SLO County gives green light to 181-home development — but there’s a catch
A 181-home development won final approval to move forward in one of San Luis Obispo County’s smallest communities.
But one notable hurdle must be cleared before the project can be fully built out.
Applicant David Crabtree, a Templeton-based Realtor, gained the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission’s unanimous approval to build the development in San Miguel, despite some pushback from residents concerned with the project’s potential impact on water.
The project would represent a significant expansion to the housing inventory in the tiny North County town, which currently is home to 813 units, according to the U.S. Census. The new development would amount to an increase of more than 20% on top of the current housing stock.
Several residents of the area and agricultural professionals voiced concerns that the project would overtax San Miguel’s water supply.
Also, the project’s construction timeline will be contingent on upgrades to the San Miguel Wastewater Treatment Plant slated for completion in 2028. That project itself is contingent on a set of grant applications to pay for its $44 million price tag, according to San Miguel Community Services District general manager Kelly Dodd.
Dodd said the existing wastewater treatment system can accommodate the first phase of homes planned in the development, but the next phases can’t move forward without the wastewater plant expansion.
But residents including ranch owner Greg Grewal and Templeton resident Murray Powell said the development would overtax the already-limited water supply to San Miguel, which is part of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. However, county staff dismissed these claims as misinterpretations of previous lawsuits and regulatory decisions, and said the project was compliant with water use regulations in the area.
Commissioner Anne Wyatt said balancing water use between the development and agricultural uses is an ongoing struggle, but she said the upsides of the project outweighed her concerns.
“On the water, I do understand the community’s concerns,” Wyatt said. “I do understand that the basin is in overdraft, and there are some issues that will have to get reconciled down the line.”
What will San Miguel project look like?
According to the staff report, the project is consistent with the San Miguel Community Plan.
Sitting on a 43-acre parcel, the project would be developed in a series of four phases that would move through the 190 total lots.
Of those lots, 181 would be for single-family residential housing, while the other nine would consist of 3.8 acres of commercial development, a pair of utility parcels and around 13 acres of parks and open space, according to the staff report.
By building 10% of the units as deed-restricted affordable housing for moderate-income households, the project was able to qualify for the state density bonus program, which allows developers to request concessions to a municipality’s building code.
All 18 of the affordable homes would be constructed in the first 88-unit phase of the project, according to the staff report. The second phase would consist of 42 residential parcels, followed by a third phase of 45 residential parcels and six small-lot residential parcels, with the fourth phase dedicated to commercial use.
In this project’s case, the concession was a request to reduce the amount of open space required in the development from 40% to 29%, allowing the developer to pack more units onto the parcel than normal.
While the project checks all boxes legally and was considered consistent with the San Miguel Community Plan, it was only narrowly approved by the San Miguel Advisory Council in a 4-3 vote prior to coming to the Planning Commission.
To make the project work, significant infrastructure and site grading will need to be done, such as bringing water and sewer connections across the bridge on North River Road and flattening out a nearly vertical hillside on the eastern end of the property.
Pam Jardini, speaking on behalf of the applicant, said the developer made several changes to the design since the project’s previous appearance before the Planning Commission.
Indian Valley Road will be widened, requiring design changes that reduced some of the “pocket village” lots in the first and third phases to add slightly more open space, according to the staff report.
Jardini said that because the project will be reliant on the completion of the wastewater plant expansion, it won’t be completed and connected until late 2028 at the earliest.
