New mixed-use development to bring 46 apartments, commercial space to SLO County city
More than 40 mixed-use residential units are coming to Atascadero near Highway 41.
At its Tuesday meeting, the Atascadero Planning Commission unanimously approved the construction of a new commercial and residential project between Morro Road and Atascadero Avenue.
Sitting on a pair of lots that were merged to allow for the new project, the 46-unit mixed-use project designed by Arris Studio Apartments also includes 4,500 square feet of commercial tenant space on the ground floor. A potential tenant for the commercial spaces has not yet been announced.
The lots were originally zoned for commercial retail and commercial professional uses, but were re-zoned and merged to allow for mixed-use development.
Though the new construction will occupy just 0.93 acres of the combined lot, the project qualified for multiple density and parking exemptions to allow for more residential units than would usually be allowed, according to the staff report.
Typically, the lot should only allow for about 22 units, plus five density bonus units, but because many of the proposed units are less than 600 square feet, the project qualifies for even more units to be proposed, according to the staff report.
Of the 46 planned apartment units, 20 will fall between 600 and 1,000 square feet, with the remaining 26 units all under 600 square feet, according to the staff report. All residential units will come with a 50-square-foot balcony.
The smaller units will all have one bedroom and one bathroom, while the larger units will have two bedrooms and one bathroom, according to the release.
A total of 56 parking spots was proposed for the project, using a parking exemption that comes with qualifying for a density bonus to lower the requirement from the 69 required spaces for a project of this size, according to the staff report.
The project will also include 1,165 square feet of ground floor bike storage for residents’ bicycles.
The commercial and residential spaces will be accessed by a driveway on Atascadero Avenue along with another driveway on the northern side of the property that borders the Moresco Plaza commercial property, linking the plaza parking lot to the new lot, according to the staff report.
According to the staff report, to meet the density bonus requirements, two of the units will be deed-restricted as affordable housing for very low-income households.
In Atascadero, where median household income is $88,830, that means that residents of the affordable units will make between 30% to 50%, or between $26,649 and $44,415.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 10:00 AM.
