This is an appeal to the residents of SLO town on this list. The City Council will decide this Tuesday, Feb 13th, whether to accept the EIR for another monster mall in town, the Dalidio project. As I understand it, acceptance of the EIR is tantamount to permitting the project. Building this thing has far reaching consequences for the town.  I apologise in advance for the length of this letter, but for those who live here, its a truly important issue.  Tuesday is a cross-roads for SLO residents.

Most people are unclear as to where the Dalidio mall would be. The property is huge, 120 acres of prime ag land. It's bounded by three throughfares; Madonna Rd, Los Valley Road and 101. Perhaps you've noticed the Zapata Farm under the eucalyptus on the south side of Madonna Rd across from Laguna Lake?  Despite the name, that's part of the Dalidio property. The other way the property is frequently seen is from the freeway. If you are heading south on 101, its the endless ag fields on the right after you pass the Madonna exit.

This is not where Costco is slated to go in.  We've got two big mall projects on our hands right now.  That's Madonna's Froom Ranch Mall, which is on the west side of LOVR.  You know the lovely fields along LOVR between Madonna Rd and the freeway?  Those are being paved over right now.  Unfortunately, we are too late to save Froom Ranch.  But if the Dalidio property gets paved, too, then we will have continuous mall sprawl, in the best Santa Maria style.  The parking lot will start at Madonna's old mall, run through the Central Coast Mall, through the MarketPlace, through the Dalidio Mall and all the way across LOVR to Madonna's Froom Ranch Mall! 

And if that weren't enough... the Dalidio project also includes a major new freeway interchange at Prado Road. Prado Road is approximately where the Drive-In theatre is. If you stand at the end of Prado where it deadends at the freeway, you can look across 101 and see those endless ag fields, but 101 blocks the way like an uncrossable river.  

The Dalidio's propose building an overpass/on/off ramp at Prado. This will allow cars to conveniently exit 101 and go straight to shopping heaven.  It also makes Prado the new quick way on to the freeway for the South Higuera.

Currently Prado is very short. From the freeway, it crosses South Higuera and ends a few blocks further. However, if the freeway interchange is built, the City's 1994 General Plan would extend Prado all the way to Broad Street. It will pop out onto Broad near the Merrigold shopping center. The City will then have a road from Merrigold to the freeway with beautiful, rolling, green, EMPTY, land on either side. "Gee, what to do???"

Ya got your groceries at one end. Ya got your freeway access at the other. Ya got your easy drive to the Target store in the Dalidio Mall. Hmmm... let's put in SIX HUNDRED HOMES alongside Prado! That's the plan. It's in the General Plan. Another small city all by itself!  We must have been asleep when they created this General Plan.

Please help stop San Luis Obispo from being eaten alive. That's what's happening here. It's your town! If this isn't your vision of SLO, then please send e-mail to the Council. It counts! The members really do count the FORs and AGAINSTs.  

You can find the e-mail addresses for the council at:

http://www.ci.san-luis-obispo.ca.us/citycouncilmembers.asp

You don't have to say much. You could just title the e-mail "Vote No on Dalidio" and leave it at that. If you want to add more detail here are some possible talking points:  

1. I do not want to trade open space and ag land for shopping opportunities.
   
2. I urge the City to buy the land and transfer it to the Nature Conservancy.
   
3. We should not pave over prime ag land.  This parcel has unbelievable top soil.
   
4. The Dalidio mall in conjunction with Madonna's new mall at Froom Ranch (east side of LOVR) will make it possible to walk 1.5 miles through PARKING LOTS! Yep!  If you start at the old Madonna Mall and end at Froom Ranch you can go 1.5 miles without touching a street.  This is not my vision of what SLO should be.
   
5. The traffic is going to be terrible.  The Dalidio mall is designed to have 2000 parking spaces!  Madonna's Froom Ranch will have about the same number.
   
6. This is killing the downtown.  The downtown is what gives SLO character and a sense of community.  Malls will never do that.

etc.

Please write.  We can stop this.  The current City Council has a slow growth majority.  They would like to turn this down, but there's a lot of pressure on them to follow the General Plan which was created in 1994 by a pro-growth Council.  They need to hear your support.

Thanks for your time reading this.

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