An empty lot in North Morro Bay on Panorama Drive is the proposed location of a new 48-unit housing development.
Kristen Headland lives nearby and is concerned the development could cause the hillside to become unstable. She says she’s already noticed movement.
“You can tell because the fences are leaning, the telephone poles are leaning and up on Tuscan [Road], the street has caved in, and we have new cracks forming. We have new slippage up on the hillside,” Headland said.
Technical studies are underway related to potential geologic hazards. According to the city, the area is a known, mapped area for geologic hazards.
“There’s actually an old slide scar on the site. They’re keeping their development out of that and evaluating what the geologic issues are over the rest of the site and that goes into the preparation of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) and will be addressed in that document,” said Scot Graham, Morro Bay Community Development Director.
Headland and another neighbor, Steve Daniels, are also worried about increased traffic in the area.
“If we were to have the proposed 48 homes built here, they would impact our neighborhood with traffic and the safety of walkers and for kids that play in the street,” Headland said.
“The Yerba Buena stoplight — you can only get like two cars to stop there because of the main street intersection and they’re just going to be backed up on that very, very small-width road,” Daniels added.
Parking is another concern.
“We completely understand the concerns raised by the community and the applicant is working to address that and to provide additional parking on-site. And I think they’re even looking at reducing the number of units even further on the project to sort of balance that out a little bit,” Graham said.
While details are still being worked out, Graham says 10 percent of the homes would be slated for affordable housing.
The city is expecting final plans for the project to go before the city council sometime next spring.
KSBY News reached out to the project's developer for comment but did not hear back by the time this story was published.
