Work on new Community Plan to help guide the future of Nipomo set to begin
Dave Alley
NIPOMO, Calif. – San Luis Obispo County is set to begin work on updating the Nipomo Community Plan, which will help direct future planning for the South County town.
“The Community Plan update is an opportunity for the community to partner and join with the County Planning Department to update our plan,” said San Luis Obispo County Fourth District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, who represents Nipomo. “It will update the vision for Nipomo, how we’re going to grow, how to address existing needs and future needs, and really make sure that the vision is reflective of what the community wants.”
On Saturday, May 3, the county will host the first in a series of four community workshops that will take place during what is expected to be about a year-long process to craft the plan.
“The more community involvement and the more community opinions that are rendered is a really, really good thing,” said longtime Nipomo resident Tom Geaslen. “It leads to a much stronger position and keeping Nipomo the place that we all know and love.”
Last updated more than 30 years ago in 1994, the Nipomo Community Plan is described by the county as a document that establishes a vision for the future that will guide land use and transportation over the next several years.
“One of the reasons I wanted to undertake this process was because I’ve heard from the community of Nipomo,” said Paulding. “Concerns related to housing development and growth, concerns related to traffic, traffic congestion, water. Obviously there are plenty of existing needs, and we know that with more development and growth, we’re going to have future needs, and so what this is to me, is an opportunity to take the plan that hasn’t been updated for 30 years, update that plan to not only, accommodate with reasonable assumptions and planning, the types of infrastructure facilities that we need to support that future growth, but also to develop a public financing plan for our facilities and infrastructure needs now. That was never done as a part of the1994 plan. There was no chapter on how to finance those existing needs, and so this is really an opportunity to validate what those needs are, what the community prioritizes, and then develop a plan to fund those improvements and move forward.”
The community workshop on Saturday is scheduled to take place at the Nipomo Library from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
According to the county, this workshop is an opportunity for community members to provide input on the needs and priorities of Nipomo, learn more about the Community Plan Update process and to share ideas and vision for Nipomo’s future.
“Face to face and good healthy discussion is what this needs,” said Geaslen. “Not everybody’s going to agree with you. I’ve spoken out and spoken for several issues over the last 25 years, but at least I had the opportunity. Some of them came to fruition, some didn’t, but without the community, you can’t sit back and say, wait a minute, why didn’t you do this? Why don’t you do that? So now’s the time to get involved. Like I say, put your heart where your mouth is.”
Other community workshops will take place over the next several months, with these tentative dates released by County Planning:
July 2025 – Funding the Journey: How to Make the Vision Real
October 2025 – Forging the Path: Finding the Best Route Forward
April 2026 – The Final Round Up Meeting: Reviewing the Draft Documents
Fall 2026 – Riding Into Action! Come out to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors public hearings
For more information about the Nipomo Community Plan Update, click here to visit the county’s official webpage about the plan.