HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/14/2020 Item 10, Smith
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Bryn Smith <brynhannah@icloud.com>
Sent:Tuesday,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Dana Street Parking District -- unfair to multifamily residence dwellers
Dear Mayor Harmon and members of the council;
I have lived at 415 Dana Street in the Dana Gardens complex since 2010. While I am generally in favor of
the parking district, I am only in support of its passing at this time if permits are extended to all residents
who live on Dana Street. Unless this is possible, I urge you to hold on approval until feedback from ALL
Dana Street residents has been solicited via survey-- not just those currently eligible for permits based
on dwelling type.
Our town home complex along with some of the other apartment complexes are non-qualifying
residences in the proposed Dana Street parking district (item 10 on the Jan 14 City Council agenda).
While I understand that the developers were responsible for ensuring enough parking for their
developments when they were approved to be built, the town homes and apartment complexes on
Dana Street are decades old and do not have adequate onsite parking for residents, let alone
guests. For example, our eight unit complex has garage parking for residents but only 3 guests spots,
which easily fill up on weekends and holidays (the remainder of the driveway is a designated fire lane).
Those of us in multi-family residences are essentially being told that we have less right to host people in
our homes for more than two hours than our single-family residence neighbors. If the parking district
is approved where are our guests supposed to park? Dana Gardens is .2 mi down a dead end
street-- are our guests supposed to walk .5 mile or more to their cars? Take an Uber? Those are honest
questions that I do not have the answer to, but I do feel like the City will be limiting me from welcoming
friends and family into my home for any extended period of time based on the type of home I live in if
this parking district is approved, and that feels extremely inequitable.
Additionally, many of the apartments on Dana have higher occupancy than allotted parking. This is
both a housing cost and supply issue that was not at the current critical level when these
developments were built and parking spots approved. Where are my neighbors who live here
supposed to park when their antiquated parking lots fill up at their complexes? Again, this feels like an
inequitable situation for those living in 4+ unit complexes.
I know that the households surveyed were overwhelmingly in favor of the parking district, but
multifamily residents were excluded from providing detailed feedback ahead of time. If my multi-family
residence dwelling neighbors better understood the negative impacts that this current proposal would
have on their day-to-day lives, I am sure that you would have heard more feedback about the need to
extend the eligibility of permits to everyone who has a Dana Street address as home.
Thank you,
~Bryn Smith
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805.704.2690
415 Dana Street #5
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
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