Atascadero Barrel Creek project gets pushback from residents 

A proposed mixed-use development in Atascadero is getting some mixed reviews from residents.

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• Photo Courtesy Of The City Of Atascadero
• NEW DEVELOPMENTS This rendering of Barrel Creek Hotel by RRM Design group could become a reality for Atascadero residents if the project gets the green light by city officials in the upcoming months.

The project, commonly known as Barrel Creek, has been in the works for the past two to three years, city Community Development Director Phil Dunsmore said. Introduced by developer Eric Tienken and RRM Design Group as a way to introduce a "destination entertainment venue" to the area, the development is located in the northwest corner of Highway 101 and Del Rio Road. Barrel Creek would include 20 single family residential lots, 40 apartment units, a 120-room hotel, and 53,500 square feet of commercial space.

"In a little bit of a way [it's] a horizontal mixed-use project with tourist-serving uses, some retail, and some residential to kind of give it a buffering and blending to the neighborhood as we get away from Highway 101," Dunsmore told New Times.

Described as a "northern gateway to Atascadero" by RRM architect Scott Martin at the Jan. 17 city Planning Commission meeting, Barrel Creek has been met with some opposition. Resident Anne Gallagher asked why the city couldn't develop unused retail properties like the old Kmart plaza located at El Camino and San Anselmo instead of erecting the project in a "peaceful residential area."

Dunsmore told New Times that the city can't control what property owners do with their properties, adding that the project still has to jump through multiple hoops, such as gaining approval from the Planning Commission and the City Council and having a completed environmental analysis.

"If the city had our choice, we would look at developing the center of the city first and looking at all of the underutilized properties closest to the downtown core, before we go out further and further and further and look at vacant properties," he said.

Resident Madeline Rothman was concerned about the project's potential environmental impacts on Graves Creek.

"The serious and deleterious environmental impacts would include noise pollution, light pollution, air and water pollution caused by increased traffic on San Ramon and Del Rio Road, with toxic laden runoff impairing the water quality of Graves Creek," Rothman wrote in an email to the Planning Commission.

While the Barrel Creek project will change the area if it's approved, Dunsmore told New Times that the impacts won't be too damaging.

"It certainly changes the area. It will create minor additional air quality changes, it will create minor additional traffic changes, and upgrade minor additional noise changes. But none of those are changes that cannot be mitigated," Dunsmore explained. "The proposed environmental analysis does propose mitigation and reduces all those impacts to less than significant. So that's a really important factor."

Rothman isn't alone in her concerns about Barrel Creek. Other residents have voiced concerns regarding increased traffic on San Ramon Road.

"I fear that life's simple pleasures will disappear, never to return if this project comes to fruition in its current proposal," resident Dave Watson wrote to the commission. "Some neighbors have or have had horses and 4-H/FFA animals. Are we just collateral damage? For a developer?!? ... 62 years, I've lived here ... on San Ramon Road. Please consider the ramifications."

Dunsmore told New Times that residents' concerns about increased traffic, increased noise levels, and street lighting will be taken into consideration and discussed at the next Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 7.

"Anytime you change anything in a community or neighborhood, there's always concern about the end result and is that change going to be positive or negative? And I think that's the concern," Dunsmore said. "Our staff can offer our thoughts on it and our thoughts on the environment [but] at the end of the day, it's really up to the community. ... We want to hear what the community wants to see there, and if they don't want it, that's OK."