Located at the northeast corner of Slack Street and Grand Avenue, Cal Poly’s new 34-home faculty and staff housing project, called Vista Meadows, has been under construction since 2023.
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, a dedication ceremony took place to welcome the first new homeowners to the neighborhood and celebrate the efforts that have gone into the project.
Aiming for affordability
At the event, speakers, including Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, made comments about why this development is so important.
“We want to alleviate pressure on the local housing market. We want to strengthen our campus community in a place where you can put down roots just right across the street from campus and really sustainable transportation for getting around easier,” said Armstrong.
Currently, Cal Poly offers employee housing in its 69 Bella Montana homes that were built back in 2006.
As the average price of a home in San Luis Obispo continues to rise over $1 million dollars, the Vista Meadows homes aim to provide more attainable housing options to staff and faculty.
“When you think about attainability for these homes, you know that they are significantly below what’s in the market by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Cody VanDorn, CEO of Cal Poly Partners. “These homes will sell for $750,000 to $850,000, and in San Luis Obispo, that removes a lot of the barriers.”
Homeowners move in
For Roxie and Chris Philips, Vista Meadow homeowners who are slated to move in late October, this project has made affording a single-family home possible.
“We would not be able to afford housing in San Luis Obispo without a project like this. So we’re very grateful that Cal Poly and Cal Poly Partners have been working on this,” Chris Philips said.
In comparison with the Bella Montana housing project, where the homes range from 1,029 to 1,614 square feet, the Vista Meadows homes will provide more space.
The houses in Vista Meadows all have two stories, but the various floor plans range from 1,600 to 2,100 square feet. All units have three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, along with a two-car garage.
Cal Poly Partners began planning for the six-acre development in September 2021, and they are now nearing completion of the project.
Other features
In addition to the 34 homes, they plan on adding several other residential amenities to the neighborhood. Vista Meadows will eventually have its own grassy play area or “tot lot” for young children and a garden where families can grow their own food.
According to Jim Dunning, the associate executive director for real estate development at Cal Poly Partners says that, during the construction, they also focused on improving Slack Street.
“We increased the width. We added a sidewalk. So we really increased the safety because we know, and we anticipate, most of the faculty and staff will walk to campus or bike,” Dunning said.
As part of the Vista Meadows dedication ceremony, a commemorative tree was planted, and a time capsule filled with letters written by homeowners and other mementos from the neighborhood will also be placed. After 25 years, the time capsule will be dug up, and the hope is that by then Cal Poly will have more housing projects like this completed.
More faculty housing possibly on the way
Although Vista Meadows will provide housing for some Cal Poly employees and their families, it doesn’t completely dissolve the university’s need for more attainable faculty and staff housing.
According to the Cal Poly Partners website, they are actively working to find additional building sites that will allow them to fulfill the estimated demand for 1,000 housing units.
“We have about 225 units right now between apartments, condos, and single-family homes. Our goal is to double that in the next five years, so as Jeff mentioned, we’ll have a number of projects that will be announced probably in the coming months,” VanDorn said.