HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/15/2020 Item 9, Brooks
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Lea Brooks <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:City Council 9.15.2020, Item 9, Froom Ranch
Attachments:City Council 9.15.2020, Item 9, Froom Ranch.docx
Attached are my comments for Item 9, Froom Ranch.
Thank You.
Lea Brooks
San Luis Obispo
1
Sept. 14, 2020
To: Mayor Harmon and Council Members Christianson, Gomez, Stewart and Pease
From: Lea Brooks, San Luis Obispo resident
Re: Froom Ranch, Item 9
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this project. I am commenting as an
individual and not as a member of the Active Transportation Committee.
I was very fortunate to grow up in San Luis Obispo, and strive to live with a light
footprint to protect our environment for future generations . It’s so very obvious based on
the significant and unavoidable environmental impacts associated with the Froom
Ranch project that Los Osos Valley Road is not a suitable location.
Yes, there certainly is a demand for a life plan community in San Luis Obispo. I hope
you will hear my voice among the slickly produced videos featuring people who want to
live in the gated Villaggio project.
If you approve this project, I hope each of you will explain to those of us who deeply
care about the environment why it’s acceptable to override the identified significant and
unavoidable impacts, including:
-California is on fire because of climate change and development in high fire hazard
zones. Hello! This project is adjacent to a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.” It’s
risky to go outside let alone bicycle or walk when air quality is hazardous in addition to
the heartbreaking damage, injuries and deaths to people and wildlife associated with
wildfires.
-Despite numerous well-designed mitigations to improve conditions for bicycling and
walking, the addition of traffic generated by this project will exacerbate poor levels of
services for pedestrian and bicycle modes. Again, the Los Osos Valley Road site is not
an appropriate location for this car -dependent project because the environmental impact
remains significant.
The Project Person Trips by Mode of Tr avel estimates 88.2 percent of overall trips
associated with Froom Ranch will be by passenger vehicle, 4.6 percent by bicycle, 5
percent by pedestrian and 2.2 percent by transit. No matter how you spin these
numbers, the issue before you is why a project that is 88.2 percent dependent on motor
vehicles is acceptable in the year 2020 when the goal should be to reduce dependency
on automobiles and greenhouse gases.
The Los Osos Valley Road Highway 101 interchange is daunting for even the most
experienced bicyclists despite the improvements, primarily because of aggressive
and/or distracted motorists. An undercrossing of the interchange to connect existing and
future segments of the Bob Jones Trail should have been part of the interchange
improvements and more seriously considered as a mitigation for Froom Ranch.
This project is a disaster for active transportation safety and connectivity to the rest of
the city and contradicts numerous green goals, including 25 percent trips-by-bike and
greenhouse gas reductions. Trips by bike and foot other than within the project and
vicinity will be profoundly thwarted for years to come.
In dramatic contrast, downtown San Luis Obispo just received a boost with new bike
lanes on Higuera and Pismo streets. Thank you! These bike lanes will support and
increase active transportation trips in the downtown area and help achieve City goals.
Froom Ranch, with its significant environmental impacts, represents moving backward
because it makes transportation by bike and foot more challenging for Laguna Lake-
area residents and through bicyclists who are already limited on routes they consider
safe to connect with the rest of the City.
-This project is also inconsistent with City plans and policies regarding protection of
aesthetic and scenic quality, and cultural, biological and tribal cultural resources.