A settlement agreement was announced Wednesday over plans for the Dana Reserve development in Nipomo.
You may recall that last April, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved the plan for the project.
"We had asked many times for the developer to come to the table with us and talk to the community and we weren't getting a lot of traction there, so that's when once the project was approved, we filed the litigation," said Alison Martinez, Director of the Nipomo Action Committee.
The lawsuit was filed by the Nipomo Action Committee, in partnership with the California Native Plant Society, against NKT Commercial, the developer of the project.
"We've never opposed development on the site. We've always wanted to see balanced development, and with the maritime chaparral and the oak trees that were going to be removed as part of the project, we saw that there were incredible damaging impacts," said Melissa Mooney, a settlement committee member with the California Native Plant Society.
After almost a year of discussions, a new plan was outlined.
"The project is now reduced by 229 units. One of our goals was to still keep that ladder of housing, which remains in the project, additional sensitive biological areas are protected," said Jocelyn Brennan, NKT Commercial representative. "194 more of live coastal oak trees are protected. Some of the perimeter has been changed to single-story or set back further from the neighborhoods. Overall, we still feel like it's a really great project."
Another part of the new project plan is that there will be an off-site biological mitigation effort to help support the native Manzanita species.
The new plan will go before the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission and then to the board of supervisors for approval in the next couple of months.
