New SLO County housing development approved despite local opposition

A new housing development In Templeton got the OK to move forward this week from the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted 4-1 to approve the 22-unit project and its required land-use ordinance, with Supervisor Bruce Gibson dissenting.

Located at 301 N. Main St., the project has been in the pipeline since October 2021, when it was originally pitched with one extra home. It went before the Planning Commission in June.

Over those three years, the Mittry Farms Trust-owned project faced several setbacks and opposition from nearby residents and the Templeton Area Advisory Group , which makes recommendations to the Board of Supervisors but has no policymaking power.

Gibson said he would have preferred the development place more of an emphasis on denser, affordable housing instead of the single-family homes and homeowners association planned for the project.

“I would point out to my colleagues on the board that we adopted the goal of actually meeting our Regional Housing Needs Assessment numbers in this current cycle, which runs through 2028, and we have almost met the above-market rate housing goals,” Gibson said. “Where we are woefully short is in those houses that are affordable to households of lower of lower income. This proposal does not help any of that.”

Project near Hwy. 101 could offer ADUs

According to the staff report, the project would eventually bring a 22-unit subdivision plan to a parcel of land currently zoned as commercial space.

To do that, the applicants had to request a land-use ordinance amendment and a vesting tentative tract map to get authorization to divide the parcel into 26 lots that would be filled with 22 single-family homes with space for accessory dwelling units.

The proposed site is just 60 feet east of Highway 101 and is within the Salinas River Sub Area, with the 10-acre parcel sharing a northern boundary with Templeton’s San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

The Planning Commission added a condition banning short-term rentals on the project’s ADUs and added a recommendation that the project include some form of affordable housing.

The project would require a new 990-foot-long private road extending west of North Main Street, ending in a 48-foot cul-de-sac for vehicle turnarounds.

Along the southern and northern borders of the property, landscaping would introduce retention basins that could hold up to 2.7 acre-feet of stormwater flows — an important feature for a property within half a mile of the Salinas River.

Residential lots would be relatively large, ranging between 10,349 square feet and 19,384 square feet square feet, with homes between 1,800 square feet and 3,100 square feet, according to the staff report. Across the project, there’s also space for up to 22 ADUs or junior ADUs.

Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg shared some of Gibson’s concerns on the project’s affordability but said with housing, perfect should not be the enemy of good.

“It is hard to listen to us trying to talk about building housing, and then everything that comes up isn’t right or isn’t perfect, isn’t exactly what we want, and that’s something that’s on us,” Ortiz-Legg said. “Maybe in the right time, we can continue to work on finding ways to get that affordability factor.”

Templeton advisory body opposes project

The new development hasn’t been without its detractors over the past three years.

In its review TAAG said it has serious drainage and flooding concerns about the property, calling into doubt the validity of the proposed project and its environmental studies. Most recently, TAAG voted 7-0 at its May 16 meeting to recommend the board deny the project approval.

“TAAG recommends DENIAL of the project due to the county’s failure to conduct a comprehensive review of the project’s site areas’ substantial stormwater flooding events that periodically occur on and near the project site that seriously impacts the general Main Street area and neighboring properties,” TAAG’s recommendation read.

In its recommendation to the board, TAAG said the project’s stormwater retention basins would be unable to handle the volume of water that could cause flooding during a 10-year storm event.

TAAG said the project’s drainage would overwhelm Toad Creek, the nearest outlet for the storm drains, potentially worsening flooding at Main Street and overflowing the planned reservoirs.

TAAG’s recommendation also said state law actually permits for double the number of ADUs as advertised for the project, which could lead to overcrowding.

In addition, TAAG took issue with the project’s potential environmental and health impacts from building, along with potential access, parking and traffic issues as a result of the dead-end design of the street.

Despite the opposition, the board sided with the Mittry Farms Trust, finding that the project would not result in the impacts TAAG fears. Gibson, the lone vote against the project, said he had no issues with the way the project was constructed.

“For me, this is not at all about the control of the floodwaters — I trust our engineers. This is well-studied science, and we can take care of that issue straightforward,” Gibson said. “The issue here is all about housing policy, and are we going to get housing that this community needs.”