Plan for shopping, homes at Arroyo Grande gateway is denied

A development proposed for one of Arroyo Grande’s gateways, including two commercial buildings with four second-story condos and 41 single-family detached homes, has been shot down.

Developer Nick Tompkins of NKT Commercial has taken purely commercial developments to Arroyo Grande leaders twice before, without success, for a 4.47-acre vacant lot at the southwest corner of East Grand Avenue and South Courtland Street.

His most recent proposal was denied 3-2 by the Arroyo Grande City Council on Tuesday, with the majority stating they want to see more commercial development on the “gateway” parcel. Council members Kristen Barneich and Jim Guthrie dissented.

“I think we need more commercial property here in the city,” Mayor Jim Hill said, calling the proposal “a thin commercial veneer on what’s essentially a high-density residential development.”

Tompkins, who bought the property in 2007, said Friday that he hasn’t made any definitive plans yet for the site.

The council in 2010 and 2011 considered but never took final action on retail centers that were controversial because the plans included, at one point, a Food 4 Less grocery store that many residents believed would harm existing grocery stores and increase traffic.

Since then, Tompkins has participated in a study session with the City Council and the city’s Planning Commission, where he brought five plans for review. Planning commissioners liked three of the ideas, but the majority of the council members didn’t like any of them, he said.

Tompkins told the council Tuesday that the site may not be viable as a retail development, and his company in the past two years has been unable to secure potential tenants to anchor the project.

“Unless Courtland was redesigned to increase traffic retailers look at this space as a mid-block retail site and have no interest,” he said.

Instead, he said he proposed a mixed-use project that could serve as a catalyst for other development on East Grand Avenue and would reduce traffic by about 60 percent from a solely commercial project.

More than a dozen people spoke on the project, most in opposition to it. No time limits were placed on public comment, and about 13 people spoke for more than 1½ hours.

Some live in the nearby Berry Gardens neighborhood and are concerned about increased traffic; others said that residents in that part of town need more retail shops within walking distance. Several of the residents who spoke had also opposed the Food 4 Less proposal.

“I don't believe the developer has exhausted his opportunities in finding commercial to go into this space,” resident John Mack said. “You’re going to end up with a non-functioning commercial project if you let it move forward.”

Council members Barbara Harmon and Tim Brown said they supported the commercial component of the proposal but could not vote to support the overall project. The plan would also have required a general plan amendment to allow the single-family detached housing, which the majority of the council wasn’t comfortable doing.

However, Brown noted, “if we increase the commercial component there will possibly be more traffic in the Berry Gardens neighborhood.”

Barneich said she thought the plan was a good compromise that would “spur on the same type of development that we need to see on Grand Avenue.”

The city’s Architectural Review Committee and Planning Commission had recommended the council approve the project.

This story was originally published December 12, 2014 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Plan for shopping, homes at Arroyo Grande gateway is denied."