A rendering of what a new 2-story mixed use development at 2nd and Santa Maria in Baywood Park would look like. Submitted photo
County Supervisors denied an appeal on a 2-story mixed use — motel-retail — project slated for an old gas station property on 2nd Street in Baywood Park.
The property at the corner of 2nd Street and Santa Maria Avenue (1300 2nd St.) was once a gas station but was closed decades ago. It was a small office space for many years, but that building was eventually torn down over 15-years ago. It has sat vacant since then. It’s main use has been as the location for the live music stage and beer gardens during the Annual Oktoberfest festivities.
The property owner, Alex Benson, who also owns other commercial properties and businesses in Baywood Park, is trying to redevelop the lot. Architect Bob Semonsen designed the project for Benson. Ironically, Semonsen sat on many of the committees through the 1990s and early 2000s that worked on the general plan for Los Osos, ironing out the development standards, requirements and restrictions in use today.
The development would build “a new, two-story mixed-use project consisting of approximately 3,018 square feet of ground floor commercial retail area and 1,983 square feet of second floor residential area, 310 square feet of residential deck area, and associated site improvements,” reads the County report for the project. “The project will result in disturbance of the entire 9,375 square foot vacant parcel.”
The necessary permits — a Coastal Development Permit and Minor Use Permit (CDP/MUP) — were going to be approved by County Planning. Last April, the project was slated to be in the consent agenda before a Planning Department Hearing, but several objections were filed before the online meeting and a public hearing was conducted over Zoom.
Despite several people expressing opposition due mainly to parking and water availability, among other complaints, the hearing officer approved the project. It was then appealed to the Board of Supervisors who heard the case at its Sept. 1 meeting.
Projects that go through the hearing officer are as a matter of policy appealed directly to Supervisors instead of first going to the Planning Commission.
The project has been in the works for a long time, stalled mainly due to the sewer moratorium that was hanging over the heads of everyone in Los Osos for 40 years but was finally solved in 2016, when the County completed the communitywide sewer collection system with a treatment plant east of town behind the cemetery.
The Community Services District has agreed to provide water to the new development.
There is a potential zoning issue with the project, as it sits in a commercial-retail zoning, which doesn’t specifically allow for residential use (the second floor calls for three little apartments rented or leased).
The main contentions in the two appeals that were filed addressed “neighborhood compatibility and public access, and parking concerns related to the project’s approval.”
The appeals contend the project doesn’t match Baywood Park’s “local unique feel,” and doesn’t match the “pedestrian-scale expectations,” in the Estero Area Plan’s standards.
The County said it meets all standards in the plan.
The other issue, parking, claimed the development would reduce the available parking for special events like the weekly farmer’s market, which is set up along Santa Maria Avenue; and relies on public street parking “to meet private demand.”
The County pointed out that the project plans would provide “13 improved spaces” — six on-site and located at the rear of the building, and seven along the frontage on 2nd Street.
The location sits within the Estero Area Plan’s boundaries and thus it can be appealed to the Coastal Commission.
EBN queried the County AS to whether the denial had been appealed further to the Coastal Commission. The department’s Administrative Coordinator, Corla Wade, referred us to the Coastal Commission tracking sheet of appealable local projects.
After the appeal hearing, one of the appellants told KSBY News he intended to appeal to the Coastal Commission.
The Commission’s tracking sheet lists Sept. 15 as the date it received the County’s notice of action and set a Sept. 29 deadline for the project to be appealed.
“I am unaware at this time,” Wade said, “as to whether an appeal has been filed with the Coastal Commission or the possibility of litigation.”
