Council introduces amendment to allow mixed‑use housing in Airport Area Specific Plan; votes 5–0

The San Luis Obispo City Council voted 5–0 on May 6 to introduce an ordinance amending the Airport Area Specific Plan to allow mixed‑use residential development within service commercial (CS) and manufacturing (M) zones, subject to a conditional use permit or, for smaller projects, a director‑level minor use permit.

Planner John Rickenbach told council the amendment responds to city housing goals and prior housing element programs (programs 5.5 and 6.13) and land‑use policy encouraging compatible mixed uses. He summarized the history: the Airport Area Specific Plan (adopted 2005) had limited residential uses because of an earlier Airport Land Use Plan. In 2021 the county updated the Airport Land Use Plan and removed the residential density limitation for Safety Zone 6, opening the possibility to consider residential uses in much of the specific plan’s roughly 1,200 acres. Rickenbach said the ordinance language and an addendum to the programmatic Final EIR were prepared to avoid new environmental impacts beyond those already considered.

Fiscal and infrastructure concerns drove the staff…