HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/15/2020 Item 1, Lobosco
Wilbanks, Megan
From:John Lobosco <
To:Advisory Bodies; Van Leeuwen, Kyle
Subject:Comments for June 15 ARC Meeting 3065 Lucca Lane
Attachments:Comments to Toscano Affordable Housing June 12, 2020 - Lobosco.pdf
Hello, please see attached and confirm receipt.
thanks,
John lobosco
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June 12, 2020
To: Architectural Review Committee, San Luis Obispo, CA
From: John Lobosco
3076 Lucca Lane, SLO 93401
339-927-0519
email: johnlob@verizon.net
RE: Project Address: 3065 Lucca (Toscano Development);
Case #: ARCH-0095-2020 & AFFH-0096-2020;
Zone: R-2-SP-PD; Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo, owner/applicant
Dear Architectural Committee,
The design of the buildings, site improvements and layout for this project are generally
aesthetically pleasing, and I am glad that you are creating additional affordable housing in SLO.
However, a very important part of the overall design, ingress/egress, does not seem to have
been thoroughly considered and analyzed.
The ingress/egress by Lucca Lane has several self-evident deficiencies that seem at
absolute odds with the proposed number of units, city ordinances, and master plans. The
ingress/egress seems unthinkable given the number of units proposed and the characteristics of
the entry road - Lucca Lane. The road characteristics create serious safety issues for all current
Lucca Lane residents of the Toscano development.
Lucca Lane Description:
Lucca Lane is primarily a paver road with no sidewalks or other typical sidewalk
landscaping strips that act as buffers between vehicle traffic and pedestrians. The road is more
accurately described as a two lane driveway and not a public right of way that would
accommodate any more than an additional 4-8 units of development on your site. In fact, the
main ingress/egress of Lucca Lane (not its offshoots) is only 22 feet wide to the curb - barely
2.5 feet more than a standard alley right of way of 6 meters or 19.7 feet (not counting 6 meters
of setbacks) used for garage access. As a wide alley or dual lane driveway, Lucca Lane is
obviously an unacceptable ingress/egress for the proposed development.
Problems with Lucca Lane as ingress/egress
1)No Sidewalks - Unsafe
•The nonexistence of sidewalks on either side of the street will force pedestrians from the
existing Toscano development to walk in the street, putting them in danger of massive
construction vehicles for a couple of years and then several dozen cars coming and going
daily upon full occupancy of the proposed development. Imagine 100 car trips a day going
up and down this narrow road (dual-lane driveway) with no sidewalks and 4 blind corners.
However, the proposed development properly provides access to a pedestrian path so that
affordable housing residents can safely avoid Lucca Lane. It is morally unacceptable that the
city has only carefully considered the safety of affordable housing residents and not existing
residents. Current Lucca Lane residents have no access to the pedestrian path and will
have to walk in the narrow street with car and truck traffic absolutely forever.
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•The current residents are mainly young families with children (with more on the way) that
expect to be able to walk safely to and from their homes. The proposed project will not allow
them to do so. Though there are no sidewalks here now, it is not a perceived safety issue
because there are only 12 homes that use this street. The road is not being used as a
conduit or feeder street (as it would be for the proposed development) but more like a
system of shared driveways that neighbors intuitively understand as they navigate. If there
were only 4-8 units being built at your proposed development, I could assume that this
safety issue wouldn’t be such a big concern.
•By not providing safe pedestrian travel, current residents will be forced into using their cars
to go to the mailbox a few hundred feet away or to take their children for walks.
This is antithetical to the city’s stated objectives as seen below:
Source for below: Margarita Area Specific Plan
P.2 “OUR MISSION STATEMENT… Our mission is to serve all persons in a positive
and courteous manner and help ensure that San Luis Obispo continues to be a healthy,
safe, attractive, and enjoyable place to live, work, or visit. We help plan the city’s form
and character, support community values, preserve the environment, promote wise use
of resources, and protect public health and safety.”
P.4 “Creation of a New Cohesive Neighborhood
..New development and open space areas will be accessible to existing development by
extending existing streets and creating linkages to new bicycle and pedestrian paths.
…Consistent landscape features such as street trees and connected public spaces and
pedestrian ways will enhance neighborhood connectivity.”
