Garden Terraces in San Luis Obispo

Garden Terraces in downtown SLO nearing final OK
Architecture committee will offer its last design suggestions before sending project to council.
By AnnMarie Cornejo | acornejo@thetribunenews.com
AnnMarie Cornejo The Tribune
Garden Street Terraces — a large hotel, residential, retail and commercial development slated for downtown San Luis Obispo, is nearing final approval.

The city’s Architectural Review Commission will make its last design recommendations on the 1.1-acre project Monday. The project will then be forwarded to the City Council in mid-October for final design approval.

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Viewpoint: Last chance to review Garden Street Terraces project

Viewpoint: Last chance to review Garden Street Terraces project

San Luis Obispo is about to gain a new boutique hotel and mixed-use development in downtown. Meetings continue to be held to ensure that the Garden Street Terraces project is going to be what interested citizens truly want it to be.

It appears that this will be our last chance to speak up and respond as a community to this 212,607-square-foot project that is unprecedented in its bulk, mass and scale in San Luis Obispo County. Otherwise, the Cultural Heritage Committee, the Architectural Review Commission and City Council will make the decisions without further public input.

Why should people be interested in this project? This will make a big change to downtown, so everyone is encouraged to be involved.

City proposal upsets Grover gardeners

City proposal upsets Grover gardeners

Sandy Darling was busy tending her garden in Grover Beach early Friday afternoon. She planted carrots and then harvested some celery stalks and lettuce to give to a neighboring gardener to help feed the rabbits he rescues.

“It is the best therapy in the world,” Darling said. “Just hands in the dirt.”

Darling is one of more than a dozen people who lease space for $5 a month in a community garden at 920 Brighton Ave. The city has owned the property since 1978; it contains 18 spots, 17 of which are in use.

Free Sunday parking may end in downtown San Luis Obispo

Free Sunday parking may end in downtown San Luis Obispo

The cost of parking in downtown San Luis Obispo may soon go up as the City Council considers charging motorists to park on Sundays.

Eliminating complimentary parking on the historically free day is just one of several recommendations being made to the council Tuesday to raise the revenue needed to build a $20 million parking structure at Palm and Nipomo streets.

The council will also be asked to increase the hourly meter rate to $1.50 from $1.25 in an area being dubbed the “super core,” which is in the heart of downtown.

SLO City Council decides to delay downtown upgrades

SLO City Council decides to delay downtown upgrades

Costly improvements to a small area of downtown San Luis Obispo must wait until next year after estimates for the work came in higher than the city anticipated.

The City Council said it is committed to seeing the area spruced up, but agreed to scale back the beautification plan in order to make it affordable.

The city sought bids to improve three blocks downtown on Higuera Street from Morro Street down to Broad Street.

177 new homes slated for construction in San Luis Obispo

177 new homes slated for construction in San Luis Obispo

Plans to build San Luis Obispo’s largest residential development in seven years are being revived and could bring 177 new homes to the Margarita area in the southeast part of town.

The residential development, called Serra Meadows, is the most significant new project within the city since the collapse of the housing market.

The land, originally owned by Craig Cowan and Richard DeBlauw, was purchased in January by Resmark Equity Partners — a private equity firm based in Los Angeles — and will be developed by Camarillo’s MD2 Communities.


A substantial redesign of the project — prompted by concerns raised by the council and the community over the project’s size and preservation of historic resources in existing buildings — was submitted to the city earlier this year.

On Monday, the public will get to weigh in on details such as building materials, colors and textures.

One critic of the project, San Luis Obispo resident Sara McEre, said she is concerned that the project does not reflect the feel of the buildings downtown.

McEre said she would like the developer to incorporate lighter and warmer colors than the proposed charcoal. She also wants to see decorative tiles, recessed doorways, cornices along the buildings’ upper edges and an inclusion of public art along the alleyways.

“This project is going to be a gateway of sorts for the downtown at Marsh and Broad streets, and it should preserve the look and feel of what is there now,” said McEre, a member of Save Our Downtown, a small citizens group that seeks to preserve the downtown.

Some of those suggestions are being considered by local architect George Garcia — including adding a more pedestrian-friendly feel to Garden Alley by adding recessed wall areas for plants and recycled public art installations.

The project will also incorporate lighter brick elements, and alternate patterns, blends and mortar color to soften the hue of the building’s gray facade. In addition, a white dove-colored plaster will replace the dark gray brick originally intended for the building facing Broad and Marsh streets.

Planners of the project say that it is not meant to mimic surrounding buildings, but its design is meant to complement them.

“Imagine a downtown where each building looked like the next, where we could not distinguish when a particular building was built because there was no contrast from one structure to the other,” said Carol Florence, a principal planner for Oasis Associates, in an email. “We should be demanding diversity in our architecture, just as we expect it in our society. … That is what makes us collectively unique.”

As part of that Garden Street Terraces redesign, the height of the entire development, proposed for the stretch of Marsh Street from Broad to Garden streets, was reduced to 50 feet or less from up to 74 feet in the previous version of the plan.

The scope of the project, being developed by WestPac, was also reduced to 125,000 square feet from 212,000 square feet — reducing the number of hotel rooms to 48, compared to 95 in the initial plan, and eight residential units, down from 34 in the previous version.

It also retains the existing buildings on Garden Street such as Downtown Brew and the facades of other historic buildings such as the Smith building and the Laird building.

Florence, who could not provide an estimated cost of the project, said construction is expected to begin in 2012.