SLO County Phase 3 Review
The following sections review county meetings covering Trilogy's Phase 3 development.
Board of Supervisors Meeting
Phase 3 Review June 6, 2023 (Item 62)
The Monarch Dunes Specific Plan Phase 3 Amendment includes adding 122 new twin homes in Monarch Dunes, 40 condominiums in the Village Center and allows for Quimby fees to be used to complete paved walking / cycling paths around Monarch Dunes.
Issues that have not been addressed include severe congestion and the developers proposed parking plan that does not provide adequate parking for new Village Center businesses. In addition, the Phase 3 amendment changes the prior plan to allow a hotel in the Village Center and Bocce courts to be moved next to the Monarch Activity Center (MAC). These changes impact homeowners.
Detail is provided on previous website pages.
Board of Supervisor - Agenda and Documents
Planning Commission Meeting
Phase 3 Public Information Zoom Meeting August 13th, 2022
Shea presented their Phase 3 plan. The Planning Commission delayed a decision on the plan until January 2023. Planning Commissioners stated the following issues.
Congestion: The Planning Department requested a congestion study. The Village Center and the addition of the hotel will cause added congestion at the Trilogy Parkway and Via Concha intersection. The Monarch Club and Golf Course are located at this intersection. Questions have been raised about whether this will require a stop light to be added at the intersection and if this will make it more difficult for golfers to cross Via Concha.
Power Consumption: Due to current severe power consumption issues, Shea was asked to look into adding battery backup panels to new homes to reduce nighttime power consumption. In addition, the Planning Commission also asked if solar panels could be added to the Village Center to reduce power consumption.
Affordable Housing: The Planning Commission stated that Shea's plan does not provide affordable housing as required by the current Specific Plan. Alternatives are to provided housing or pay a fee for each required affordable dwelling. A Planning Commissioner stated that the required 3% affordable housing in the current Specific Plan should be raised to 10%.
Park: Shea's proposal replaces the park area originally planned at the intersection of Mesa and Trail View with new homes. The Planning Commission requested this change be reevaluated and that the area be used for a park and some new homes.
Parking: The developer will follow the original Woodlands Specific Plan for condominium parking. Other parking issues were not addressed. The developer has not agreed to allow for golf parking on spaces around the Village Center. (This was approved in the 2007 plan amendment.) By not allowing for golf parking the developer's current plan claims twice the number of spaces as actually allowed by code. This will hurt new businesses in the Village Center and cause overflow on to neighborhood streets.
Planning Comission Meeting - Agenda and Documents
SCAC - South County Advisory Council
Phase 3 Review Meeting June 27th 2022
Shea requested approval by the SCAC and presented their again to the SCAC. Residents were allowed to make comments about the plan. After reviewing the plan, the SCAC voted to reject the proposal due to moving the hotel, parking, water and traffic issues. The SCAC is recommending to the SLO County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors that the current plan should not be approved. See SCAC Letter to the County: SCAC Recommendation
Shea Phase 3 Presentation March 28, 2022 Meeting
The presentation included moving the hotel to the Village Center, lower water use and parking information that claimed 24% surplus parking spaces in the Village Center and up to 38% with the adjacent Park & Ride lot. The plan actually has a 68 space parking shortage. Water use will increase over the original plan. See parking and water use tabs.
Comments from Trilogy Resident addressing parking: Village Center Parking Comments
County Planning Commission
Phase 3 Public Information Zoom Meeting August 25th, 2021
Planning Department Presentation (slides) A link to the Zoom meeting will be posted when available.
Survey Link: https://forms.office.com/g/yaR6ePB3pq
Comment:
The Planning Commission review provides a general overview of proposed changes to Phase 3 development. It does not include changes from previous plan.
Adding the boutique hotel and condominiums with their dedicated parking reduces the land available to provide new retail parking spaces. This new plan adds about 10 new parking spaces for retail and relies on existing parking spaces that are already in use. Given the lack of sufficient parking at the Monarch Club when the current new homes are completed and the new duplexes are added, we will have a significant parking shortage.
See the Phase 3 Plan Changes for additional details.
Board of Supervisors (BOS) Meeting August 10th, 2021.
Shea Phase 3 Proposal, Agenda Item 50
Submittal of a request to authorize processing of a Specific Plan Amendment application (LRP2021-00003) by Monarch Dunes LLC to amend the Woodlands Specific Plan. The proposed amendment would modify the designated land uses of four sites within the Woodlands Specific Plan area. Exempt from CEQA. District 4.
Meeting included a presentation by Shea, resident comments and questions the BOS asked Preston, Shea's representative.
Click on link to view: Board of Supervisor Meeting
Click on index and select Closed Sessions item 50 (near bottom of page) to view Phase 3 proposal, comments from residents, and questions posed by the BOS to Shea.
