HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/15/2020 Item 9, Hansen
September 9, 2020
To: All Members of the San Luis Obispo City Council,
We are writing in support of the Villaggio Continuing Care Retirement Community and the Fromm Ranch
Project. We would urge you to give this your very serious consideration and support on behalf of a very
urgent need in this county. We have watched for a number of years various entities try to bring this sort
of development into this area. We have attended many meetings to pursue this goal, including planning
commission and city council meetings. This current plan has come the farthest and has been planned
and designed by people who know this area well with much input from those who hope to be residents.
Santa Barbara, a city that closely matches San Luis Obispo’s demographics, has several such
developments. The need is here and frankly among our close acquaintances we have seen no less than 6
couples leave to find such a development that will see them through their senior years from
independent living up to and including skilled nursing should the need arise. Several had signed up for
Villaggio but felt they could wait no longer and moved away. Villaggio, without any major advertising,
already has a sizeable waiting list. Many of us have saved throughout our lives in order to have access to
just such an opportunity. It has drawn interest from wealthy people of course but also from many who
have worked here in the various educational settings, saved their money and wish to stay here. We are
from the latter group.
My husband was the youngest member of the original Cuesta College faculty and spent the majority of
his career helping to grow this institution which has now played a major role in this county for 55 years.
I, too, served on the Cuesta faculty for 20 years. We have thus lived and worked in San Luis for 55 years
and participated in many capacities through the years. We have been active in our church, in the
schools, in community groups ranging from PTA to Scouting and youth sports, to leading the Cuesta
Biathlon and now in retirement we serve on the Board of the Cuesta Performing Arts Center, as a
member of the Avila Valley Advisory Council and in our neighborhood association. Our roots are here,
we enjoy the climate and the opportunity to exercise most days of the year, we know and feel
connected to the community and feel a distinct loyalty to something we feel we have we given of our
time, talent and energy to help build. We really don’t want to have to look for a new location, but we
have no family here so a community such as Villaggio feels right and as if it would serve our needs well.
Our concern was originally that we would not be ready to enter when it was built and now it is whether
it will be available to us when we need it.
Please help to move this project ahead to its quickest possible start before many more people feel the
need to find other options away from here and creating even more of a drain of people who otherwise
would have continued to stay and contribute to this county. Thank you for your consideration and for all
that you do on behalf of San Luis Obispo.
Thank you,
Warren and MaryEl Hansen