News & Announcements

Our League Board voter to support the Bishop Street Studios project that Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA)is proposing for the old "Sunny Acres" property off Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo. The project will provide permanent supportive housing for 33 people with mental illness or recovery issues. It includes an on-site manager and on-site services. We based our support on the state position on Mental Health and our local Public Health position which included mental health services as part of an integrated and comprehensive public health system. The Bishop Street Studios project has passed the Architectural Review Committee and will be presented to the San Luis Obispo City Council on November 15. President Marguerite Bader will be there to speak on behalf of the League. Other members are encouraged to attend to support this important mental health and housing initiative.

Board of Supervisors to hold special meeting regarding Phillips 66 Proposal the week of March 13, 2017.

Nearly 11,000 comments -- from throughout the state, and even abroad -- have been received on a proposed rail project at a Nipomo Mesa refinery, prompting San Luis Obispo County planners to push back a hearing on the plan. San Luis Obispo County cities weigh in with questions and recommendations.

The issues are presented in the Revised Draft EIR. The first decision-makers will be the County Planning Commission, whose first meeting on the subject has been postponed. For those who do wish to correspond with the Planning Commission, the contact person is Ramona Hedges, and the e-address is rhedges@co.slo.ca.us.

Comments and reactions to the first Draft EIR can be reviewed by going to the website of the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District's Interagency Refinery Task Force. Go to the Phillips 66 projects linking to a menu that includes the voluminous public comments in the Draft EIR sorted into four categories: the applicant, goverment agencies, individuals, and private organizations.

ON A RELATED ISSUE, A Public Hearing about proposed changes to the Coast Corridor railway was held on January 7, 2015. The purpose of the proposed rail improvements is to enhance safety and develop a faster and more reliable passenger (i.e. Coast Daylight) and freight rail system that provides added capacity in response to increased travel demand between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the cities in between. The Draft Program EIS/EIR is available online at SLOCOG website:.

A Grand Jury report finds that mental health services in San Luis Obispo County are inadequate and calls for changes. Read a summary of the report here:

Meanwhile, in "Letters to the Editor" published in The Tribune and in New Times, the San Luis Obispo County League of Women Voters' board of directors announced its support of the proposed Behavioral Health hospital and related assisted living memory care facility for seniors in Templeton.

Louisiana-based Vizion Health LLC wants to build the 96-bed hospital along with a smaller senior facility at 1155 Las Tablas Road across from Twin Cities Community Hospital.

• Here's an architectural rendering of a mental health hospital proposed for Templeton. COURTESY OF HOCHHAUSER BLATTER ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

Read more here: