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It is time to support new housing opportunities in SLO County

October 23, 2023

REACH housing opportunity map

Opinion by REACH Housing Advocacy Team

Open letter  to San Luis Obispo County Supervisors, mayors, council members, planning commissioners, and all interested in creating more opportunities for housing:

SLO County’s persistent housing shortage has become a fundamental threat to our community’s livelihood. Businesses can’t hire, workers can’t afford to live here, and our economy can’t sustain our way of life.

As members of the housing advocacy team and partners that supported development of the new Housing and Infrastructure Regional Framework, we believe that swift leadership to create more housing is an economic imperative.

We applaud the regional coordination of SLOCOG, the county and the seven cities in developing new strategies and tools to counteract the overwhelming challenges we face — and we urge you to take action now to approve and move forward on housing of all types and in all stages of development.

Decades of inaction have compounded the housing shortage and thwarted our ability to grow and thrive. As we look at our region’s project pipeline it is essential that we resist the tendency to delay or deny the housing we need.

We must work urgently at every stage to build the homes and neighborhoods that our teachers, public servants, service workers, nurses and doctors, small business owners and beyond desperately need — moving projects through the planning pipeline more quickly and approving them without delay. Not in two years. Not in 5fiveyears. Today.

Immediate opportunities for action

Before us right now and in the months ahead are housing projects such as the Dana Reserve in Nipomo, Margarita Area in SLO and North Chandler Ranch in Paso Robles that will create homes for thousands of families and begin to bridge the huge housing gap straining every facet of our community and economy

Regional planning shows potential to activate the creation of 15,714 homes and apartments across SLO County. And we have the foundation for action.

SLO County, the seven cities and SLOCOG set the stage with the 2020 Regional Compact, a shared commitment to developing the housing and infrastructure needed to support the economy. Earlier this year, more than 100 private and public sector stakeholders worked collaboratively over the course of 52 meetings to develop the next major milestone: the Housing and Infrastructure Regional Framework, a planning tool that aligns regional priorities around proposed projects and opportunities.

What’s needed now

We have the plan and tools to do the job. Each community has a role and responsibility, spanning the government leaders who are indispensable in making housing a reality to the community members needed to champion it. And region-wide collaboration will be essential to measure our progress, share best practices, and mobilize resources toward housing and supporting infrastructure.

Local government leaders should revisit policies such as density limits and parking requirements, streamline review processes and move on infrastructure projects to unlock longer-term housing opportunities.

Community members have a critical role to play in voicing support by showing up in the public square to ensure we collectively stay true to the north star of creating more housing that’s attainable for our residents and supports our community’s future.

We have the organizations and partners committed to supporting and advancing this vital community dialogue. We have a new framework and tools to leverage and a foundation of collaboration to channel our efforts efficiently and effectively.

The time is now. Let’s respond with unity, urgency, and unwavering determination to secure a bright future for all.

REACH is a Regional Economic Action Coalition uniting public, private and civic leaders across the Central Coast of California. The housing advisory team includes: Scott Collins, executive director Housing Authority of SLO; Jeff Eckles, CEO San Luis Obispo Housing Trust Fund; Lenny Grant, BD&C co-chair and principal architect RRM Design Group; Kathy McCorry, CEO South County Chambers of Commerce; Krista Jeffries, lead organizer SLO County YIMBY; Jocelyn Brennan SLO County Realtors 31 government affairs director; Ken Trigueiro, CEO People’s Self-Help Housing; Jim Dantona, CEO SLO Chamber of Commerce; Nick Rasmussen, chief executive officer Habitat for Humanity; Lindy Hatcher, xecutive director Home Builders Association; Chuck Davison, CEO Visit SLO CAL; Steve Delmartini, broker and Melissa James, CEO REACH.

 


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So at first glance I thought that this “opinion” piece was another cry to build more affordable housing (which I would have supported). However, upon reading more carefully, the word affordable appears nowhere in the text. Actually if you go over to http://www.reachcentralcoast.org, you’ll see that their Board of Directors is made of mostly of people who could not only afford $1 million homes, but those who would profit greatly from having even more affluent people move to SLO County.


I find it funny where in this article they state: “We must work urgently at every stage to build the homes and neighborhoods that our teachers, public servants, service workers, nurses and doctors, small business owners and beyond desperately need.”



“Teachers” that can afford the $5300 mortgage payment on the $900k + home that they are currently building in this county?


“Service Providers” that can afford the $2600 median rent?

“Nurses” that can afford the 20% down payment on a $800k home (which is $160k by the way)????


What this opinion piece basically says, is that we need to build more $800k homes in San Luis Obispo County so that more people in L.A. and the Bay Area currently living in $1.5 million homes can afford to move here at a profit.


Of course you don’t really see too many people coming out in support of “affordable housing” because those that already “got theirs” won’t dare vote for any development that might affect their property values. That includes the vast majority of the SLO County Board of Supervisor’s, and members of local City Councils. Never thought I would live long enough to see an organization make an impassioned plea for an area to build more million-dollar housing.


