Public invited to Oct. 27 hearing on The Landing project at former boys school site

After sitting vacant since 2008, the former Estrella Boys School property on Airport Road is on the verge of its most consequential public review yet. Paso Robles residents get their chance to weigh in Tuesday, Oct. 27, when the city's Planning Commission holds a public hearing on The Landing — Majestic Realty Co.'s proposal to transform the roughly 140-acre site at 4545 Airport Road into a phased commercial and industrial hub.

The hearing is a key waypoint in a project that has been years in the making, and it comes just weeks before the Paso Robles City Council is scheduled to make a final decision on the development in November.

What happens Oct. 27

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Norris Room at Centennial Park, 600 Nickerson Drive, and will be livestreamed on the city's YouTube channel. Residents who can't attend in person can listen or comment by phone at (805) 865-7276, and written comments may be emailed to [email protected] before the hearing.

According to the city, commissioners will hear public comments and consider recommendations to the City Council on several fronts: the project's environmental review, proposed land-use changes, project plans, and a development agreement between the city and the developer. The Paso Robles Daily News first reported on the upcoming hearing.

The development agreement is a central piece of what commissioners will review. It would establish rights, obligations and commitments tied to the project over a proposed 20-year term, reflecting the phased nature of the buildout. Private development under the agreement remains subject to permit and impact fees, which the city uses to recover growth-related infrastructure and public-service costs — roads, water lines, sewer systems and recreational amenities.

What The Landing would include

Majestic Realty Co. submitted its application to the city in 2021 and acquired the vacant state property in 2023. The proposal, known as The Landing, would ultimately bring about 1.6 million square feet of industrial park, office, retail and other uses to the site, consistent with a proposed master development plan.

Planned components include a cold-storage warehouse, a hotel and conference center, retail and maker spaces, offices, and other businesses. The first phase also includes an 11.6-acre stormwater basin. Transportation infrastructure improvements are tied to project-related traffic thresholds, with temporary circulation measures planned as longer-term improvements progress.

The proposed agreement also spells out community benefits: $250,000 toward affordable housing, $500,000 for the El Paso de Robles Library Foundation, and $500,000 for the El Paso de Robles Recreation Encourages Community Foundation. The developer would also make reasonable efforts to encourage local hiring, and the former facility's architectural features and historic character would be photographically documented before any demolition permit is issued — a nod to the site's long local history.

A long road to Tuesday's hearing

The site, once the Estrella Youth Correctional Facility known locally as the Paso Robles Boys School, has been a familiar landmark on Airport Road for generations of North County residents. Its redevelopment has moved through an extended public review process: the city held a Planning Commission environmental scoping meeting on May 25, 2021, and circulated the project's environmental impact report for public comment twice — from June 7 through July 24, 2023, and again from Feb. 13 through March 31, 2025.

The project's footprint also intersects with the city's broader economic ambitions. The Landing sits within the Space Innovation and Technology Park area, which the city describes as its "tech corridor." Paso Robles has been pursuing a Federal Aviation Administration license application for a potential horizontal commercial spaceport at the Paso Robles Municipal Airport. City officials note the spaceport initiative is separate from the proposed development, but say the commercial and industrial space envisioned at The Landing complements the city's vision for the corridor.

Why it matters for Paso Robles

For a city that has watched the Airport Road property sit empty for well over a decade, the stakes are both economic and practical. A development of this scale would add industrial and commercial capacity that local officials have long said the city needs, potentially bringing construction jobs and permanent employment — while also raising questions about traffic on Airport Road and surrounding routes that residents may raise at the hearing.

The proposed community contributions — $1.25 million combined for affordable housing, the library foundation and the recreation foundation — represent tangible benefits the city negotiated as part of the development agreement framework, though commissioners and, ultimately, the City Council will determine whether the terms adequately serve the public.

Tuesday's hearing offers the last formal public-comment opportunity before the matter moves to the City Council, which is scheduled to take up the project in November. Residents who want to review the details before then can find the staff report and full project documents at prcity.com/landing.

For those unable to attend in person, the livestream and phone-comment options provide alternative ways to participate in what could be one of the more consequential land-use decisions in Paso Robles in recent memory — the redevelopment of a property that has waited nearly two decades for a new purpose.