“A Vision for San Luis Obispo”
July 2000
Viewpoint Article
by Dave Romero
It has been said, "If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know when you get there." So it is with planning for future SLO. For my vision I’ve picked a time 25 years from now, slightly past our planning "buildout." Since my mother is 95 and going strong, there’s a good chance I’ll live long enough to see it. So, here goes — my vision of SLO in 2025.
Water
The City was able to meet its water needs by combination supplies of reclaimed water, state water and Nacimiento water until around 2020, when a cheap solar power desalination system was perfected and we could forever obtain all the water we want. The Whale Rock Dam and pipeline are invaluable. The water wars are finally over.
Streets and Highways
The Highway 1 bypass is complete from 101 at Marsh St., up Los Osos Valley, joining to existing Highway 1 at Cuesta College. Thousands of cars per day can bypass SLO and avoid Santa Rosa Street as they travel to and from destinations at Cuesta College and beyond. Traffic congestion in the entire Foothill area is eased. Buckley Road is developed as a Parkway Arterial between 101 and South Broad, thus providing an exterior loop road around SLO. Prado Rd. is developed as a Parkway Arterial between 101 and South Broad, thus providing an interior loop road. A new entrance to Cal Poly is developed by construction of an underpass on Foothill Blvd. under the Railroad tracks and California. Additional grade separations across the railroad tracks are constructed at Roundhouse and at Orcutt Rd., thus providing freer traffic movement for these neighborhoods.All City arterial streets are fully widened allowing traffic to stay on these routes rather than filtering through neighborhoods. Highway 227 is rerouted away from the winding sandhills near Arroyo Grande to a new state route Price Canyon Rd. The new highway is upgraded by Caltrans to provide an excellent route from SLO to South County. The City has finally caught up with its street maintenance program and all City streets are smooth and well maintained.
Downtown
Downtown has many new stores, a rejuvenated Chinatown, expanded and improved City Hall, Courthouse, Library, Museum, Art Center, Little Theater, and Children’s Museum. Mission Plaza is expanded. Downtown sidewalks are all replaced with the Mission style, and some are widened. Downtown streets are all repaved, signs and street furniture are all upgraded. Downtown is ringed by half a dozen parking structures, so people can park at the edge of town and walk in to the core. With improved batteries and with cheap, plentiful solar electric power, most cars are electric powered or some hybrid of electric, solar and natural gas. Gasoline powered cars are almost a past memory.
Parks and Open Space
The City open space acquisitions along the Irish Hills are all interconnected, with hiking trails and picnic areas developed. There is a new hiking trail on San Luis Mountain from near the Marsh St. interchange to the Lemon Grove where there is a fine picnic area. The hiking trials and rest stops to the top of Bishop Peak are well maintained and heavily used. There are many new bike trails, particularly along creeks and through linear parks. The Bob Jones bike trail is finally completed between SLO and the Sea. Sports fields along South Broad are completed and in heavy use. Sinsheimer Park was expanded when the bus maintenance facilities moved to a more suitable location. Laguna Lake is dredged deep enough to allow medium draft sailboats over its entire surface. The Memorial Grove at Laguna Lake Park is flourishing, and projects on the remainder of the park gradually develop toward full use as shown on the Master Plan.
Cal Poly
Cal Poly has expanded to 20,000 students, however many are housed on campus or on property owned by Cal Poly along Highland Drive and Highway 1. Student Housing Complexes occupy most of the area near the campus, as owners of single-family homes retire, move away or pass on. This gradual shift eases housing and traffic pressures throughout the City. Parking on campus is still a problem, but eased somewhat because the smaller electric powered cars can use smaller parking spaces. Because more student housing units are located near campus, auto usage is down, bike usage is up, and there are fewer conflicts between students and neighbors.
Downtown Flooding
The City has finally widened all of its creeks and bridges to accommodate a uniform flow throughout the system. Creek banks are revegetated with desirable trees and plants. Many creeks have hiking trails or biking trails along them. Since the creeks are now more of a park-like setting, they are well maintained. Many have lights and benches.
Margarita and Airport Area
After the area annexed, it developed quickly with all new and first class utilities, new wide roads with landscaped medians, many new homes and many high-tech businesses. It has become SLO City’s special jewel of excellent development.
Growth
The city has long since passed its 53,000 urban grow limits. It still hasn’t found a way to restrict growth created by expansion of Cuesta, CMC, Cal Poly, and other government agencies. More importantly we haven’t been able to convince our grandchildren they shouldn’t have any more children (I won’t even try). The endless growth wars are still with us in 2025. Even in Paradise, everything isn’t perfect.
Will all of this vision happen? Probably not. But we all hope and dream. I’ll save this article and in 25 years check it out to see how well we did.
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