One of SLO County’s premier golf resorts plans a 125-unit housing expansion
One of San Luis Obispo County’s premier housing developments is looking to add even more high-end housing.
Blacklake Golf Resort, the luxury housing development in Nipomo, will add 125 new homes to its existing area plan — and more than half of them will be able to be used as short-term rentals.
At the most recent San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting, developer Blacklake LLC showed early concepts for an expansion that will grow the development from its planned maximum of 559 homes to 684 — and that’s not counting the optional accessory dwelling units that can be added to the expansion’s 45 single-family homes.
Ultimately, the board voted 3-2 to authorize the start of the application process that would amend the Blacklake Specific Plan to accommodate the new homes, with Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Jimmy Paulding voting against the expansion, allowing Blacklake to move forward with submitting a development application.
Development owner Rob Rossi said that after 26 years of ownership, he’s looking to revitalize the resort by adding more visitor-serving options, expanding out of just golf and residential uses.
“You’ll never bring golf back to what it was — you know that from Dairy Creek — so we think this is a good balance,” Rossi said. “Whatever everyone’s spoken to, we’re willing to put in the project.”
New expansion will add more housing, golf options
As is, Blacklake has already fully built out the 559 units initially included in its site plan, including 491 detached single-family homes and 68 attached townhomes.
The new expansion’s 125 units are something of a departure from what’s come before, featuring 45 6,000-square-foot single-family lots along the southern border of the development, which come with options to add ADUs and golf cart barns.
Another 50 units ranging between 605 and 1,000 square feet are planned as condos that will be featured in The Lodge, a new four-story building that will also serve as a clubhouse, golf support center and event space, according to the staff report.
Meanwhile, 24 more units are planned as cottages that are supposed to be rented out on a nightly or weekly basis.
Finally, six “tournament” homes — large standalone rental buildings that can accommodate large parties of people — are planned for a pair of locations throughout the existing development.
The condos, cottages and Lodge can all be rented out as a short-term rental, according to the staff report.
The plan amendment would also raise the height limit for homes in the specific plan area from 35 feet to 50 feet, which would allow The Lodge to reach its full height.
Project representative Jamie Jones said part of the push for more visitor-serving uses comes from a declining number of golfers taking to the links, including both Blacklake residents and outside players.
“The resort once hosted over 115,000 rounds of golf annually and offered overnight lodging at the Tourney Hills condominiums,” Jones said. “Golf rounds on the golf course are down significantly — I think that’s across the board for most golf resorts in our community.”
Supervisors clash over affordable housing
Gibson said while this isn’t the end of the county’s discussions of what exactly can be built at Blacklake, as the hearing was only an authorization to start an application, “It‘s really important how the board frames this authorization for future consideration.”
Since its original approval in 1983, the specific plan that governs Blacklake has changed plenty from the 125-room visitor-serving motel that was first proposed, Gibson said. In that time, the county’s goals have changed to place more emphasis on affordable housing, and that should be reflected in the approval process for the expansion, he said.
“My point would be that if we are to consider changing this specific plan, we need to tend to the needs of the community now, as it exists some 42 years later,” Gibson said. “As long as this could be assured that it has a full policy consideration with the General Plan, specifically the housing element, I think we also have to acknowledge that the analysis of affordable housing has to be done.”
Both Paulding and Gibson asked staff to consider adding a requirement for the developer to make a contribution to the county’s Regional Housing Incentive Program to find another way to address the county’s affordable housing issue.
However, board Chair Dawn Ortiz-Legg said she “firmly disagreed” with Gibson’s view, and said it was hypocritical of him to ask for affordable housing donations to a program he voted against.
“You have not agreed to our housing fund, initially, that we established, and you also denied twice a project that had come some affordable housing in it,” Ortiz-Legg told Gibson during the discussion, alluding to the Dana Reserve development. “I think that the three of us have actually been supportive of housing all the way around. ... It’s performative in a way that is irritating to me.”
Ortiz-Legg said that decision on affordable housing contributions should be left to the actual approval process once that comes along at a future date.
“In a neighborhood like that, sometimes we can actually try to do so much good that we can actually hurt because some neighbors might feel like affordable housing, that’s not what we bought into, that’s not what we wanted, this is kind of an amendment of things already approved,” Ortiz-Legg said. “Things have changed, however. I think that perhaps, like in other projects, workforce housing for those workers at the golf course or the hospitality, it could be a consideration, but I think that’s all things that can be a consideration under the conditional use permit exercise.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
