After two days of public hearings, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission voted four to one in favor of the Dana Reserve Project but with a few recommended changes.
The changes include:
- The addition of 156 affordable homes to the development as opposed to 104
- Incorporating 100 junior accessory dwelling units, which are under 400 square feet and attached to the main dwelling
- And more bicycle and pedestrian connections between the development and Dana and Nipomo elementary schools
But even with this modification, the proposed 288-acre development does not have unanimous support.
Herb Kandel is the Executive member of the Nipomo Action Committee and has been part of the Nipomo community for many years. He’s not on board with the proposal.
“The recommendation by the Planning Commission was not unexpected," Kandel says. "There is tremendous pressure on the county financial and legal pressure for producing affordable housing and it was disappointing.”
Herb Kandel, whose connection to the Nipomo land runs deep as the founder of the Nipomo Native Garden, the primary concern lies in the potential destruction of habitat that sustains various wildlife.
He’s proposing an alternative map for the project, which is still in development, that suggests a reduction in the number of million-dollar homes.
This change, according to Kandel’s team, would lessen the project’s environmental impact and preserve its habitat.
“The financial viability of the project has not been demonstrated by the developer in terms of looking at numbers, so we're ready to move forward in good faith and say, show us the numbers." Kandel stressed, "We're going to work with you to look at reducing some of those million-dollar homes that aren't going to fill a need in this community with the protection of habitat, with compact designs, and with the capacity to still move forward on affordable housing.”
Kandel tells me, that the Nipomo Action Committee and developers will engage in meetings as soon as possible before the plan goes to the County Board of Supervisors, who will make the final decision regarding the project’s construction.
Nick Tompkins Managing Partner of the Dana Reserve tells me the project has been in development for more than five years and will continue to evolve during upcoming stages. In an interview last week, he said they had made multiple versions of the plan.
“We did 28 versions of this plan over two years to try to say we wanted to have thought through every possible scenario to make sure that what we were bringing forward was a well thought out, well-conceived, economically deliverable plan that achieved the maximum affordability the very first time,” Tompkins noted.
The project will now go before the county Board of Supervisors for final approval although a date for that meeting has not yet been set.
