Victor Montgomery, of RRM Design Group

Victor Montgomery, is guiding the entitlement process for Villaggio

Victor Montgomery, of RRM Design Group of San Luis Obispo, is guiding the entitlement process for Villaggio as part of John Madonna’s Froom Ranch Specific Plan development.

Entitlement is the process we must go through with the city of San Luis Obispo to get an approval of the Specific Plan and the Villaggio project. There are at least 83 steps in this process and Villaggio only controls part of them. The remaining steps are up to the city and other governmental organizations to complete. There is no legally mandated timeline for completion of the entitlement process. In an effort to speed up the process, we have concurrently applied for the Specific Plan and the subdivision of the Madonna property to create a separate property for Villaggio. Additionally, Villaggio is working with RRM to have reviewed by the City Architectural Review Board, Cultural Heritage Committee, and Parks and Recreation Committee occur during the Specific Plan Approval Process. We officially began the entitlement process in 2016, but John Madonna started the background research on the property and identification of environmental factors back in 2014 when he initiated several technical studies of the Froom Ranch property including Biology, Wildlife, Traffic, Archaeology, Historic, Hydrology, etc.

Currently, we are in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) preparation stage of the entitlement process. The draft Specific Plan was prepared and submitted in mid-2017. In addition to the Draft Specific Plan, Madonna submitted all technical studies. The EIR Consultants were selected by the City, and they began their review and analysis in December 2017. The Planning Commission and City Council must review and approve the Specific Plan, the EIR, and the Subdivision Map as part of their review process. Concurrently we are in communication and coordinating with other agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Army Corps of Engineers, and others that will review the project and issue construction permits.

The Froom Ranch property is currently located in the County of San Luis Obispo, not the city. Once the city approves the Froom Ranch Specific plan, the city will file an application with the Local Agency Formation Committee, LAFCO. LAFCO must approve the EIR and agree to annex Froom Ranch into the city. Part of that process is a negotiation between the city and the county to decide who gets how much of the increase in property values and property taxes.

Once the LAFCO/City negotiation is complete, the State must stamp their approval, and then Froom Ranch is officially part of San Luis Obispo and the project can move forward toward City approval of building plans and project implementation in the City of San Luis Obispo.

Life Care Services (LCS), our consulting experts in Life Plan Development, is confident that we will finish Phase I Villaggio construction within 24 months of starting.

There is currently no way to predict just how long the entitlement process will take, but we are working diligently with all governmental agencies to move the process along as timely as possible.