1

Don’t let perfect get in the way of better. It would be good if we built more lower income housing, but building housing in general still does a lot for regional affordability. A new 800k dollar house will be bought by someone living in a 500k dollar house, looking for an upgrade. Their old, more affordable house then goes back onto the market for those teachers and nurses.


Attempting to use zoning or regulatory requirements that require affordable housing is dangerous, push too hard and place too heavy a burden on developers and you end up with zero affordable housing. Any new housing helps, don’t lose that plot.


-4

Apparently with reasoning like yours, you must work for the Government. In the off chance someone actually moves out of a $500k house in this area and upgrades, likely whomever buys the $500k house is going to level it (and/or “remodel” it) and build an $800k house on the property. Sure, any new development helps keep the $800k homes from becoming $1.5 million homes. But how about REACH cut the absolute B.S. about Teachers, Service Providers and Nurses and admit that the majority of new home buyers in this area are equity refugees relocating from more expensive areas. New development in this area is going to do little for the 1st time home-buyer working for our predominantly low wages. Especially with 8% interest under Brandonomics. Don’t even get me started on infrastructure. While REACH does give some lip-service blah, blah to infrastructure improvements, we all know how reluctant both SLOCOG and the State are to upgrading infrastructure to support housing growth. I think the popular belief is that if we just stop building or fixing roads, Californians will eventually embrace the bicycle or skateboard as their primary mode of transportation. Of course there is also the “Bullet Train” that will be completed sometime in the next 20 years, which will be absolutely worthless to our area. Unless you want to take a 3 hour bus connection to your 2 hour train trip.


6

Me, a government man? Ha! Government is the problem here, I want more construction and development which means less government fees, restrictions, and zoning. There is a market for dense housing in SLO and when people or developers want to build, it shouldn’t be up to NIMBYs whether they an old house can turn into 3-4 new apartments or townhomes.


I like bikes because it costs me nothing and I can park it wherever I’m going. I have a car for road trips and camping, but if I’m just going a couple miles, it’s faster to bike than to drive and find parking. We need more bike lanes to make biking safer for families and commuters – every bike on the road is one fewer car.


I am also sad about the high speed train. CA has totally flubbed it.


-2

 

Massive development approved for Paso Roble, 2 huge conglomerates traded on the New York stock exchange are the principals. This has been in the works for 10-15 years, marketed in Los Angeles to attract nice city folk. We are pleased to offer Planning Areas 2 and 13 within Vinedo, a fully approved. 1,233-home master planned community on 279 acres located in Paso Robles. https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/video-grading-of-new-vinedo-housing-development/153036/


-5

I’m automatically skeptical of any group who claims they “have the tools to do the job, mentions infrastructure and then in the next paragraph says local leaders need to revisit density (meaning increase) and parking requirements (meaning decrease). I don’t trust this group any further than I could throw them.


13

You can build all the houses you want but most of the people working in the county can’t afford them especially with interest rates at 8%. You need to do a article on how much it costs to permit and build a house in this county and you will see there is a high cost for government required payments in relationship to the overall cost


41

Permitting is a pretty insignificant cost. Development impact fees and utility connections are, they pay for increased traffic/water/sewer and other expenses. They want you, the person who’s lived here for decades, to offset that cost so as to increase their profit. My SLO water bill tripled so developers wouldn’t have to pay for the otherwise unneeded Nacimiento Pipeline. However much fees are reduced the houses are not going to sell for a penny less. SLO County, welcome to the club. You cannot build your way to affordability. The only affordable housing will be subsidized housing, Every signatory on the editorial piece fully knows that, they just don’t want you to know that.


3

Clearly you never have developed anything in this county. The fees are exorbent and the permitting process takes years if not decades. The process is arduous and very costly as you need to hire experts to navaigate you through the process or you will be bankrupt by taking the counties advice from the 10-15 departments that must approve and tax every inch of your developemnt.


8

Better lay more roadways and parking lots…. climb up to the top of Madonna and tell us where you are going to squeeze more people and more housing in….

Not to mention depleting water supplies…. and we will need another hospital and fire and police emergency units….


33

Connect Prado to Broad and fill the Tank Farm area, Orcutt, Margarita, Froom. And importantly we can build new homes in currently developed areas – end the zoning regulations that forbid property owners from adding ADUs or turning a single house into a duplex. These aren’t even radical ideas, the possibilities are endless.


We don’t need more parking lots – wasted empty spaces that spread everything apart like in Los Angeles; build housing near where people work and shop and they won’t need a giant parking lot, the more people who can walk or bike to get eggs and milk, the fewer cars on the road.


-36

“Cerro San Luis”, not Madonna. Never was, never will be. No, the “M” is not for Madonna either. That’s for Mission High—class of ’64 (and technically, the “Lively Ones” of class of ’66).


