At the corner of Beechwood Drive and Meadowlark Road lies empty land designated for the Beechwood Specific Plan, a housing development aiming to serve residents with single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, condos and apartments.
The project spans roughly 230 acres with 911 housing units. While there is no timeline on when homes will be built, steps are being taken to start the groundwork and they'll be discussed later this week.
“The roads, the water lines, the sewer lines, that kind of thing, they're working on those," city planner Darren Nash said. "So they haven't started construction yet.”
The plan is one of three housing projects in the works in Paso Robles.
“There's a big demand for for homes," Nash added. "So people are anxious. The owners of the Beechwood specific plan are working hard to get those plans going.”
The development will also include a public park and 25 plus acres of open and mixed use space. Plans are in place to improve the existing streets surrounding the development.
Across the street from the proposed development sits Virginia Peterson Elementary School. If the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District sees more enrollment as single families make their way to Paso Robles, they're prepared for an influx.
"If we do see any significant increase in school age children, our two sites on the east side of town have physical property in which we could add additional classrooms," Assistant Superintendent Brad Pawlowski said. "Additionally, we would work with the city in master planning about potential locations for a new school site, if that was ever necessary."
According to Pawlowski, the current enrollment for the '24-'25 school year is similar to last year. However, because there are declining birth rates in the county, they project a decline in enrollment.
