More housing and a smaller hotel could be in store for the Trilogy at Monarch Dunes development in Nipomo—part of a slate of proposed revisions to the next phase of the project’s buildout.
Trilogy residents filled the SLO County government chambers on Feb. 9 as the county Planning Commission deliberated the changes proposed by builder Shea Homes.
Shea Homes agent Jamie Jones explained that the project’s original specific plan, approved by the county in 1998, envisioned a 400-room hotel, a large commercial/retail center, and a public park or school.
But the circumstances today are different, she said. The company instead wants to amend the specific plan to downsize the hotel to 65 rooms, relocate it to the “village center” with reduced commercial/retail space, and build 162 more housing units—40 condos and 112 twin homes. Some of those units would be built on the former park site.
“A lot has changed since 1998,” Jones said. “The market was different. Retail was different. Housing needs were different. Talking with county planners, [the question was] what should we do with these sites? It was really focused on housing.”
The added housing, relocation of the hotel to the village center, and the loss of park and open space emerged as the most controversial aspects of the revisions.
In the months leading up to the meeting, Shea Homes and the Trilogy homeowners’ association (HOA) struck an agreement that involved Shea and its contractor contributing $4.2 million to the HOA to help it improve its recreational amenities in conjunction with the buildout. That money would help build a new pool as well as new pickleball, tennis, and bocce ball courts.
That proposal garnered 61 percent support from Trilogy homeowners in an HOA survey, and the HOA gave its official endorsement to the county for the plan amendments. But some Trilogy residents told the commission that they objected to the changes as well as the process behind them.
“I think it is a false choice that they’ve set up—that unfortunately our [HOA] board has bought into—that there’s only two things we can do: one is to live with the 400-room hotel and the big village center as it was planned 20 to 30 years ago, or adopt this very plan,” resident Rosemary Remacle said. “I think there’s also a little bit of misrepresentation about all the communication within the community. … We were told Shea would take back the money they have offered to the community for amenities if we did not vote yes, which I consider some kind of blackmail or bullying.”
After an extensive discussion, planning commissioners voted 4-1 to recommend the specific plan amendments to the Board of Supervisors—with some stipulations. The commission recommended that Shea Homes be required to incorporate 31 accessory dwelling units (ADUs) into the 112 twin homes—an effort to add affordable housing into the project.
Jones, the developer’s agent, supported the ADU idea and said that Trilogy is “not a good fit for deed-restricted affordable housing” due to its “high HOA fees and lack of public transit.” She noted that if even 5 percent of the twin homes were deed restricted as affordable to moderate-income buyers, Shea Homes would lose $2.6 million.
“We think this is the most cost-effective proposal for all,” Jones said of the plan for 31 ADUs.
The Planning Commission also supported a proposal to ask the county to dedicate $1.2 million in developer fees—paid by Shea Homes as an in-lieu fee for the loss of park space—to help pave 3 miles of pedestrian trails around Trilogy.
“A lot of the people who are in this development bought with the idea there was going to be a park there. So they’re losing something relatively large,” 1st District Commissioner Alex Villicana said. “I really feel that if we have any ability to direct where those funds go in this community to mitigate the loss of the park, we should do that.”
Mike Multari, the 2nd District commissioner, dissented in the vote and spoke the most critically of the amendments. He challenged Shea Homes and the county to reexamine whether a hotel made sense for the development at all. He also said he’s “uncomfortable that there isn’t more support from the community generally” for the changes.
“Is this specific plan a good improvement over the old specific plan? Why are we locked into this notion that we need a resort in this location in Nipomo?” he said. “It’s kind of dumb, in my opinion.” Δ
This article appears in Feb 16-26, 2023.
We need to free the County from big money outside developers. Shea Homes, in particular, has repeatedly broken promises to county government, Trilogy residents and Nipomo residents. For years, this developer has promised to build a Village Center with “walkable amenities” such as a grocery, pharmacy and other amenities to service Trilogy and keep our residents from burning up Mesa and Tefft roads. By promising a self-contained development, Shea claimed they would not add to traffic congestion on area roads.
* Now Shea wants to add ~1,000 new residents in duplexes, condos and a motel to the single-family home area. Yet, they have not promised ANY funding to support the services these new homes will require.
* For decades, these profit-driven outsiders used every trick in the book to prevent us from building a better county.
* By donating hundreds of thousands of bucks to anyone who agrees to pave paradise, these developers have divided the community.
* The County has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting their attempts to gerrymander districts to keep their cronies in power.
* Local investigators and even the FBI have spent millions investigating allegations of bribes, corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
* Our courts and all of us have spent more money fighting these developers than these developers have earned us back.
* We just cant afford to do business with them anymore.
* They have taken our time and our money.
* Fighting them has taken our focus of the real job at hand: making progress on environmentally conscious, responsible development across the County.
* Its time to show these developers the door. We need a building moratorium on their current projects. Stop their steal.
* And we need to ask when did the county get into the habit of bending over backward to accommodate big-money builders?
* In 2019 and 2021 I stood before the Planning Commission and , for a Shea performance bond because they dont keep promises. Im asking again.
* When did Sheas broken promises become misrepresentation? When did misrepresentation becme fraud? When did County officials become complicit in developer fraud?