HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/15/2020 Item 9, Brown, D.
From:David Brown <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Froom Ranch Specific Plan: Agenda Item 9
Re: Froom Ranch Specific Plan: Agenda Item 9
Dear Mayor Harmon and Members of the City Council,
This letter is in support of the Froom Ranch Specific Plan (agenda item 9) and specifically the Villaggio portion
of the plan. My name is David Brown and my wife is Valene Houdyshell and we have lived in the area for 31
years. Before we retired, Val worked at Cal Trans in SLO as a Transportation Planner and I was an engineer at
Applied Technologies in Paso Robles.
We were introduced to the concept of a life plan community twelve years ago when my parents could no
longer safely live in their home and they moved to University Village in Thousand Oak, Ca. They spent the
remainder of their lives there progressing from independent living to assisted living and finally to skilled
nursing where they passed away several years ago. Their last years were made so much better by being able
to live in familiar surroundings as they needed higher levels of care, and there was significant peace of mind
for them, and for us, knowing their needs would be taken care of for rest of their lives without having to
uproot them at each phase of their aging.
Their experience convinced Val and I that when the time came for us to move out of our home, a Life Plan
Community was where we wanted to be. Knowing that there was no facility of that type in San Luis Obispo
County, we knew we would have to leave the area and all of our friends and family. Then in 2015 we saw an
article in the newspaper about John Madonna’s plan to develop the Froom Ranch that included a Life Plan
Community (then called a CCRC) and were very excited that we might not have to leave SLO County after all.
We attended the first Villaggio public meeting, paid a deposit, got on the priority reservation list and attended
the first City Council hearing on this project along with many other interested residents. We have heard some
say that this project is only for the wealthy, but we don’t consider ourselves wealthy. We have no children
and have saved diligently over the years knowing we would have to take care of ourselves. We are
homeowners and the proceeds from the sale of our home will help us move into the Villaggio.
Besides this project’s importance to us as future residents there are many benefits for the residents of the City
and County of San Luis Obispo, including creating approximately 200 jobs in SLO and help with the housing
shortage as residents move out of their homes and into the Villaggio.
We encourage the City Council to allow this project to proceed in a timely fashion as we are now in our
seventies and there have already been many on the waiting list who, because of age, have had to move out of
the County because they could no longer wait for the project to progress. Thank you for taking the time to
read our comments.
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Sincerely,
David Brown and Valene Houdyshell
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