potentially incorporating a local hiring preference into the development agreement, putting fees from the development toward building a Nipomo Community Center, and increasing bicycle and pedestrian connectivity between the Dana Reserve and nearby schools.
The Planning Commission also asked the developer to include 52 additional deed-restricted affordable rental units and 100 accessory dwelling units.
Alison Martinez from the Nipomo Action Committee questioned how much time that community groups would have to comment on the proposed changes before staff presents it to the supervisors.
“It’s great that we get the chance to sit down and talk about a project, but we’re presenting that at five minutes as an organization to the Board of Supervisors; I don’t know if that’s time to sit down and talk about the possibility [of adding changes],” Martinez said. “I’m not sure if there’s going to be a meeting ahead of time or if it’s just going to be when we present to the Board of Supervisors.”
Planning Commissioner Mariam Shah said that community groups would have a chance to meet with staff beforehand to discuss any issues they might have with the project and additional changes they would like to see.
“So you review the plan prior to the meeting and then the evaluation will be presented to the supervisors as part of their report. Then, at the meeting you will have public comment,” Shah said.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 5, 2023.