How will Waterman Village benefit the community?

• Increase socialization and provide a local park

• Provide housing for people who need it

• Preserve the majority of the on-site trees

• Restoration of the adobe, currently boarded up for many years

• A beautiful, centrally located place for San Luis Obispo residents of limited means who want to live simply, in community, and car-free near downtown

• Sustainability showplace and education center

If you would like to show your support for Waterman Village during the hearing process, please click on the button below and fill out the short form. You will receive a follow-up email with more information as we develop a communications strategy for the hearings.

With your continuing help, we will construct 20 desperately needed affordable homes downtown San Luis Obispo at the Rosa Butron de Canet Adobe!

The Waterman Project, a sustainable micro-village, will renovate the historic adobe at 466 Dana Street and add up to 20 affordable small homes. The long unused property will be transformed to serve the community, bringing old and new together while preserving the lush tree canopy AND meeting needs for local affordable housing and community resilience. Through these efforts, neighborhood safety and vitality will be further enhanced and this project will serve as a replicable community partnership model for other game changing adaptive reuse, community resilience, and affordable housing partnerships ahead.

We asked, and the community generously responded

Thank you to our team of donors, volunteers and contractors

The Waterman Village is Smart Share Housing's first housing development project. As with so many firsts, there come a variety of things you didn't know you didn't know--and that suddenly, yesterday, somebody needed to know. Appropriate treatments to make a 170 year old mud building functional for modern use today, for example, and what appropriate head clearance is for lofts in 220 square foot homes is common sense merged with code–demanding a high level of team collaboration. This project development is possible only with the help of an extended team. Our sincere thanks to all listed and additionally to the hundreds of people participating in the process in various ways, some whose names we'll never know:

• All Volunteer WV Team: Thank you, first, to our dedicated all volunteer WV Team members: Terri Main (The Main Company, Inc, a general contractor), Carl Meissner (Service Electric), Erik Berg-Johansen, Stephanie Teaford, Celeste Goyer (Casita Coalition), Fred Hathaway, Aimee Wyatt, Marianne Kennedy (Women's Shelter of San Luis Obispo County, retired), Tim Waag, Greg Notley, PE (Power & Communications Engineering), Sharon Gottesfeld and Marcia Alter. Team members have drawn plans, marked out home sites, measured heights of tree limbs, spoken with neighbors and given tours to community members, pressed partners for action, asked for donations and done the hands on work of making this project possible. Click here for more information about our board and staff.

• Professional consultants: Thank you to Dana Hunter and Kaye Lao, project architect and draftsperson, for leading project design and site planning, handling thousands of small details to fit homes between and under tree limbs, get enough fire separation, maintain and protect the primary historic features of the adobe, try to fit in the best place for e-bike charging, keep residents from hitting their heads on low ceilings, etc; to Terry Lee, TLLA, for help with essential tree protection; to Dan Parker-King at Hive Engineering, for making the rainwater flow away from the mud building; to Jennifer Rennick at InBalance Green Consulting for assistance with home energy efficiency analysis; and to the team at SWCA for multiple rounds of environmental review to protect site resources
• Project partners: We appreciate the ongoing assistance of City of San Luis Obispo Council Members & staff, particularly project liaison Bob Hill for keeping the project moving forward; County of San Luis Obispo for ARPA project grant funding; Angela Tahti and Ken Haggard, whose vision for this property got the project underway, and Stacey Hunt, at Ecologistics, for the organizational capacity and dedication to sign off on a large project of small homes
• Many, many donors:
• 172 community members contributed to the GoFundMe campaign = $10,570
• 24 community members contributed donations through this website = $9,990
• Total donations of $20,560 from 196 donors
• 10 generous donors have made Match Pledges of $734,100 for project development, contingent upon City match funds

206 donations and pledges totaling $754,646 make this project a reality.

Private community member contributions will be leveraged with City and the County affordable housing funds, private foundation contributions and loan funds, as necessary.

Your additional contributions to help us reach our $1M in local community contributions goal will help us continue to demonstrate broad community support for small, infill, affordable homes and show that this model is replicable in San Luis Obispo and elsewhere.  

Frequently Asked Questions about this Project:

1. What is the Waterman Village Project and who owns the property?

Waterman Village is a joint project of the City of San Luis Obispo (the owner of the property) and Smart Share Housing Solutions, a non-profit organization. The use of the historic Rosa Butron de Canet Adobe and grounds will be established in a long-term lease between the City and Smart Share Housing Solutions.

The project vision includes preservation of the site's natural beauty and heritage trees, rehabilitation of the historic adobe, construction of a micro-village of efficient small homes, and creation of a neighborhood park. Waterman Village will be a cultural heritage center that models sustainable living practices, encourages community interactions through walking and bicycling, and provides residents and the community a calm, shaded neighborhood park. Smart Share Housing Solutions will manage daily operations.

2. What is proposed?

Once rehabilitated, the historic adobe will contain an office, kitchen, bathroom, and space for small meetings or gatherings. A model, car-free, cottage cluster of homes will provide affordable housing for community-minded residents, committed to the project and sustainable living practices. Public access hours to view the historic adobe to be determined. Park grounds will be accessible to neighbors during daylight hours.

3. What's happening now?

• Development review of the project application is likely to take several months, during which time the project will be evaluated to make sure it meets objective City requirements and adequately protects the existing historic adobe.

• Smart Share's volunteer team continues to: share information about the project with neighbors and community members; request support and funding from community members; and build a sense of excitement around how this co-living, cottage cluster community model, with lower cost permanent, affordable tiny housing and car-free living, can work on this site and be replicated elsewhere.
  

• Smart Share staff is working with City and County staff and applying to foundations to secure affordable housing, historic preservation and community electrification and resiliency funds for the project.

4. What are the next steps for the Waterman Village Project?

• After the project is defined, the SmartShare team will seek project construction estimates. 

• Public involvement will be essential to a successful project.

5. What's already been done?

• The hearing process began in October 2024.

• The application to the City of San Luis Obispo was deemed complete on May 9, 2024. The hearing process is set to start in Oct. 2024.

• To begin the official entitlement process, on June 20, 2022 Smart Share's architect, Dana Hunter, from Hunter Smith Architecture, submitted application for development for Phase I of the project to the City of San Luis Obispo.
  

• On June 7th, 2022 the San Luis Obispo City Council approved allocating $900,000 ARPA funding to the City's affordable housing fund, which city staff has recommended Smart Share apply for upon project entitlement approval.
• In Spring 2022, Smart Share's WV team generated more than 200 community member donations and pledges totaling $754,646 toward project design, permitting and development.

• In 2021, the SLO City Council approved an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with Smart Share, establishing benchmarks required by project applicant to secure a long term lease from the City and proceed with project development.

• The Smart Share proposal was accepted.

• In April 2020, in response to a request for proposals from the City, Smart Share Housing Solutions assembled a volunteer project team and proposed a project of small 100% affordable housing scattered among the site's beautiful trees.

Public support and donations are a valuable factor toward providing safe, affordable housing in this premier location. The City of San Luis Obispo and the County need to know you want this project to happen. Your pledge of support will influence their investment. Contribute financially now to help us reach our $1M match goal. Please donate now! Donate by credit card using the button below or send checks to P.O. Box 15034 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406.

Your tax-deductible donation and/or pledge can be cash/check/credit card or: 

 - appreciated stocks or securities
 - real estate or other property
 - all or a portion of your required minimum distribution (RMD)
 - gift from your DAF (donor advised fund)

Call to talk about which option(s) might be right for you: 805-215-5474.

To donate via credit card, click the button below. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you!