SLO County approves 60-unit hotel from Cambria Pines Lodge owner
An experienced hotelier got the county’s OK for a new inn in a growing San Luis Obispo County community.
Dirk Winter’s Moonstone Hotel Properties owns the Cambria Pines Lodge and several other accommodations in Cambria, Monterey and Oregon.
His proposed 60-unit Templeton Inn in the unincorporated community would put 10 new buildings on a vacant parcel of 3.51 acres located around half a mile east of Highway 101.
On Thursday, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the Templeton Inn after a brief deliberation.
HAB Design Group principal architect C.J. Horstman, speaking on behalf of the applicant, said the project will flow seamlessly into its immediate surroundings — and will include a tip of the hat to a Templeton landmark.
The lobby building includes a structure that resembles the Templeton Feed & Grain store’s granary, which was destroyed in a fire in July.
The architects included the nod “before we knew it was going to burn down, unfortunately, but now it’s encapsulated in this design,” Horstman said, “We want to tell a story that this thing was developed over time, similar to the community itself.”
60 hotel rooms coming to Templeton
Sitting on 3.51 acres on the east side of North Main Street, the 60-room hotel will be broken up across 10 buildings spanning a combined 32,100 square feet, according to the staff report.
The hotel units will include a mix of deluxe suites suitable for larger parties in two-story structures and smaller units. Each unit will include a private patio, according to the staff report.
A new office building would provide space for concierge services, a breakfast room and a prep room and kitchen, while a common outdoor area would include a swimming pool and spa, parking areas and walkways, according to the staff report.
Though the project will fully overhaul the site with an estimated 2,960 cubic yards of cut and 3,960 cubic yards of fill to level the property, county planning staff found that mitigations as proposed were sufficient to issue the proposal a negative declaration of environmental impacts.
The Templeton Area Advisory Group recommended approval last September but included comments about traffic impacts and concerns about stormwater runoff into Toad Creek that were incorporated into the design, according to the staff report.
Barring any appeals that would require the project to appear before the Board of Supervisors, it now has the green light to start development.
Horstman said he’s glad to have the community’s support despite some initial trepidation over the hotel’s size.
“It feels imposing, but once you start to see it, most of the development is single-story, or with the faux second floor to kind of give this thing a step back,” Horstman said. “The community warmed up to it — we got very positive reviews on the look, the design feel, and even comments that say, ‘This feels like Templeton,’ which we were happy to do.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
