About the data
Research last reviewed November 3, 2026. This page describes the method, not any single project.
Where the information comes from
The guide is built from a research file Glenn Martin Company maintains on development in the Five Cities and San Luis Obispo. It collects building permit and planning application records published by the City of Arroyo Grande, the City of Grover Beach, the City of Pismo Beach, the City of San Luis Obispo and the County of San Luis Obispo, together with state housing reports, environmental notices filed under CEQA, public hearing agendas and staff reports, and news coverage where it adds a date or a fact the official records lack.
The research covers November 3, 2021 through November 3, 2026 and was last reviewed on November 3, 2026. As reported with that review, it holds about 14,925 research records: 279 project and phase dossiers and 14,646 individual permit or application records, of which 984 carry a source-reported closure date. Those are counts of records, not of unique developments, buildings or homes, because one project can appear in many permits and one permit can cover several buildings.
What is published, and what is not
The public guide is a curated selection, not the whole file. We publish a project page when a development is substantial, when it is under construction or recently completed, or when there is enough reliable public information to explain it: housing and mixed-use projects, commercial, industrial and hospitality buildings, and significant transportation, civic, school and infrastructure work. Reroofs, water heaters, electrical work and similar minor permits are used in the research but do not get pages. Phases of a master development are linked to the parent project rather than counted twice.
Each published page carries the identifiers of the research records it came from, so a question about a page can be traced back to the underlying material.
What the status labels mean
Application, entitlement, permit issuance, construction and completion are different events, and the guide keeps them apart. A permit being closed is not treated as proof that a whole development is finished, and an old construction schedule is never turned into a claim that work is under way today.
- Proposed
- An application is on file or under review. No approval is documented.
- Approved
- An entitlement or permit has been granted. Construction is not documented as started.
- Under construction
- Construction activity is reported by the cited source. This does not imply an independent inspection of the site or permit file.
- Completed
- Completion is documented: a final inspection, certificate of occupancy, opening or equivalent.
- On hold or withdrawn
- The application was withdrawn, expired or paused according to the cited source.
- Status not determined
- The records reviewed do not establish the current status.
Every status comes with an “as of” date and a one-line basis naming its supporting record. When a source has no publication date, the basis explicitly identifies the retained research check date instead. Dates keep the precision of their source: a month or a year when the record has no exact day. When a source could not be re-checked, the page keeps the source’s own date and says so.
Known gaps in coverage
No local permit system is complete, and the research notes where it is thin. A project missing from the guide is not evidence that nothing is planned.
- Arroyo Grande. The full minor-work permit register and 2026 housing coverage were not obtained.
- Grover Beach. Late 2021 and several 2026 monthly permit-report periods are missing.
- Pismo Beach and Shell Beach. Late 2021 and activity after September 2026 are thin, and permit closure reconciliation is incomplete.
- San Luis Obispo. The inspected city permit export stops April 7, 2025. State housing (HCD) reporting extends through 2025 but does not cover every permit type or 2026 reporting.
- Oceano. The County GIS import mainly captures mapped applications submitted within the window. Issuance, completion, older applications with later activity and unmapped permits are not comprehensively covered.
Maps, images and locations
Map pins mark representative locations taken from the cited records, usually a parcel or address point. They are not surveyed footprints. Projects without a reliable coordinate are listed without a pin. Images appear only when their source permits public reuse, with a credit on each one; where no suitable image exists, the page uses a location map or text alone. We do not publish renderings we cannot attribute, and we do not generate pictures of real projects.
Who writes this, and how to correct it
The research and the pages are prepared by Glenn Martin Company for its own use and published as a reference. Each page shows the date its research was reviewed and the date its text was reviewed; we do not describe a page as reviewed on a date it was not. Glenn Martin Company has no role in the projects listed unless a page says so, and nothing here is advice to buy, sell or build.
If a page is wrong or out of date, email office@glennmartincompany.com with the page address and, if you have it, the record that shows the correction. We will check it against the source and update the page, noting the change.