SLO County supervisors approve 1,470-home Dana Reserve development in tight vote

Nearly four years after initial plans were submitted to the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission, the Dana Reserve project has officially been approved.

At Tuesday and Wednesdays’ meetings, supporters and opponents of developer Nick Tompkins’ proposed 1,470-unit housing project crowded into the Katcho Achadjian Government Center to see how the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors would rule on the controversial project and its proposed community alternatives.

In the end, the project was approved 3-2 with supervisors Jimmy Paulding and Bruce Gibson voting against the project after two days of tense hearings.

With the project passing on a narrow margin, development can now begin on the project site, which is located on Highway 101 near Willow Road in Nipomo.

“We don’t have houses for a lot of people, and I’m really just flabbergasted in regards to perfect being the enemy of good,” Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said during the meeting. “This project is beyond good. This project is incredible.”

What did the Board of Supervisors approve?

The Board passed the Dana Reserve Specific Plan, which includes 1,470 homes at varying levels of affordability and density along with some designated space for a Cal Fresh grocery store, commercial space, an eventual medical center and land for a fire station.

The plan from NKT Commercial — Tompkins’ development group — features 417 market-rate single-family homes built by Trilogy Homes builder Shea Homes, 242 units of moderate-income housing, 290 units of missing middle housing, 315 units of workforce housing and a total of 206 low or very low-income homes.

Prices in the development are forecast to run the gamut between $475,000 in the multifamily units in Neighborhood 2 and $725,000 for workforce homes in Neighborhood 6 to between $900,000 and $1.2 million in the Shea Homes, project spokesperson and HRM Consultants CEO Jocelyn Brennan said last week.

Some small revisions were also made during the approval process, which required NKT Commercial to pay $92,100 for a new dog park, reduced accessory dwelling unit setbacks from 15 feet to 10 feet in a neighborhood and set a maximum, moderate-income rental price for 87 smaller units in the development.

Supervisors split on community alternative map

Part of what was up for consideration this week was whether the Dana Reserve should be approved as proposed, or whether the Board would send it back to the planning phase to craft a project more closely aligned with a community alternative that was developed out of the Planning Commission’s hearings in October.

Advocates from the Nipomo Action Committee — a volunteer organization that opposes building the project at its current size — have pushed for a development with a smaller footprint that preserves more of the existing oak tree ecosystem at the site.

The concept alternative developed by it and other community groups called for 800 units, consisting of 534 single-family homes and 266 multifamily homes and accessory dwelling units.

Like the original project, the alternative included 154 units of affordable multifamily housing from People’s Self-Help Housing, along with 112 optional mid-income apartments for a total of 266 multifamily units.

On Wednesday, Paulding said the community’s concerns should have been a higher priority for the developer, and said he couldn’t support a project in his district with “unprecedented” opposition.

“I think as a board we should be asking ourselves if this makes sense, if this makes for a safer and better-served Nipomo and, I don’t believe that it does,” Paulding said. “I believe the community alternative is a win-win. Despite the significant number of serious problems with the Dana Reserve project as proposed, I do believe there is a path forward to modify this project into something that everyone can get behind.”

Opponents of the project said it represents an unwillingness to listen to Nipomo residents or compromise on a shared vision for the area.

South County Advisory Council chair Jerry Bridge said the alternative demonstrated that there is an appetite for housing in the area — so long as developers are willing to work with residents through the design process.

“We feel today presents an extraordinary opportunity to support this map — it’s a plan that can set the standard and serve as a model for urban and rural development, not only for Nipomo, but for the entire state, if not the country,” Bridge said during public comment.

On Tuesday, some young opponents of the project made their concerns known.

Around 30 student protesters with the Central Coast Student Coalition joined by yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribal Chair Mona Tucker rallied outside of the meeting, holding signs and marching around the courthouse.

Supporters of the project criticized the community alternative on the grounds that returning the project to the Planning Commission would significantly extend the amount of time needed to actually build Dana Reserve for a lower total number of homes.

On Wednesday, Ortiz-Legg said the county needs housing of every type to be built quickly and in abundance, leaving little room for an alternative project to be considered at this stage of the approval process.

“To come to this point in time and talk about a revision after this has been going on for three years is a little bit disingenuous,” Ortiz-Legg said during the hearing. “I really feel like time and time again, we’ve provided opportunities to weigh in.”

Failing to dramatically expand housing in Nipomo will only worsen the region’s stagnant housing situation, SLO County YIMBY organizer Krista Jeffries said during public comment.

“If you’ve been with the same partner for 10, 15 or 20 more years, do you ever look them in the eye and say ‘Gosh, I just wish you stayed the way you were the day I met you?’” Jeffries said during public comment. “Towns, cities and communities of all sizes are not stationary objects that we pluck from a shelf and keep under a glass case for eternity.”

What comes next for Dana Reserve?

In the past, Tompkins has said the project will likely take a decade to fully build out, though that timeline may be subject to change, with construction projected to start in 2026.

NAC lead organizer Alison Martinez said just because the project is approved, the Committee isn’t done opposing the project or taking stands against projects they feel lack community collaboration.

“We’re going to regroup, we’re going to celebrate where we’ve come from and what we’ve done, and then we’re going to look at our options as far as how we can move forward to still make a difference in this project,” Martinez said. “We’re not going anywhere.”