Proposed Homeless Services Center gets permit from SLO planners

The Homeless Services Center planned for Prado Road near Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo is moving forward.

The San Luis Obispo’s seven-member Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a use permit needed to build it.

The city’s Architectural Review Commission is scheduled to review the project’s design in January.

Once open, the center will replace the Prado Day Center and the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter in San Luis Obispo and double the number of beds available in the city. The new 24-hour facility at 40 Prado Road adjacent to Sunset Drive-in will be operated by Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County.

Preliminary plans call for a single-story, 20,000-square-foot building that will accommodate up to 150 beds, a commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, showers, lockers and storage, as well as offices for caseworkers, a classroom for children and community and multipurpose rooms. Separate dorms for men, women and families will be built.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided at the new center, as well as case management, mental health counseling and drug and alcohol outpatient services.

According to CAPSLO, there will be 24 full-time and 12 part-time employees, six case managers and volunteers staffing the facility.

CAPSLO partnered with the San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority in June to purchase 9.7 acres at 40 Prado Road from Condor Enterprises LLC for $2.3 million.

CAPSLO’s portion of the site is about 3.3 acres and includes 56,000 square feet set aside for future road improvements.

RTA will use its 6.5 acres to park and maintain buses and house dispatch and administration departments sometime in the future.

This story was originally published December 11, 2014 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Proposed Homeless Services Center gets permit from SLO planners."