HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/2/2020 Item 12, Lopes, J
Christian, Kevin
From:James Lopes <jameslopes@charter.net>
Sent:Tuesday, June 2, 2020 3:02 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:545 HIGUERA STREET,,486 MARSH STREET, ARCH-0017-2019
June 2, 2020
To: San Luis Obispo City Council
From: James Lopes
Subject: 545 HIGUERA STREET, 486 MARSH STREET, ARCH-0017-2019
Dear Mayor Harmon and Council Members,
I am not in support of approving this 50-foot tall, block-wide proposal, and I support the appeal and comments by San
Luis Architectural Protection.
I might add that my early comments in the project review were not successful in persuasion. At hearings, I witnessed a
casual, unimpressed response by the ARC members to the City's Community Design Guidelines. I currently see a staff
report which is detailed and active, but in all the details which are minor to the main points of the guidelines. Is the staff
trying to give us wrong information and direction, when the most prominent is about the scale - size, massing and
setbacks, to start - not whether the upstairs porches have new posts.
I encourage you to ask for three-story buildings with a two-story side on the west side, and perhaps using the driveway
for a better garage setting, with continued pedestrian walkway. It is not a "right" that developers are entitled to 50-foot
heights. Regardless of your thinking that ordinance gives this away, it actually is always meant that the height is
"possible" if other setting issues (historicity) and settings (residential one-story area), and continued consistency of
character (styles), are met well, and not ignored as they almost are in this report. I am just over time so if you read this
far - thank you so much!
Sincerely,
James Lopes
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