The latest development proposal for a small parcel of land on the east side of Halcyon Road at Temple Road still isn’t sitting well with Halcyon residents.

Arroyo Grande businessman Coker Ellsworth owns the less than 2-acre parcel across from the town of Halcyon, where he’s now proposing to construct seven residential condominiums and 32 mini-storage units, called “Halcyon Village.”

“We are the village of Halcyon,” said longtime Halcyon resident Karen White, who also serves on the Halcyon Community Association, which opposed a prior development proposed for the parcel that abuts active farmland.

Once again, the association and Halcyon residents don’t like what they see proposed for Ellsworth’s parcel and are concerned with different aspects of the project, like the potential for increased traffic along Halcyon Road, which is used as a thoroughfare between the Mesa and Arroyo Grande.

“The traffic is a problem, and this won’t help it in any way,” White said. “We have issues with the project. We aren’t saying he can’t build anything (there) because that wouldn’t be fair. We just want him to build what’s allowable under the law.”

Ellsworth had previously proposed subdividing the 1.69-acre parcel into 23 lots and constructing 18 two-story residential units and five three-story units on the land, with a small agricultural buffer.

County planning staff, along with Halcyon residents, felt the proposed 50-foot buffer was too small, and the Planning Commission determined the project was inconsistent with the county’s General Plan, denying it in December.

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Ellsworth appealed the

commission’s decision, but agreed at a Board of Supervisors meeting in July, where the appeal was delayed, to redesign the project to meet county standards. At that time, he also agreed to work with Halcyon to create a project the residents would accept.

“I understand there’s a lot of opposition (to my project),” Ellsworth said in July. “I would like to satisfy as many concerns as possible and come back with a project that addresses the major concern — the ag buffer.”

Under the General Plan, Ellsworth must provide an adequate agriculture buffer for the project to lessen the conflict between the proposed residential use and active farming. The buffer can’t be agricultural land.

“The idea is to separate the two uses,” said Michael Conger, county planner, adding mini-storage units are an allowable use within an agriculture buffer under the General Plan.

If approved, Ellsworth plans to construct the mini-storage units inside the project’s 120-foot agriculture buffer, which has also been given a thumbs up by the Agriculture Commissioner’s Office, Conger said.

The revised project and appeal is expected be heard Dec. 16.

April Charlton can be reached at acharlton@santamariatimes.com or 489-4206, Ext. 5016.

September 7, 2008