November was a triumphant month for Dana Reserve developer Nick Tompkins, as the San Luis Obispo Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) gave his housing project one of the last go-aheads it needed despite the Nipomo Action Committee’s final attempts to stall it.
“Reaching this stage is incredibly gratifying for everyone who has been part of this five-year process,” Jocelyn Brennan said via email on behalf of Tompkins. “This project will provide much-needed opportunities across the housing ladder, from affordable, workforce, to missing middle housing, creating options for families at every stage of life.”
The Dana Reserve aims to build 1,370 housing units in Nipomo as well as a village shopping center, a California Fresh Market grocery store, a South County Cuesta College campus, and 203,000 square feet of recreational space inside a 288-acre plot of land.
After receiving the green light from the SLO County Board of Supervisors on May 2, the project went before the Nipomo Community Services District (NCSD) to get approval to be annexed into its service area. In October, the county and NCSD resolved their dispute over potential property tax revenue generated by the project.
And on Nov. 14, LAFCO approved the project’s annexation into the NCSD 6-1, with 4th District SLO County Supervisor Jimmy Paulding dissenting.
Paulding said that his main concern was that the unincorporated area of Nipomo doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the project’s eventual demands.
“I think this board is tasked with looking at the quality of life of the residents of Nipomo who live there juxtaposed against the need for affordable workforce housing, and I think that it’s a balancing act that we have to achieve,” he said during the Nov. 14 LAFCO meeting. “In this one case, I just think it’s out of balance.”
Paulding added that the 19 class 1 impacts laid out in the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) are unprecedented.
“We’re talking traffic, water, air quality, [cutting down] 3,000 native oak trees. I think that list is too long,” he said.
Fellow Supervisor and LAFCO commissioner Debbie Arnold disagreed with Paulding, saying that the county already approved the EIR.
In fact, Arnold said, the county struck a great balance with the 2 million acres of land it encompasses, having conservation easements on 700,000 to 800,000 acres of private land while also having a state park and other areas that are zoned for no development.
In a letter sent to LAFCO, the Nipomo Action Committee, which opposes the Dana Reserve, claimed that a new type of manzanita plant species specific to Nipomo was discovered within the project area.
“The letter concludes that a supplemental EIR is required by LAFCO because this is new information that could not or was not known at the time the EIR was prepared and certified,” LAFCO’s Executive Officer Rob Fitzroy said during the meeting.
Fitzroy said that while manzanita was identified on the project site, it’s staff’s opinion that a brand-new type of manzanita is speculative as the information hasn’t yet been validated or peer-reviewed.
“This species is not on any list, and it also has not been recognized by any state or federal resource agency,” he said. “The information at this point is preliminary. There’s no site-specific data that it does occur on-site.”
Brennan with the Dana Reserve said the team still has outstanding legal issuess to attend to, such as resolving the Nipomo Action Committee’s lawsuit against the project.
On May 28, the Nipomo Action Committee sued the Dana Reserve, the county, and the Board of Supervisors claiming that the project would stress local resources and burden local emergency services from agencies like Cal Fire and the SLO County Sheriff’s Office.
The lawsuit also states that the project would result in several unavoidable significant impacts.
“We are optimistic about resolving this so that we can proceed with delivering the much-needed housing and community benefits,” Brennan said.
He said there isn’t a date yet for when the project will break ground.
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.