The Dana Reserve project in Nipomo deserves community support. Here’s why | Opinion

I have spent 36 years working on housing issues, and I care passionately about giving families access to safe, healthy and affordable housing.

Unfortunately, our county’s severe housing crisis is perniciously eroding our quality of life; it crimps our ability to recruit and retain the workers essential for a healthy, vibrant community.

Think about it: If you want quality health care for yourself, good schools for your children, and a safe and healthy region, there must be housing to accommodate those workers whose services are essential. But because of our housing crisis, every sector of our economy is struggling to attract and retain workers, whether teachers, doctors, nurses, orderlies, construction workers, police and firefighters, agriculture, hospitality, restaurants — you name the worker and you can bet they are struggling to find affordable housing.

One of the best opportunities to provide us much needed affordable housing is the Dana Reserve project in Nipomo, which is scheduled to go before the SLO County Planning Commission Aug. 30-31.

What happens if the project fails to launch?

I write today to voice my full support for this desperately needed housing, and to alert fellow San Luis Obispo County residents about what’s at stake, particularly if this project fails to launch.

Here are the basic details:

Plans call for 1,318 homes to be built over several years. This would be a significant dent in our housing needs. It’s more than one-third of the 3,256 units that the state expects unincorporated SLO County to create in the next six years.

Two-thirds of the homes will be designed for the middle of the cost spectrum, the so-called “missing middle” market. As one who has scrutinized housing developments in our county over the past two decades, I can assure you that no large development in our county during that time has provided such a high percentage of missing-middle housing.

In addition, at least 450 Dana Reserve units will be 1,600 square feet or less, which is the size recommended by SLO County’s 2017 Inclusionary Housing Ordinance study in order to price well below the Central Coast’s median home price. In today’s dollars, a three-bedroom Dana Reserve home would cost $571,000, as compared to the Central Coast median home price of $1.02 million as of April 2023.

Another 104 deed-restricted units will be available only to low- and extremely low-income residents as defined by California’s Department of Housing and Community Development. (Full disclosure: My former employer will be developing these units on sites donated by the developer.)

Additionally, the developer will provide matching down-payment assistance of $32,000 each for 96 local buyers who can demonstrate need. The developer also will provide matching down-payment assistance of $64,000 each for four homes to be used by licensed home-daycare providers. The developer is not required to do this, but he has made a binding commitment.

What opponents say

As with all development, there are detractors. The main concerns can be summed up in three words: Trees, water, traffic. But consider each:

Trees: While 3,000 trees will need to be removed, more than 17,000 trees will be preserved.

Water: The developer will pay $40 million in connection fees to help the Nipomo Community Services District meet its court-ordered obligations to purchase water from Santa Maria. This will result in more water being pumped into the basin than withdrawn. Also, sewer rates for existing customers will decline by 30%, according to Nipomo Community Services District estimates.

Traffic: The developer will finance several improvements, and independent traffic studies project that as a result, traffic will improve in some areas and remain at least as good as today everywhere else near the project.

Some might object to the project’s density. But let’s be honest: When each of our homes was built, the folks who lived nearby probably weren’t keen about it.

And here’s a fair warning: This parcel has been zoned for residential and industrial development for decades. Someone else could acquire the land and develop it in a way that leads to much more expensive housing, or higher-density housing, or an industrial park.

Some hedge-fund backed corporate developer would not have to pony up millions to help Nipomo with its Santa Maria water prices; would not have to design homes for the missing middle, would not have to provide the loan assistance or the daycare sites.

So why is this developer — Nick Tompkins — making these commitments?

As a fifth-generation South County native, Nick cares deeply about our community. I’ve known Nick professionally for 25 years. He is a person of enormous integrity and goodwill, whose legacy matters more to him than maximizing profits.

The Dana Reserve is not merely an excellent project, it is visionary, and deserves our community’s support.

John Fowler served as CEO of People’s Self-Help Housing for 10 years, retiring in 2021.