The house that San Luis Obispo Councilwoman Jan Marx built

July 7, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

After battling for, against, and then for development of the former Dalidio Ranch, San Luis Obispo City Councilwoman Jan Marx moved into the complex, in a home plan restricted to affordable housing.

Even though Coastal Community Builders told prospective buyers the farmhouse design was designated affordable housing with limited availability, Marx and her husband Steve purchased their farmhouse design home for $707,000 on Jan. 13, 2022. While the design was limited to affordable housing, it appears Marx paid full price for her home.

For decades, Marx appears to have had a love-hate relationship with the former Dalidio Ranch, now known as San Luis Ranch.

In 2000, Councilwoman Marx and former Councilman John Ewan served as representatives in negotiations to annex Ernie Dalidio’s proposed project into the city. Marx and Ewan negotiated until they came up with a proposal that included 46% open space in the project, and a contract with Dalidio to purchase additional lands to be designated open space.

Much to the surprise of Ewan, Marx voted against the project when it went in front of the City Council.

“She (Marx) then did an about face and said ‘No,’ ” Ewan told CalCoastNews at the time. “She has said that the end justifies the means. It makes me think that she was not negotiating in good faith.”

After she was on the losing end of the vote, she helped launch a political campaign to stop the project.

A trail of receipts, credit card statements and reimbursement checks shows that Marx handled everyday campaign duties from the start of the fight in 2004 through Nov. 2006. She also printed campaign flyers, purchased campaign supplies and handled some advertising with local media.

And while Marx claimed she was part of a grassroots effort to protect farmland, state regulators later determined the campaign was funded by a pair of downtown developers working to stop competing development.

In Oct. 2010, the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) levied $80,000 in fines against developers Tom and Jim Copeland, and banker David Booker for committing 16 campaign violations in their secretive battle against Dalidio’s project.

The three-year FPPC investigation into the funneling of cash and gifts to the campaigns to stop Dalidio’s proposed development revealed Marx was part of the illicit effort.

In 2013, Dalidio abandoned his plan to create a 131-acre mixed-use development on his land adjacent to Highway 101 near Madonna Road, and put the property up for sale for nearly $20 million. Shortly afterwards, Clint Pearce of Madonna Enterprises and Gary Grossman of Coastal Community Builders made an offer on the property.

Unlike Dalidio’s project, Grossman’s planned development consistently overcame regulatory hurdles. Previously, the San Luis Obispo County Airport Land Use Commission set limits restricting the plans of developers, like Grossman, who sought to build high-density housing on the city’s southern edge.

On April 1, 2014, the SLO City Council voted unanimously to instruct staff to begin working on development agreements with Grossman, with Mayor Marx saying she did not want to rehash the controversy.

“We do not need to go back to the bad old days,” Marx said.

In fall 2014, while former SLO County Supervisor Adam Hill aggressively attempted to persuade members of the SLO City Council to vote in favor of a land use change needed for higher density at the proposed San Luis Ranch, Grossman made a $50,000 donation to Hill’s wife, Dee Torres-Hill’s, nonprofit SLO Housing Connection. Led by Mayor Marx, the council then voted 4-1 in favor of the airport land use change, with then-Councilman Dan Carpenter dissenting.

Marx did not return recent requests for comment.

In an odd twist, FBI agents arrested developer Ryan Wright in 2023 on a three-count indictment that includes allegations he bribed Supervisor Hill to get support from San Luis Obispo officials regarding airport land use restrictions, according to the indictment.

Councilwoman Marx is currently running for reelection.