6/1/15 Meeting Notes

Transitions Mental Health Association (TMHA) held an outreach to the neighbors surrounding the proposed Bishop Street Studios project which is proposed to be built in and around the existing Sunny Acres historical building.  At this get together, TMHA finally revealed their site plans for the Bishop Street Studios.  As expected and predicted, those plans include repurposing the Sunny Acres historical building to house 13 studio apartments and a day room and creating three new buildings to house an additional 21 studios.  While there is no restriction on the number of occupants per studio, THMA is saying that each studio will only house one occupant.

While stating that these plans were still very preliminary, the general design was for three additional buildings to be built west of the existing structure around a parking area which would replace the existing road in front of the building.

The purpose of the meeting was to expose the neighbors and county and city representatives to the design concepts being presented.  Attendees were asked to place Post-It notes with any comments on the preliminary renderings.

This is very similar to the technique used in the LUCE workshops. Unfortunately, it appears that for LUCE, much of the comments were ignored by the LUCE taskforce.

Most of my time was spent talking to the TMHA board members who were in attendance.  I was explaining the disappointment caused by the general rejection of our offers to help find alternative locations for the building of TMHA residences.

Part of a strategy that would allow for the SLO Center for the Arts to occupy the Sunny Acres building and surrounding area while still providing TMHA residences that could be built more effectively and less costly in another location.

I was explaining how the board was missing an opportunity to work jointly with us to provide a facility that provided a broad benefit to the community – the creation of the SLO Center for the Arts – and still be able to satisfy the TMHA clients’ needs for housing.  An approach that would provide a win for the community, a win for the neighbors and a win for TMHA in providing more housing for their clients.

I know that many of the neighbors did not attend the meeting because of the poor timing of the session, the difficulty in attending and the anticipation that nothing significant would be discussed given that all that has happened since the initial announcement has been TMHA’s  public relations blitz.

However, I think there was an opportunity lost for those who did not attend to communicate with the several members of the TMHA board in attendance who do not seem to realize the depth of the concern of the neighbors and the interest in creating an option that has a broad community benefit.