Proposed retirement community, homes on LOVR clear hurdle in SLO

By the time the San Luis Obispo City Council started discussing a proposal late Tuesday to allow a continuing care retirement facility along Los Osos Valley Road, some of the project supporters wearing “Yes! to CCRC” buttons had already gone home.

But nearly a dozen others urged the council to let developer John Madonna proceed with plans to develop a 111-acre site, now located just outside the city limits, with homes, commercial space and the retirement community, which would offer independent and assisted living, as well as skilled nursing facilities so residents would never have to move.

The council voted unanimously to allow Madonna, CEO of Madonna Construction Co. Inc., to submit a formal application to the city with details on the project, and to start the environmental review process.

If the project is eventually approved, the council would then ask the San Luis Obispo Local Agency Formation Commission to annex the land into the city.

Livestock grazing takes place on the land, located directly west of Los Osos Valley Road and Calle Joaquin, next to Home Depot and other stores in the Froom Ranch Shopping Center. The property contains the historical Froom Ranch complex; three key structures may be relocated or repurposed as part of the proposal.

Many supporters clearly hope the project moves quickly through the process.

“My wife and I are probably the poster couple for projects like this,” San Luis Obispo resident Elliott Marshall said. “We live in a house, but we are finding we’re not going to be able to do it too much longer. We’re going to have to move before too long, so I hope you’ll consider that.”

The senior housing community would include 276 independent living apartments, 66 independent living villas and assisted living units, and a skilled nursing and memory care facility with 122 beds.

“There’s a serious shortage of housing of this type, and it’s hard to find a suitable site,” said Ken Riener, a retired Cal Poly finance professor who, along with his wife, Judy, has been trying to bring a continuing care retirement community to the area for more than a decade.

Such a community needs at least 20 acres to have enough room to provide all levels of care, Judy Riener told the council Tuesday.

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.

The other part of the development would be 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 still conceptual and could change, said project representative Victor Montgomery, a principal at RRM Design Group.

The City Council considered the plan at this early stage because the retirement community is not part of the city’s vision for the land as laid out in its general plan, and because Madonna wants to build part of that community and some of the single-family homes above a 150-foot elevation on the hillside.

The general plan states that no building should take place above the 150-foot elevation level.

The council’s action Tuesday allows Madonna to move ahead with a specific plan for the development, which would also include general plan amendments.

Most of the comments came from supporters, but Neil Havlik, speaking on behalf of the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, said the group is concerned that the project ignores general plan policies, such as the 150-foot development limitation line and protection of waterways, endangered species and wetlands.

“It offers a hodgepodge of uses — single-family homes, apartments and retail establishments have nothing to do with the retirement facility,” he said. “It uses convoluted arguments to try to justify the need to go over the 150-foot elevation, mostly to get more development.”

The council didn’t debate the elevation issue in depth Tuesday (city staff said the potential effects of the development on natural and scenic resources will be fully evaluated later in the process). Mayor Jan Marx said building above the 150-foot line was her main concern, adding she would like to see an alternative that would maintain it.

Councilwoman Carlyn Christianson said it also concerned her, but that she would support moving ahead Tuesday because the council wasn’t approving an actual project.

“I do believe that the community has supported infill and denser housing because we want to protect our hillsides,” she said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 9:14 PM with the headline "Proposed retirement community, homes on LOVR clear hurdle in SLO."