Purpose

This website is being created as a vehicle to provide an information source and a place to dialogue on the proposed plans to develop the Sunny Acres Historical Building (SAHB) and the property adjacent to it, located east of Johnson Avenue, between Lizzie Street and Bishop Street, behind the old county General Hospital. Please recognize that this is not Dan De Vaul’s Sunny Acres farm.

We welcome your suggestions, thoughts,  opinions and data sources as to the history of the site, proposed uses for the site, comments about the viability of the proposed uses and your comments in general.

While not the initial focus of this website, an expanded dialogue of issues relating to the neighboring property that is currently surrounding the old Sunny Acres Historical Building and is located between the neighborhoods encompassing Johnson Avenue on the west, Fixlini, Wilding, Skylark on the north and Flora on the south makes sense.

For it seems that there is no master vision for all of this property and placing a project like the one proposed is a de facto decision as to what can be accomplished with the surrounding property.  It seems that County and the City need creative, visionary help in defining the optimal use that will benefit the entire community.

Current Status

Transitions Mental Health Associates has an option to purchase the Sunny Acres Historical Building and 1.3 acres surrounding the building.  This option, when exercised, will allow them to convert the building into 14 residences for recovering mental health clients and to build up to 3 additional buildings to house an additional 21 clients.  This option was created in April, 2014.  See Initial News below.

A group of neighbors and other interested community members have questioned the decision to add buildings to this open space area and to house recovering clients in such a high density format.  See Interview with Shelly and Issues at the bottom of this page.

After the initial reaction to this behind closed doors decision, the concerned neighbors have adopted a strategy to react to the proposed project.  See Goals.

While there are several areas of concern about the proposed project, one that is undeniable is that there has been no real vision for the property behind the old General Hospital.  After investigating several alternative uses for the property, the consensus of those concerned neighbors is that the most needy use, the most beneficial to the broad community and the most consistent with maintaining an open space environment would be the creation of a SLO Center for the Arts.  See an Interview with Lanny.

Those interested in using the property as a SLO Center for the Art understand that doing so does not satisfy the need for increased housing for the needy and, therefore, have been attempting to dialogue with Transitions to understand the criteria to be used to find an alternative location for Transitions housing.  Unfortunately, Transitions has not been forthcoming with the necessary criteria for identifying an alternative location.  Notwithstanding that lack of transparency, the group has created a set of criteria and investigated alternative locations.  See Bad Decision for a Good Cause.

Transitions continues to be unsupportive of the group’s efforts and is continuing to pursue the development of their proposed project, now named the Bishop Street Studios Project.  On 6//1/15, TMHA held a meeting in front of the historical building to finally provide some details on their project.

Below is a video of that meeting which was essentially a show and tell of the draft site plan for the project and a solicitation of comments about the design, not about the rationale for the project.  This is the first revealing of any substantive information on the project since it was announced in April 2014 even though it just confirmed predictions that the design would approach the maximum density allowed by the option.  See Meeting Notes for a review of the outreach meeting.

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Text in gold has been added

Initial News

On April 1, 2014, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors (BOS) agreed to provide an option to the Transitions Mental Health Association (TMHA) to develop a residential care facility for persons with mental disabilities at Sunny Acres Historical Building and surrounding property.  The details of the resolution and accompanying documents can be view on the Documents menu item of this site.

On April 4, 2014, an article was published in the local newspaper, The Tribune, reporting on this decision by the BOS.  Click here to see that article.

According to these documents and article, TMHA plans to renovate the SABH and create 13 residential units inside the SABH and to build up to three additional buildings west of the SABH, each containing 6 – 10 residential units.  The agreement provides for a 5-year time line for TMHA to exercise the option after securing funding for the more than $5 million expected to be necessary to renovate the SAHB.

Initial Reaction

Subsequent to that article, several residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the proposed site, the Sunny Acres Historical Building, began to express concern about the BOS decision and the potential impact upon the neighborhood.  You can read these letters in the Letters To . . . section of the website.  Additionally, the “Interview with Shelly” provides a good summary of some of the concerns of the neighbors.

Our Goals

There has been considerable evolution in our thinking about the project.  Please see our Goals outlined here.  Note that most neighbors feel that Transitions does good work in helping the mentally disadvantaged members of the community and support their efforts.  While there are still many of the same concerns about the proposed Transitions use of the property, the greater problem is that their proposal will only provide benefits to a limited number of their clients.  It will not provide a benefit to a broader range and number of the the community.  If that property is to be developed, it should be in a manner to leverages the unique characteristics of the property and its open space for the benefit of the entire community.