“A Pedestrian Friendly Environment
This specific plan emphasizes and encourages human scale development and
pedestrian facilities.”
Source for below: Ordinance #1506 - “Toscano Affordable Housing Plan”
2) Narrow Road Width and Inappropriate Materials:
•Lucca Lane is incompatible with the intended construction and final use. The road width to
access the units upon which I am commenting should be more like San Vincenzo or Arezzo,
public paved roads that are approximately 50% wider with curbed sidewalks and sidewalk
landscaping that adds a protective safety barrier between the road traffic and pedestrians. On
these public roads, the house exteriors are approximately 20-30 feet from the sidewalk curbs.
See Figure 17 on the last page for a diagram of this standard road type..
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•In contrast, the Lucca Lane road edge is within a foot or two of existing fences and within 5- 6
feet of the existing exterior walls of at least 4 homes. See photos #1 and 2 below. Isn’t it
possible that construction traffic with 30,000 pound vehicles will: a) damage the existing paver
road since they were designed to move to accommodate earthquakes, and b) cause structural
damage to homes, fences, and retaining walls that are within 3-6 feet of these vehicles?
3) Inadequate Parking Spaces:
The proposed development does not have enough parking for the number of residents
or units. How will you keep people from parking their cars on Lucca Lane (as some people do
now), or clogging neighboring streets? You need: a) at least 50% more parking or b) to
substantially reduce the number of dwelling units.
4) Possible Value Decline:
Existing homes along the main stretch of Lucca Lane could experience value decline.
The proposed design could discourage buyers, especially families with children, because the
lane would become a dangerous, busy, noisy (especially while under construction), narrow, and
unsafe street with no sidewalks, inadequately designed for the proposed use. The obvious
result would be a decline in value of existing properties.
Conclusion for Lucca Lane as unacceptable ingress/egress
1)Given your proposed development and the use of Lucca Lane as ingress/egress, Lucca
Lane road improvements are grossly inadequate, measuring about 22 feet across, just a
little wider than a standard alley meant to provide access to garages and not to be a main
conduit to almost 40 units. This street will not allow current residents to walk safely to and
from their homes since there is no access to any sidewalks except through the street and
traffic, a profoundly obvious safety risk that will last forever.
Photos showing current edge of road one foot to fence and 3-6 feet to house exterior.
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2)The complete lack of pedestrian walkways is antithetical to your master plan and city
goals of encouraging safe pedestrian walkways. This discourages community interaction
and encourages car use to avoid pedestrian dangers.
3)The road improvements of mainly pavers will be damaged by heavy construction equipment
at considerable cost to the existing Toscano Homeowners Association.
4)Your project does not have enough planned parking, given the amount of proposed units,
which will cause residents to seek alternate nearby parking. This could easily happen on
Lucca Lane (that has no parking areas) as is done now. People (residents or guests) park
wherever they want that is closest to their units. This is a car dependent location given the
distance to public transportation. Your project requires a more realistic parking requirement.
5) Value decline for certain homes along Lucca Lane due to safety issues.
SOLUTION:
Create ingress/egress on the north side of the property:
It is more practical that the ingress/egress to your site be a paved road from Arezzo Drive.
The two lots of the Toscano subdivision, 122 and 122.5, make more practical sense for the
location of a road to your proposed project. This would solve all deficiencies and problems:
1) Provide an asphalt public road equipped for construction equipment travel with ample
sidewalks for pedestrians ( See Figure 17 below). This would eliminate the safety and negative
consequences of the current Lucca Lane plan for ingress/egress.
2) It would provide more parking spaces, which realistically will be needed.
The plan below in Figure 1 shows the current plan with lots 122 and 122.5 in red and the
alternate proposed idea for a reconfiguration of the site with this new road (Figure 2).
There is absolutely no reason this recommendation can’t be done. You can either negotiate with
the current developer or take the property by eminent domain, given the obvious benefits to the
public. This is your chance to do the right thing.
Figure 1 Figure 2
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What the road should be:
The diagram below is more typical of a street that would accommodate so many cars and
residences and are similar to public roads in the neighborhood - San Vincenzo and Arezzo.
Current Road
width is 6.7 meters
as wide as
this this box