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SLO council endorses Madonna development

April 6, 2016
John Madonna’s plans to fashion his proposed project is fashioned after existing retirement communities.

John Madonna’s plans to fashion his proposed project after existing retirement communities.

The San Luis Obispo City Council has given preliminary approval for a development proposed by John Madonna, the son of later entrepreneur Alex Madonna. John Madonna plans to build a large-scale retirement community, houses, apartments and retail space on a 111-acre property next to Los Osos Valley Road.

Madonna’s proposed project includes 200 multi-family apartments, 75 single-family homes, 25,000 to 45,000 square feet of commercial space, a neighborhood park and open space. The retirement housing consists of 276 independent living apartments, 66 living villas and assisted living units and a 122-bed nursing and memory care facility, according to a city staff report.

City plans for the area do not envision there being senior housing. Also, Madonna plans to develop above a 150-foot elevation limit, and his project includes less retail space than called for in city plans.

On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to let city staff begin crafting general plan amendments, as well as a specific plan, that would allow Madonna to move forward with the project as planned. An environmental impact report must also be prepared.


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One word: INFRASTRUCTURE


SLO’s roads are a mess, and over-crowded all day now. All day. Not just rush hour, though rush hour is now the slow-flowing quasi-parking lot out of town that most probably came here to avoid.


With CalPoly doing whatever they want, adding 5,000 more students; that dopey idea for low-income housing along Broad (across from Damon Garcia field) and the newly-finished sardine-like “Squeeze-em-inz” behind the Lemo’s / Subway strip mall along Broad @ Orcutt Rd., we now want to add more?


I mean, assuming there is enough water, sewer, fire and police protection, what about the neglected, under-sized roads? Traffic? I really didn’t want to be the NIMBY / No-Growth type, but even I can realize when a place has far out-grown it’s existing road and transit system.


Am I the only one to notice that even at 10am or 2pm on any given day, the roads are packed? It’s a constant. I remember it only taking 5 minutes to get from the airport to downtown. Yeah, nostalgia. I guess in a few years I’ll be pining for the days when it only took 15 minutes to get from the airport to downtown… :(


1

One would think that in this water crisis we are in that building permits would be halted for awhile – especially something of this magnitude.


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Well of course! An old folks home – thats so fitting for this town. The villages is the fastest growing area in the nation. Wait til they learn about SLO!


ugh small towns..


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Well, it’s not like their kids or grandkids will have much money to tax or spend, so squeeze those wealthy retirees for all their worth, right SLO?


Other than government, the retirement community is the only source of solid, stable income for many people (medical, legal, restaurant, etc).


1

This is true – Their children certainly got the heck out and up to the bay. The challenge will be that a smart retiree won’t stay in CA. I mentioned the villages, that’s been designed specifically for older folks and they go because there no tax and lots of services.


Young people and certainly families will not flock to a place that has become elderly. The reasons are because what the elderly want and need are not at all what people in other stages of life want or need. A 40% crime rate isn’t important when you’ve got golf kart lanes.


Paso or AG would be smart to focus on not becoming elderly, which would help them create some kind of a future around here.


SLO is gray and appears to want to stay as such.


0

You just have to look at the City Council and the committees to see how true that is!


0

I wonder how many low flush toilets, for the water credit offset, they will have to install, a kagillion? Oops, I forgot the Salinas River is for San Luis Obispo and Local Control is for where the river once flowed.


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The town already has retro-fitted the toilets and showers dating back to the drought of the 90’s. All these new water users must be served so just keep conserving, conserve some more, and then conserve a lot. Remember, Cal Poly and Men’s Colony (The State of Calif) own 49% of Whale Rock and the City of SLO 51% but the City supplies their water from the Salinas River/Santa Margarita Lake so they can hold the Whale Rock in reserve for all three agencies. The City will be using the recycled water that is now going to the parks within the next five years. They need water, can’t do anything about the infrastructure and must have the tax money for all those great salaries. Build baby build!


1

If Adam Hill was one of the voters on this project there would be 50 posts killing him the first day, 30 the next and 20 posts for the next 5 days. Where is the angry mob? Lets start hearing the names of those that are welcoming in nearly every project that bypasses height limits, green belts and other limitations that are being ignored.


0

Time to kick the bums out of city hall. This is the worst council since the 1960s, though I wouldn’t know about that it’s so long ago. Marx must go.


1

Why would you bring up this A$$H@!*, we have enough problems with our own corrupted politicians, we don’t need Adam in SLO (although I would love to see him and Jan Marx work together daily).


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Of course they do. Duh.

Build, build, build.


0

The right re-elections campaigns must have gotten some recent donations………….


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Are you kidding? This clown show raked in the developer money, and now its payback time. Developers have given them tons of campaign contributions and have provided extra cash for their non profits, in the case of Rivoire for the one that provides his paycheck! These council people are crooks. And note, all you Carpenter fans, Carpenter voted for this too!


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Wow, a far bigger enterprise than the Madonna Inn. Something that is actually needed too. Nice to see an actual local developing this and not some greedy out-of-towners like those behind the proposed booby-hatch up in Templeton. I think Alex Madonna would be proud of his son’s entrepreneurship.


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Well heck yes, much better to have local greedy developers, for sure!


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This council will build anywhere if you say housing, then blame the county for no greenbelt.they are even backpedaling on Laguna Lake and dredging. Speaking of dredging where did we dredge up this group.


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