Proposed retirement community would exceed 150-foot building limit for SLO’s Irish Hills

No one seems to dispute that there’s a need for a continuing care retirement community in San Luis Obispo — a complex offering independent and assisted living as well as skilled nursing facilities on-site so residents would never have to move again.

But whether it can be built along Los Osos Valley Road above a specific elevation that was designated as permanent open space will be up for debate.

The retirement community is one part of a major development that’s in the planning stage by John Madonna, CEO of Madonna Construction Co. Inc., on 111 acres directly west of Los Osos Valley Road and Calle Joaquin, next to Home Depot and other stores in the Froom Ranch Shopping Center.

The other part of the development would be 60 to 75 single-family homes, about 200 rental apartments, 25,000 to 45,000 square feet of retail space and 6.5 acres of parks. Fifty percent of the site would remain open space. The plan is only conceptual and could change, said project representative Victor Montgomery, a principal at RRM Design Group.

Those uses are consistent with the vision for the area laid out in San Luis Obispo’s General Plan, specifically its land use element, which was approved by the San Luis Obispo City Council in December 2014.

But a continuing care retirement community was not brought up during the discussions of uses for the site. Madonna and Montgomery said they couldn’t find other sites in San Luis Obispo large enough to accommodate a continuing care retirement facility on 20 acres.

“We ended up here quite frankly because there is no suitable place we found with enough acreage in the city that’s available and has a willing partner to do the (continuing care retirement community),” Montgomery said.

A divided city Planning Commission voted 4-3 last week to forward to the City Council Madonna’s request to proceed with his application.

A closer look at the retirement community

San Luis Obispo-based Villaggio Communities would design and develop the project. It would be managed by Life Care Services, which manages about 125 communities in 29 states including University Village in Thousand Oaks.

“A CCRC is the best type of community you can live in, because it’s a community you never have to leave again,” said Ray Walters, a principal at Villaggio Communities, which is a co-applicant on the project.

Madonna said in a previous interview that residents would pay a large entry fee — $350,000 or more depending on the number of bedrooms needed — which then pays for the community’s capital improvement costs.

A monthly fee would cover one meal a day, linen service, gym membership and other amenities, Walters said. When a resident moves or dies, about 75 percent of the entry fee would return to the person’s estate.

The continuing care retirement facility as currently designed would include a mix of 276 independent living apartments and 66 villas with one-, two- or three-bedroom options.

The assisted living, memory care and long-term care facility would have 122 beds, according to a project description statement submitted to the city last April.

But the most significant issue reviewed Jan. 27 by the Planning Commission, is Madonna’s request to develop on the hillside above a 150-foot elevation — an area identified in city planning documents as having a high scenic value, and which is part of a scenic vista seen from Highway 101. No building sites should take place above the 150-foot elevation in the Irish Hills area, the city’s land use element states.

About 61 acres of the 111-acre project site are below the 150-foot elevation, according to a city staff report. But because of building constraints at a lower elevation, such as historic buildings, wetland habitat and steep slopes, about 32.1 acres of land could be developed below the 150-foot elevation line. Of the 50 acres of land above that line, 22 acres are suitable for development, according to the applicant.

While there has been development outside the city above 150 feet on the hillside — KSBY-TV’s studio and Mountainbook Community Church — they are located outside the Irish Hills area. The church sits at a 203-foot elevation, and was approved by the county, not the city.

Montgomery said they would ensure that roof heights of new buildings wouldn’t be higher than the church’s roof height, which is at 238 feet.

Madonna and Montgomery also mentioned they had been approached by Wal-Mart about development on the site, but turned down the retailer.

“Of course Wal-Mart wanted to be here,” Madonna told the Planning Commission. “We said no, it’s not right for the city. We’re looking for something we can look back on and be really proud to be a part of in the future.”

The Planning Commission’s debate

Planning commissioners were split about whether to move Madonna’s request forward to the City Council. The council will consider whether to allow Madonna to proceed with a formal application for a specific plan and amendments to the city’s General Plan to allow development over 150 feet and a different mix of land uses on the site.

Three of the seven commissioners who voted against the recommendation to council — Hemalata Dandekar, Michael Multari and William Riggs — cited various reasons: They were uncomfortable going above the 150-line (Dandekar); concerned about squeezing the housing and retirement community on one site when they could be seen as two separate projects (Multari); and worried that changing land uses allowed on the site flies in the face of all the work the community did to approve the existing land use update (Riggs).

“If this is a twofer, that we’re going to try to do two projects on one site and that the only way we can get (the retirement community) is to go above the 150 and jam these two things onto one (site), I think that I’m not in favor of it,” Multari said.

The other commissioners — Michael Draze, John Fowler, John Larson and Ronald Malak — agreed to move the item to the council for further discussion.

Fowler acknowledged that it’s disappointing to talk about changing the land use element so soon after the update was approved. “But we do that. We do general plans and we amend them. So this isn’t the first time we’ve had this face us.”

“The CCRC has brought that opportunity to us and so we can rethink it and we’re subject to change,” he said. “There’s not enough information for me to say, ‘Not a problem, go above 150,’ but certainly to initiate the application.”

Larson added: “I think there’s enough merit in the second project, the CCRC, and at least considering moving above the 150-foot contour line, that it should be initiated as a General Plan amendment.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Proposed retirement community would exceed 150-foot building limit for SLO’s Irish Hills."