Material Presented at the Meeting
BOS Woodlands Plan Presentation
Planning Department Initial Review
The following emails and attachments were submitted to BOS prior to the meeting. They are from Shea, the Trilogy BOD, and Trilogy residents. The information is documented in the public record.
February Survey Result of Shea Phase 3 Proposal - From Shea
(Note: This was before issues like parking availability at the Monarch club and overflow parking onto neighborhood streets were identified.)
Feasibility of Phase 3 with Current Phase 3 Plan
Severe Parking and Village Center Issues
Shea Profit versus HOA Amenities
Amenities Needed to Support New Homeowners
Email disputing Shea's claim of 75% homeowner approval for their plan
(Not: This was a response to a statement made before the meeting. Shea corrected this at the BOS meeting - see below)
BOS Questions of Shea - Fact Checking
After the public comments, Supervisors questioned Shea. Shea provided the following information. You can hear the full exchange on the video (see BOS meeting link). Questions start at 7:31 (7 hours, 31 minutes) in the video.
Shea's Responses to Questions from the BOS
Re: Boutique Hotel Move in Village Center
Shea has had the resort hotel site for sale for the past 12 years and has not been able to gain interest from anyone to build the hotel. The developer, Specialty Construction, wants to put a hotel on the Village Center since he believes this will help draw businesses to the Village Center. The developer stated that he has a feasibility study justifying a smaller hotel but he did not consider keeping the hotel at the resort site since he does not own the land.
Fact Check:
The Woodlands (Monarch Dunes) Specific Plan specifically prohibits a hotel in the Village Center. The feasibility of keeping a smaller hotel at the resort site was never performed since Shea wants to use all of this land for new homes. Residents near the Village Center were told that a hotel would not be put in the Village Center when they purchased their homes. Moving the hotel to the Village Center hurts home values, creates noise, parking issues, and increases traffic at the Village Center. A solution is to build the proposed boutique hotel at the currently allowed location. It takes up a little over 12% of the resort space and could be located away from existing homes. It's a 5 minute walk to the Village Center. This would reduce the number of new duplex homes by 8 to 10 homes and it would require Shea to sell this land to the developer.
Re: Vineyard Buffer and Meadow
Shea stated that the buffer was mandated by the County. It was seeded with drought tolerant grasses and there is a group of homeowners that are not pleased with how it looked. Shea further stated that they have been working directly with the board on a resolution. Shea sees this as an HOA issue. The buffer has been turned over to the homeowner’s association and the HOA is responsible for the buffer.
Fact Check:
At the time the meadow was turned over to the HOA Shea controlled the HOA. Shea turned over the meadow at a special board meeting held one week before HOA control was turned over to homeowners.
Shea's drought tolerant planting plan is not working. There are areas that are mostly sand. A consultant hired by the HOA reported that Shea's plan is not working because Shea did not take into account variations across the meadow like soil, wind and climate differences. Shea is not changing their plan. They have not taken responsibility to put in a successful drought tolerant meadow. The consultant stated that it will cost $500,000 (not including maintenance) and 3 years to put in a sustainable drought tolerant meadow. If meadow issues are not resolved the cost will be passed on to homeowners when Shea leaves.
The irrigation system Shea installed is also defective. There have been multiple costly pipe breaks. The company Shea hired that designed the system stated that it was not installed correctly. Shea has now agreed to fix the system but they have not agreed to have the work inspected or to guarantee the work. See the Buffer - Meadow and the petition link at the bottom of the page for more information.
Re: Town Hall Meetings
Shea held three workshops (Zoom town hall meetings) set up through HOA and addressed feedback from residents. Shea stated that they had received multiple questions about parking, and in response, stated that they worked with Specialty Construction to include parking in horseshoe for condominiums. A survey after the town halls showed that 67% and 73% of the residents who completed the survey were either supportive or neutral on the items presented at the town halls.
Fact Check:
After the town hall meetings and the completion of the survey, a Board member directed a resident to contact the developer and verify information that was not addressed in the presentations and to copy Shea on written communication. This brought to light issues such as the change in retail parking and the fact that the new plan does not support parking needs of typical neighborhood retail stores and businesses such as the ones listed in the 2019 plan. Several requests were made of Shea to attend a follow-on town hall to address these issues. Shea did not attend or offer an alternate time to discuss these issues.
Re: Trilogy Board Attendance at BOS meeting
There was discussion after the meeting questioning why the Trilogy Board did not attend the meeting. We have recently had Board elections. A new board member did attend but did so as a private citizen since the new board had not had its first meeting. There was an email sent to Lynn Compton (our BOS representative) that is part of the record. The email contained the following statement:
“On behalf of the Boards of Directors of the Central Coast Maintenance (CCMA) and the Woodlands Masters Association (WMA), we wish to inform the Board of Supervisors that the Proposed Amendment, if approved, would have profound effects upon the Trilogy at Monarch Dunes community.” It went on to say the Board would be actively engaged in ongoing discussions.