Blacklake resort plans moving forward in Nipomo
Plans to build a hotel and 86 vacation rentals and homes at Blacklake Golf Resort in Nipomo can move ahead, though the project still will face hurdles before it can get final approval.
On Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2, with supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill dissenting, to authorize staff to begin processing amendments to a specific plan, general plan and land use ordinance to change provisions in the Blacklake Specific Plan.
The authorization is a preliminary step that allows developer Rob Rossi to begin the environmental review process on plans for his 515-acre golf resort and residential development.
The project will now go through the county’s standard approval process and be brought before the county Planning Commission at an undetermined date.
I do believe that people are generally now happier with the designation of where the homes are going rather than how they were a year ago.
Supervisor Lynn Compton
The plans brought before supervisors Tuesday were vastly different from previous, contested versions of the project the board saw at numerous meetings in 2015.
“I do believe that people are generally now happier with the designation of where the homes are going rather than how they were a year ago,” Supervisor Lynn Compton said Tuesday.
Last year, Rossi submitted plans that called for ripping up about 23 acres of turf on the 58-acre golf course and reconfiguring the course around 150 new housing units and a hotel — a plan that was heavily opposed by a group of Blacklake residents worried that the proposal would devalue existing homes and violate an open-space agreement that promised no development on the golf course.
Rossi has since submitted new plans that call for fewer units being built on the property and expands recreational uses at the resort.
The new plans call for an 84-unit lodge with a restaurant, conference and retail spaces, a pro shop, cafe and event areas; 30 one- and two-bedroom vacation cottages; a 20-cottage boutique hotel near the existing clubhouse; and 36 homes to be built somewhere on the property, though where is still undecided.
Much of the discussion Tuesday centered on the use of land that has previously been tied up in open-space agreements, and whether the board would be willing to approve construction on those open spaces in the future.
Gibson and Hill stressed they would likely not approve any plans that called for development on areas already promised to stay open space, while supervisors Compton, Debbie Arnold and Frank Mecham indicated they would prefer to consider that after the project has gone through the county review process.
“There are a lot of balls in the air with this one,” Arnold said. “All I can say looking at all this complexity is that it’s in the applicant’s best interest to bring a project back that can get approval.”
The plans are not final and will be subject to modifications made through the planning process.
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Blacklake resort plans moving forward in Nipomo."