HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/2/2020 Item 12, Dwyer
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Gary Dwyer <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Item 12, 545 Higuera
Attachments:maxresdefault.jpg
Dear Council Members.
The purpose behind an environmental impact report is to determine the impact. Simple.
The Proposed project at 545 Higuera will produce a negative impact on the city for a number of reasons:
It is too massive. Mass has to do with volume in relation to the spaces around it. The mass of this
project has nothing to do with the mass or the adjacent spaces of many of the older and preserved
structures in the same neighborhood. The proposed project is too big. It has nothing to do with the
scale of the neighborhood, and more importantly, it is out of scale with the rest of the city and
does nothing to even bow in the direction of the character of the city that has made it such a unique
place to live and work. This project will be a detriment to the aesthetic and historic quality the city has
worked so long to preserve. If we lose those aesthetic qualities, we lose our character, we lose our
attractiveness, and consequently, it will be bad for business. This project is only based on generating the
greatest amount of gross leasable square footage, which is another way of saying greed. There are
numerous projects, some as close as Santa Barbara, (see attached) which have gone to great lengths to
fit into their neighborhoods and the community as a whole. They are also fully occupied with long term
leases. This proposed project at 545 Higuera does nothing to add to the community. In fact, it would be
just another box to line the pockets of the developers. On the basis of community service and sanity the
project should be required to produce an EIR and even so, the whole idea should be scrapped before it
gets that far.
Respectfully Submitted,
A resident of Dana Street for more than 20 Years.
Gary Dwyer
Professor Emeritus
Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
California Polytechnic State Univerisity
San Luis Obispo California
gdwyer@calpoly.edu
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