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Home My WebLink About6/2/2020 Item 12, Cooper Wilbanks, Megan From:Scott, Shawna Sent:Sunday, May 31, 2020 4:56 PM To:CityClerk Subject:FW: Item Number 12: Project Prosposed To Be Located @ 545 Higuera and 486 Marsh Attachments:105_31_20...lettertocouncil.pdf From: Allan Cooper < Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2020 2:13 PM To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil@slocity.org>; Codron, Michael <mcodron@slocity.org>; Scott, Shawna <sscott@slocity.org> Subject: Item Number 12: Project Prosposed To Be Located @ 545 Higuera and 486 Marsh Dear Michael and Shawna - Would you kindly forward this letter to the City Council? This letter pertains to the Council's June 2, 2020 review of an appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of a project proposed to be located at 545 Higuera and 486 Marsh. Would you additionally place this letter in the City's correspondence file? Thanks and I hope you are both keeping well! - Allan 1 Save Our Downtown ______________________________________________________________________________ Seeking to protect and promote the historical character, design, livability and economic success of downtown San Luis Obispo. To: San Luis Obispo City Council, Michael Codron, Community Development Director and Shawna Scott, Senior Planner Re: June 2, 2020 Meeting Item Number 12: 545 Higuera and 486 Marsh Streets  From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: May 31, 2020 On Tuesday, June 2, 2020, you will review an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a four-story mixed-use project located at 545 Higuera Street and 486 Marsh Street. Save Our Downtown is supporting this appeal. The appeal argues that an environmental impact report should be required because “… substantial adverse change in the signiﬁcance of an historical resource means…alteration of the resource or its immediate surroundings such that the signiﬁcance of an historical resource would be materially impaired.” The State CEQA Guidelines state that “categorical exemptions are inapplicable when the cumulative impact of successive projects of the same type in the same place, over time is signiﬁcant.” Staff states that “while the combination of other projects in the vicinity have resulted in a cumulative effect, none of the projects resulted in a signiﬁcant effect”. It is our position that this last statement is subjective, debatable and indefensible. Why? Because a monolithic, 50-foot-high, 275 foot long, 60,000 square foot building located in a neighborhood consisting of many historic one- and two-story buildings should alone be considered signiﬁcant. Combining this building with 37 other multi-ﬂoor, multi- unit structures that have either been approved or built - structures ranging up to 60 feet in height and all extending out to their lot lines - should obviously be considered a signiﬁcant cumulative impact of successive projects on this otherwise, low-rise historic neighborhood. Overall design objectives for commercial projects as stated in the City’s Community Design Guidelines includes the following: “Consider San Luis Obispo’s small town scale and demonstrate sensitivity to the design context of the surrounding area.” The architect has chosen a “contemporary” theme for this building. However, there are very few examples of “contemporary” architecture in this neighborhood with the exception of the architect’s two most recent additions - the cargo container complex called Downtown Terraces and the condominium complex ﬂanking Gennaro’s. In stark contrast to this building, previous additions to this neighborhood, including the Manse and the Bank of the Sierra, have tried with some success to work with more “historic” and “residential” themes. Finally, this project is clearly intended for a post-pandemic world as most of the units will be reliant on elevators and narrow corridors for access. Nevertheless, the City and this developer are moving ahead with this project without acknowledging that anything has changed within the last two months. It should be clear to many of us that in a world of reoccurring pandemics, high-density, high-rise living may no longer be a viable housing option. Moreover, should this developer ﬁnd the ﬁnancing to build this project, this building could become a burden to our community as it most likely will, as a result of social distancing requirements, remain either under-utilized or vacant. Thank you!