A year after the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors greenlit the old Dana Reserve housing development plan, the new iteration of the project received approval once more.
Mirroring its 2024 decision at the Nov. 4 board meeting, the supervisors voted 3-2—with 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson and 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding dissenting—in favor of the modified plan.
“Quite clearly the project we approved in April 2024, even as I voted against it, is far superior to the project we have in front of us today,” Gibson said at the meeting. “I won’t dwell on the flabbergasting stance of opacity in trying to get the facts of the settlement agreement in front of this board so we might make a reasoned decision. But on the matter of the merits … this is a bad deal.”
The proposed Dana Reserve development experienced stumbling blocks over the years, most recently with two rounds of lawsuits from the Nipomo Action Committee and the SLO chapter of the California Native Plant Society against the county, the Board of Supervisors, and Dana Reserve developer NKT Commercial over environmental impact concerns involving oak trees and the manzanita shrub.
Both lawsuits came to a halt thanks to a settlement agreement between NKT, the Nipomo Action Committee, and the local California Native Plant Society chapter.
Originally, the Dana Reserve was slated to have 1,370 housing units, including 156 affordable homes spread out over two neighborhoods. The new plan calls for 1,242 units with all parties in the settlement agreement deciding to remove half of the affordable homes to make way for 3 acres of oak woodlands. The cuts to housing increased the amount of open space from roughly 55 acres to a little more than 60 acres.
“We talked a lot about having a housing crisis, I don’t remember ever hearing that we have a manzanita crisis,” Gibson said at the meeting. “The approved project didn’t destroy all the manzanita that the plaintiffs seek to protect … nor does the modified project protect it all or save it all.”
Gibson was also the only supervisor at the meeting to address redactions in the settlement agreement. He previously told New Times that the redacted agreement includes payments worth over $2 million from the Dana Reserve developer to the Nipomo Action Committee and the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society.
According to the agreement, the developer’s proposed closure of Hetrick Avenue would require an undisclosed payment amount to the county—if the county approves the closure—for the construction of a cul-de-sac and striping at Ridge Road and Hetrick Avenue.
“I’m not at liberty to disclose financial amounts,” Dana Reserve attorney Andrew Fogg told Gibson at the meeting. “There will be a future application for the closure of Hetrick, and I’m sure if that was to be … approved, the funding consideration would be something that’s disclosed at that time.”
Fourth District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, who represents Nipomo, said the new Dana Reserve project is too large and has too many impacts on the public.
He also encouraged the board to explore the possibility of rezoning a parcel of land proposed as a gift to Cuesta College by NKT Commercial’s Nick Tompkins. Cuesta is considering setting up a satellite South County campus on that property.
If Cuesta doesn’t want the land, Paulding wants a condition in place that preserves the property for other public uses like a community center for the local YMCA.
The remaining supervisors expressed support for the revised Dana Reserve project, stating the county needs more homes to quickly put a dent in its housing crisis.
Fifth District Supervisor Heather Moreno said it’s not the developer’s fault that fewer homes exist in the new Dana Reserve plan.
“CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] is used up and down the state to prevent development from going forward, and particularly, housing development,” she said. “If [the Dana Reserve plan] goes forward, it’s going to cost more than it did a year ago. Who loses? The community, people buying those homes.”
The Dana Reserve team told New Times in a written statement that it’s proud of the final approved project despite making compromises in the settlement.
“Our goal has always been to provide a true ladder of housing, and after navigating the approval process for the past six years, we are excited to move forward and build a community that many can call home,” the statement said. ∆
This article appears in Nov 6-16, 2025.