New housing is on its way to San Luis Obispo County to attract and retain the workforce for local schools.
“What’s really challenging here in this county is finding housing for educators,” 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said. “They’re missing out on teachers that would love to come to the area and would love to teach.”
Ortiz-Legg spoke during the Board of Supervisors’ March 25 meeting, which concluded with a 4-0 vote to amend a land use ordinance to allow for more school district housing. First District Supervisor John Peschong was absent from the meeting.
The changes sprouted from a request made by the SLO County Office of Education in 2023. At the time, supervisors unanimously approved amending some planning area standards in the county’s land use ordinance—making way for school district housing in the future.
At the same time, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2295 into law, which considers housing development projects on properties owned by local educational agencies as an allowable use. The projects must follow specific criteria, such as having a minimum of 10 housing units on land within urbanized areas. The bill became effective on Jan. 1, 2024.
But the county education office can’t take advantage of AB 2295 because its properties are in unincorporated areas, and it wanted to construct six more housing units on an existing 1.4-acre property at Pennington Creek Road. The parcel is located east of Highway 1, off Education Drive.
“This will provide rental property for our non-management [lower-wage] employees for no more than five years, allowing the employees to save and enter the market,” county Superintendent James Brescia told New Times. “This was successful for the family that lived in the existing unit and has recently moved into a non-[county education office]-owned property.”
According to EdJoin data for SLO County, there are 274 open positions in local schools that include teaching, non-teaching, and administrative jobs.
“Our need for employees and where they reside before employment has not changed significantly since 2023,” Brescia said. “We continue to see about 100 teacher hires in SLO County annually, and this figure has been consistent for several years.”
In what county staff called “the spirit of AB 2295,” the education office requested an ordinance amendment to pave the way for school district housing on its Pennington Creek Road parcel, which falls under the public facilities land use category. Residential use isn’t currently allowed.
According to SLO County Planner Tristan Roach, school district housing would be reserved for low- and moderate-income educational faculty.
He told New Times that the six additional parcels eligible for school district housing are owned by the education office, Cal Poly, Cuesta College, and the Lucia Mar, Paso Robles, and Atascadero school districts.
Supervisors aligned with the county Planning Commission’s recommendation from December 2024: allowing school district housing on all parcels labeled as public facility.
The other option for consideration was to green-light developing a framework to limit school district housing only to the site on Pennington Creek Road.
Stemming from comments made by 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson, the board also directed staff to consider whether the land use ordinance change could also be extended to the coastal zone. The application of that change would hinge on the supervisors’ approval.
“This specific project … is some ways not the ideal place to put housing being as far from other urbanized areas,” Gibson said at the meeting. “But it is in a beautiful part of the 2nd District. Who wouldn’t want to live there?” Δ
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 6, 2025.
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