Plans for motel in SLO County beach town delayed after neighbors protest. See why
A decision on whether a new motel planned in the heart of Cayucos could move forward was delayed by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors, which asked for some changes to the project after an appeal from a handful of Cayucos residents.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, supervisors heard from the residents, who said the planned motel called Nene’s Place — which is actually more of a vacation rental project featuring three units and a caretaker unit that doubles as a vacation spot for the applicant and his family — would cause parking disturbances in the coastal town.
Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council members Rachel Wilson, Carol Kramer and Vicki Tamoush and then-member John Carsel first got wind of the project in November 2023, when the Land Use Commission brought the project before the advisory body for review.
While advisory councils for unincorporated communities such as the Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council do not have the authority to deny a project, they make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.
In the case of the motel project, the advisory body voted 5-4 with Kramer absent in late 2023 to recommend denial of the project to the supervisors, with Carsel, Wilson, Tamoush and fellow members Francie Farinet and Jan Meslin citing issues with parking, drainage and questions over whether the motel will be used for guests only.
Ultimately, it was parking — and the unique nature of the residential and commercial uses of the property — that proved most important to the board’s decision.
“This is clearly a vacation rental, and so we can call it a motel, but I think it’s very easy for this board to make the findings that it should address its impacts as if it were a vacation rental, and that requires more parking,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said.
Why did residents oppose the motel?
Members of the group of 23 Cayucos residents who oppose the motel as proposed said their main issues with the project stemmed from potential fire safety, parking and disturbance issues.
Opponents said Donaldson’s development stretches the definition of a motel by planning three large, two-bedroom, two-bathroom floor plans reaching around 1,100 square feet — larger than most motel rooms and clearly meant for more than one or two guests.
In addition to the trio of motel rooms, a residential caretaker unit that could be occupied by Donaldson or leased to an employee is planned on the second floor.
The parking would be accessed from East Street via a 161-foot driveway, ending in a seven-space lot behind the motel that includes a space set aside for accessible parking and another for electric vehicles, according to the staff report.
Carsel criticized the parking lot’s relatively small dimensions and raised concerns that fire crews could have issues reaching the back of the motel and turning around in the driveway and lot.
“They’re going to be crowding out the residents to the health and safety detriment — those are the magic words, I’m told — of the residents,” Carsel said. “It’s just wrong — make it smaller and with enough parking, or buy the lot next door and make a really nice place.”
Tamoush said in conjunction with the seven-lot parking lot, there’s a chance motel guests and caretaker unit residents could end up parking on Ocean Avenue, taking up more of the already limited space.
As the property is currently undeveloped, it’s prone to flooding and absorbing the runoff from nearby developed parcels, Tamoush continued.
“If they shrank the building to the point where they could sufficiently park it and if they had a stormwater runoff plan that protected me and my neighbors from the flooding we get every year that will be increased by that building, I would say, ‘Fine. I won’t say another word, build what you want to build,’ but we’re not being protected from those two problems, and both of those are significant problems,” Tamoush said.
Board shares opponents’ parking concerns, delays decision
Though county staff recommended denying the appeal, the board agreed with several of the points raised by the residents.
Staff found that the project had followed all procedural steps and requirements for parking, refuse, flooding and noise issues, but the board found that the project needed to include more parking for it to make sense with the planned use for the caretaker unit.
Gibson said some of the opponents’ concerns about who would be staying in the caretaker unit were valid, adding that Donaldson “didn’t really inspire confidence” when he mentioned that his family could bring two cars to the property.
As a result, Gibson moved to have the board decision on the project moved to its July 8 hearing.
In the meantime, Donaldson will work to change his plans to accommodate two more parking spaces, even if that comes at the expense of one of the vacation rental units, he said.
“Whatever it takes — even if that means that I have to ax one of the commercial units so that I have two rather than three — I genuinely want our family to participate in the community, because we love Cayucos,” Donaldson said.
With the board postponing a decision on the project for around 90 days, Donaldson will implement the parking changes to bring the project in line with their suggestions.
Opponents said had the board denied their appeal, they planned to continue to contest the project by taking it to the California Coastal Commission, hoping to get the project denied on the grounds of protecting coastal access.
With the project now sent back for changes, Carsel said whether or not the residents oppose the next iteration of the motel depends entirely on how much Donaldson is willing to compromise with the board’s requests.
“I like the idea of a vacation rental in the commercial district,” Carsel said. “That’s where they belong if they’re going to be there at all, but don’t impact the residential areas.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 9:37 AM.