LUCE EIR

The Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE) update to the City’s General Plan is reaching the end of the review process.  The current version of the update submitted to the City Council and the City Planning Commission is going through a review and approval process.  Many of the neighbors are concerned about the revision to the section of the Old General Hospital area which is proposing to increase the zoning level of density of some of the property from low density residential to higher density residential.  In addition, to accommodate the new vision for the property, it would be useful for the LUCE update to overlay Public Facility zoning for the area currently zoned Residential.  Currently the LUCE is being reviewed by various commissions and councils.  The schedule can be viewed here.

Future

It is hoped that this website will be a place 1) where opinions about the proposed development can be aired, both positive and negative; 2) where the historical background of the proposed development can be documented;  3) where the process required for such a development to proceed can be understood by all; and 4) where alternative uses for the historical building and surrounding property can be explored.

Please report any incorrect information on this website so that it can be corrected.

Project’s Next Steps

Youngster enjoying the open space on the property.
Youngster enjoying the open space on the property.

After reading the documents from the County, it appears that the County has signed the option agreement and is no longer involved with the project other than enforcing the tenets of the agreement:

  • TMHA must erect a fence around the property within 60 days
  • TMHA must obtain financing for the project
  • TMHA must get the City to subdivide the property and approve the project
  • TMHA must, within 60 months, exercise its option and pay the County $100 for the property
  • TMHA complete renovation of the building within 36 months of purchasing the building and property

It would also seem that the County Board of Supervisors has committed the SLO County to this option and would open the County to litigation if they reneged on the agreement no matter how much opposition is received from the residents of the area affected.

However, what remains to be seen is how the City approaches the proposed project.  We are assuming that the City will process the project along the lines of the other projects with 1) a determination of the need for an EIR by staff, 2) with a review by the Planning Commission and 3) an approval by the City Council.  However, recent communications with the City seem to indicate that they will only require review for consistency with Historic Preservation Guidelines and Community Architectural Design Guidelines.

On the Documents page, there are documents about how the City has already responded to the County’s investigation of possible rezoning of the property to Low Density Residential which would accommodate the proposed TMHA use of the SAHB and surrounding property. However, that seems a mute point since the City zoning document currently specifically allows “residential care facilities” with densities greater than 7 units in almost all areas including OS (open space).

Also on the Document page are excerpts from the proposed update to the Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE) of the General Plan which are proposing rezoning of the SAHB and surrounding property to Low Density and Medium Density Residential which would accommodate the TMHA project but not be required.  This update will next be available for public comment at the end of May, 2014.

The LUCE project has completed a series of workshops over the last two years soliciting public input into the update.  The last workshop was held in December, 2013, in which the options for the Land Use element had been reduced from three (see June options) to one (see December options).  However, looking at the proposed update dated 1/28/2014, there seem to be changes that were not part of the public comment which seem perfectly oriented to the proposed project.  It is unclear as to the current direction of the LUCE update.  The recently revised written description could work for many of options presented to the workshops including some with development all the way up to the existing city boundary.

Issues

Concerns about the project

  • Inconsistent with current City General Plan
  • Impact upon property values, existing residents and planned residential lots
  • Risk to neighborhood residents including children
  • Risk to existing Child Care facility
  • Inconsistent with previously successful small, neighborhood residential facilities created by Transitions and other mental health organizations
  • More like large institutionalized facilities proved ineffective and counterproductive for recovery historically
  • Changes the nature of the neighborhoods
  • Seems like a very expensive project ($5+ million) for the benefit to so few (13 -35 units)
  • Current property users / visitors (exercising, animal walking, nature viewers, etc.) of the property lose use of the property
  • Poor use of a wonderful piece of property with fantastic views, large open space and good access to public transportation
  • No input has been solicited from the neighborhoods by either the County, the City or Transitions (TMHA).  Three of the parties involved have been negotiating behind closed doors to the detriment of the fourth.
  • A benefit to limited number of the community compared to a use that benefits the entire breadth of the community.

Rationale for the project.

  • Facilities needed for the community
  • Free land ($100)
  • Property is located close to downtown, to Growing Grounds and to public transportation (via Jill Bolster-White, TMHA Director)