6

Yes, this article is an opinion and with a specific purpose. Remember there is no money to maintain existing roads and gov does not automatically fund your issue with the traffic jams that are growing. And give me a break, who can afford to buy a new home? Even the doctors are having difficulties.


30

I moved here to attend Cal Poly like many others who remained and became part of our community. This promotional story is for the buyers of means, wealthy transplants. In the late 80’s I promoted a robust Hwy 101 corridor before expansion and the lure of traffic from the valley. Local government went for the easy money and just developed to fund their personal needs, yes fund their future. Now we have a robust Hwy 46, a wine Mecca that fuels the need for motels that consume water. Hwy 101 is a cluster that will now have exponential cost extras and major public inconveniences while building out the old six lane freeway plan for SLO County. Frontage roads, upgrades to the on and off ramps, overpasses and road overlays. WE will NEVER see SLO again, although we will have time to look around while in traffic. I was an engineering student and doing the math explains where we are and how we got here. As we struggle to pay our debt, locally and globally, we fund distruction and rebuild elsewhere. Now just THINK about more traffic and who will buy those newly approved entitlements? The answer is the entitlements will be sold (Ka Ching) by the developers to the foreign money or dirty money who will build, bypass the local sales talent and sell to your NEW NEIGHBORS, many who’s homes we may have funded to level elsewhere.


17

Paso Robles has already approved 10 more hotels to be built over the next 10 years. The CITY AND COUNTY WANTS TAXES TAXES TAXES AT ANY COST.


7

SLO city and county have done such a poor job of planning and building too many housing units without the infrastructure to hold it. SLO city has not the roads, water, sewer, or electrical supply to hold what is being built right now. The freeway traffic has become more congested in the last two years and the intercity traffic is already at Fresno levels. Ever try to go south on Broad near the airport at the end of the workday? Ever tried going north on 101 outside Atascadero? More building equals lower quality of life, period. Paso is about to build 2000+ homes with no supporting infrastructure – especially water. Nobody is thinking, nobody counting the quality of life cost and the hit to tourism increased density will bring. It’s not always about the money, it’s about the quality of life. We’ve already had wave upon wave of people moving from SF and LA to get away from the density, and we are going to repeat their plight?


61

This is all snake oil BS. It’s a scheme for a few to get rich at the expense of your quality of life. THEY DONT CARE about you. Your tax money is the only thing of interest to the politicians.

Any you’re right. They think the massively overpopulated hell hole known as Southern California is just fine and will destroy SLO by doing the same thing here. The “housing shortage” is simply a smoke screen.


23

I imagine you’re someone who hasn’t been on the housing market in a long time. It’s pretty gnarly out there, no smoke.


We will be better than Southern California who wasted their potential on 12 lane highways and oppressive zoning laws. Let people build housing and businesses if they want to, simple as that. Build up, not out.


-10

You are 100% correct.

A coalition of realtors, developers,and bankers telling us we need to build houses because our economy cant sustain our way of life. They wont be happy until they turn this place into La.


44

There’s plenty of housing if you look at all the airbnb and vrbo vacation rentals in this county that probably sit empty half the month during weekdays. Building more housing won’t help the shortage it’ll just create more vacation rentals over time.


29

The effect of short term rentals is a problem, particularly in the beach communities like Pismo. But this is a poor reason to outlaw new construction which will still reduce the shortage. Blaming AirBnB is an excuse; if I agreed to limit/tax those listings so that it wasn’t an issue, I imagine NIMBYs would not turn around support new housing. There would become a “new” reason to restrict the free market.


-2

“our economy can’t sustain our way of life”… I assume you mean “their” way of life. Anyway, you’re actually right – we cant sustain this community if it is impossible to afford a place to live in SLO. You’ll have a dead town; you’ll kill businesses if no one can afford to live within an hour of their job. If job creators want to build, government lead by NIMBYs shouldn’t stop them.


-5

Huge flaw in your argument – traffic is bad on the 101 and 227 BECAUSE people can’t afford to live in SLO City, build more housing, it becomes affordable, abundant and people can live in the community they work and like to spend time in.


The city has more than enough water, and other utilities to support a larger population. Have you had any water shutoffs? I haven’t. We have actually been growing far too slowly and as a result it’s impossible for working people to live in SLO and nothing is affordable – stagnation is what will destroy quality of life in this County, growth is what we need to stay vibrant. I don’t want to live in a town that is just rich LA retirees and rich Bay college kids.


More people means more jobs, shops, restaurants, which can pay for more parks better roads, better police. Tourists love going to places like downtown SLO because it’s dense, you can walk around all year round. Density generally improves quality of life. If you prefer rural areas there is always King City, if you prefer sprawling suburbs maybe you should check out Bakersfield – zero density, brings lots of tourists right?


-4

Unfortunately our government leaders only have the mental capacity for increasing parking fees, painting green bike lanes, getting kickbacks from pot dealers, and arguing about useless Middle East resolutions.


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