HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/11/2024 Item 4a, GoyerPlanning Commission
999 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, 93401
advisorybodies@slocity.org
Re: 466 Dana St. Waterman Village Dec. 11, 2024, Agenda Item 4a
Dear Chair Cooley and Commissioners Flores, Houghton, Jorgensen, Khan,Munoz-Morris and Tolle,
I write in support of the proposed Waterman Village project at 466 Dana Street in San Luis Obispo. I
encourage the Planning Commission to approve this pocket neighborhood that will help address the
critical issue of affordable housing on the Central Coast of California. Young families, singles, and
independent seniors can no longer afford to live in San Luis Obispo comfortably. Waterman Village is
part of the solution. It offers a beautiful, centrally located home for San Luis Obispo residents of limited
means, particularly the City’s 1 in 3 single-person households, to live among a community and have the
option for car-free living with services nearby.
Developed by San Luis Obispo nonprofit Smart Share Housing Solutions (SSHS), Waterman Village
includes 20 permanent below-market-rate cottage homes, built on foundations, compatible and
complementary to the historic Rosa Butron de Canet Adobe. The project has been recommended, based
on adherence to the standards of their respective purviews, by both the Cultural Heritage Committee and
the Architectural Review Commission.
Local housing options in San Luis Obispo should reflect the demand for all types of life. Waterman
Village offers a unique option for sustainable, community-based, simple living. There is a pertinent desire
for this housing model in our city. If not in downtown San Luis Obispo, a place with quality bicycle and
pedestrian infrastructure, and essential resources within walking distance, where? The American
Automobile Association (AAA) calculates the average annual cost of car ownership to be upwards of
$12,000. For low-income households, meeting that ticket can prevent meeting other basic needs and
essential payments. For this reason, low-income households have lower levels of car ownership than other
populations.
Parking is a local concern, and it has been considered. The twenty cottages are likely to house one person
each. SSHS predicts about half of residents to be car owners, as there will be preference for tenants who
live car free to the degree possible. The project includes three on-site parking spots, and would be eligible
for two street parking spaces, accounting for a total of five cars. Any other car owners will have to park
off-site. They will have options, including the Cultural Arts District parking structure (construction
currently underway), located at the corner of Palm, Nipomo, and Monterey Streets, which will offer
overnight parking for current and future downtown residents. With long-term parking passes for this
structure, Waterman Village residents will be able to park and walk the short distance.
While some may fear the idea of affordable homes and the stigma they carry in their neighborhood and
the people that occupy such homes, this project will bring enhanced neighborhood security. Smart Share
Housing Solutions’ on-site management and offices and community space inside a rehabilitated adobe at
the heart and center of cottages will bring life back to a currently unsecured lot and bring human life back
into a boarded up historic resource, which has been occupied by rodents, garbage and old mattresses for
years. Residents will be screened and background-checked.
As housing prices soar across California, San Luis Obispo residents deserve more opportunities to stay,
connect with our community, and have access to personal space and mobility, while maintaining a
reasonable budget to meet all their needs. The development of Waterman Village, centered around the
rehabilitation and opening up of the historic adobe for use, provides not only housing, but also opportunity
to community members to access a historic resource which has been sitting empty and boarded up for
more than 30 years.
Thank you for your support of this exciting project that furthers so many city goals, from housing and
homeless prevention, to energy efficiency and sustainability, to cultural vitality, equity and inclusion and
sustainable mobility.
Respectfully,
Celeste Goyer, Los Angeles
Former resident of San Luis Obispo
Current board member of Smart Share Housing Solution
Operations Director of Casita Coalition