The City of San Luis Obispo is asking for your feedback on designing three new parks.
The southeast end of SLO has seen a lot of development in recent years.
Now, the city wants to add three new parks and a hiking trail system to the Righetti Ranch area.
The city is getting ready for the largest expansion of its parks system in almost 20 years.
“We feel that parks should be within a half mile or less of every home,” said SLO Parks & Rec Director Greg Avakian.
Hundreds of new homes have been built in the Righetti Ranch subdivision off Orcutt Road, but no parks were included in the project.
That’s about to change.
“People from the Righetti neighborhood have to come all the way to downtown to have an event like this kind of shows that they need a community space down there,” said SLO Resident Po Johnson.
That community space will come in the form of an 11.25-acre community park that will include playgrounds as well as basketball, tennis, and pickleball courts.
“We are so very excited,” said Bobi Binder, a member of SLO Pickleball who says that the extra space is welcome news for the club. “Our courts at meadow park—we have to pull them out, set them up. We would be so thrilled to have more courts in the Righetti Ranch.”
There will also be more hiking opportunities in the area.
A mile-to-mile-and-a-half-long trail will lead to the summit of Righetti Hill which is right above the new homes.
“Right now, it’s just a great after work or a short hike. We call it the green zone, an easy-style hike,” said Avakian.
The city is gathering public input for the final designs
Hundreds of people have already taken an online survey that launched this week.
“The neighborhood as well as our surrounding community have a great voice and we want to make sure that we stay up with the trends,” explained Avakian.
Dozens of people came out to a community forum to see the designs and talk with parks and rec officials on Tuesday evening.
“They look pretty good. I think they’re a little limited in how people can use them,” said Johnson. “I’d definitely appreciate more space for people to do what they want.”
The city also wants to build two smaller parks that will act as greenways at Righetti Ranch.
The online survey is open through May 10th, and it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to fill out.
The parks and rec director says that the three new parks should be complete within two to two-and-a-half years.
