The plans for Garden Street Terraces, a retail-residential development slated to be built in downtown San Luis Obispo, have shrunk. Acquiescing to requests by city officials and residents, and perhaps bowing to economic conditions, the development will be much smaller than originally planned.
According to city staff, the project, which will occupy an entire block of the south side of Garden Street between Higuera and Marsh streets, has lost much of its height and size. Renderings of the newly chopped project make the development look modest compared with its aircraft carrier-sized original.
Instead of buildings 75 feet high, the newly revised project will be restricted to a maximum height of 50 feet. The boutique hotel will be reduced from 95 to 48 rooms. Eight condominiums are expected, as opposed to 34 in the original plan.
Hamish Marshall, the project’s developer, is slotted to receive a $2.4 million loan from the city to help build the project.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2011.