New apartment complex is coming to SLO County town. How much will units cost?
One of San Luis Obispo County’s fastest-growing communities is set to receive a new high-density residential development.
Hill Street Apartments, a 38-home development in Nipomo, gained unanimous approval from the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission on Tuesday.
Applicant Robert Marinai’s project includes two separate three-story multifamily residential buildings on a 1.24-acre plot of land at 549 Hill Street, according to the staff report.
HAB Design Group principal architect C.J. Horstman, speaking on the behalf of the applicant, said the project will fit in neatly alongside the Mesa Trails housing project, a 313-unit development with a mix of market-rate and affordable housing.
The Planning Commission moved with little deliberation to approve the project, with Commissioner Anne Wyatt’s compliments.
“This is a case where we’ve got a commercial retail site in the downtown core, and this is just what we’ve expressed we want to see, with opportunities for ... fairly dense housing,” Wyatt said.
What will new development look like?
Inside, the 15,525 square feet of floor space will be broken up across 38 market-rate apartment units, according to the staff report.
One-bedroom units will come in at 530 feet and around $1,600 a month, while two-bedroom units are expected to be around 830 square feet at around $2,500 a month, according to the staff report.
Outside, the developer will provide a play area for children, barbecue pits, a shared seating area and landscaping, according to the staff report.
Beyond the property’s amenities, the developer will make roadway improvements to Hill Street along the project site frontages, and will install existing overhead power lines underground on the southern and eastern frontages of the project site, along with hookups to the Nipomo Community Services District’s water and wastewater systems, according to the staff report.
The applicant requested a couple of minor modifications — a reduction in parking spaces from 61 to 60 and a fence height of 7 to 11 feet rather than the 6.5-foot standard — that were accepted by the staff.
Due to the long, narrow dimensions of the building site, the project’s height was capped at three stories to avoid the increase in per-unit development price that comes with building a four- or five-story building, Horstman said.
The lower height and unit count also keeps parking from spilling beyond the tight confines of the lot, he said.
“Yeah, more units and affordability is great, but we’re very tight there,” Horstman said.
No dates for the start of construction or opening day are confirmed at this time, Horstman told The Tribune.
Wyatt said while she would have liked to see a bit more designated affordable units, she understood the trade-off in cost, along with the effect increased height can have on neighborhood support.
“I think you’ve hit a nice balance here,” Wyatt said. “Thrilled to support it, and I hope we’re going to see more.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM.
