The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About11/17/2020 Item 16, Cooper Wilbanks, Megan From:Allan Cooper < To:E-mail Council Website; Codron, Michael; Hermann, Greg; Hill, Robert; rcohn@slocity.org Subject:Letters To The Council Attachments:111_11_20...lettertocouncilc11.pdf; 111_11_20...lettertocouncil#16.pdf Dear Michael, Greg, Robert and Rachel - Would you kindly forward the two letters attached below to the City Council? These letters pertain to their November 17, 2020 review of Consent Agenda Item #11 "Authorize a Temporary Extension Of The Open Space Evening Hours of Use Pilot Program" and Public Hearing Item #16 "Review of the Sixth Cycle Housing Element Update and Negative Declaration of Environmental Review". We would also like these letters included in the City's correspondence file. Thanks and keep 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 & Rachel Cohen, Senior Planner Re: November 17, 2020: Public Hearing Item #16: Review Of The Sixth Cycle Housing Element Update And A Negative Declaration Of Environmental Impact From: Allan Cooper, San Luis Obispo Date: November 11, 2020 Honorable Mayor and Council Members - Before you approve the amendments to the Housing Element of the General Plan as represented in the Council Agenda Report, we would like you to consider the following. You had indicated that a graywater program could potentially be included as part of the Housing Element Update. Staff is dismissing this request because this issue is already addressed in the California Building Code. In light of the prospect of prolonged droughts we disagree. For example, many other California cities have established graywater system incentives. The City of Santa Cruz Water District offers its customers Laundry-to-Landscape system rebates of $150 after attending a workshop. The Soquel Creek Water District offers its customers Greywater irrigation system rebates of $400 for Laundry to Landscape and $1,000 for permitted systems. The Scotts Valley Water District offers its customers greywater irrigation system rebates of $150 per ﬁxture. The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District & California American Water offers its customers greywater irrigation system rebates of $100 per ﬁxture. The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency offers its customers greywater irrigation system rebates of $100 for Laundry to Landscape systems. The Santa Clara Valley Water District offers its customers greywater irrigation system rebates of $200 for Laundry to Landscape systems. And the San Lorenzo Valley Water District offers its customers greywater irrigation system credits up to $150 per ﬁxture. You had approved Policy 10.2: “Encourage, and where legally allowed, require new housing development to give preference in the following order: 1) individuals who are employed in business that are located in geographic areas that are customarily included in the City’s annual jobs-housing balance analysis, 2) individuals residing in the County, and 3) ﬁnally to individuals from outside the County”. Staff is proposing to remove this policy because “this policy potentially erects barriers and prevents access to housing opportunities, particularly to individuals from outside of the City.” However, the City of San Mateo is addressing its jobs housing imbalance by providing affordable housing beneﬁts to its own employees. Affordable units are set aside speciﬁcally for employee occupancy. The City of San Mateo also provides down payment assistance to purchase a home that is located close to their work. So similarly, San Luis Obispo could prioritize affordable housing for its low-wage, front line workers who are presently commuting to work from outside the City limits. These programs are of particular importance to workers whose services are central to the operation of our city government and who are often priced out of our city’s existing housing market. You had requested that a program be included in the Housing Element Update that outlines a timeframe for updating the Historic Resource Inventory. Staff instead is asking you to consider incorporating this inventory update into work plans for the Conservation and Open Space Element using monies from the 2021-2023 Financial Plan. Why put off this important task when time is running out for those citizens who could contribute to this documentation through their oral histories? Moreover, this task is becoming more urgent now that the City has decided that it no longer wishes to maintain the overall scale, density and architectural character of older neighborhoods surrounding the Downtown Core. If the City of San Luis Obispo truly “commits to being a safe, inclusive and welcoming community for everyone”, why not make use of the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Community Grant Program that would recognize the substantial number of Asian American and Paciﬁc Islander residents whose history is not well represented in SLO’s historical resources designation programs? For example Japantown, located on Higuera and Eto Streets is approximately one block long. It once had two hotels, a barber shop, a soda bottling company, two groceries, and a ﬁsh and meat market. This little commercial center was developed by the Eto and Tsutsumi Eto families in the 1920s and ‘30s. There is the one-block area centered on Palm Street between Morro and Chorro Streets which has been called since 1872 "Chinatown". But not all structures erected by Chinese Americans have been inventoried. A case in point is my residence at 756 Broad Street which was built ca. 1880 for the express purpose of accommodating “female boarding”. It actually functioned as a Chinese bordello. This property was moved in 1893 to its present location. Also undocumented is 871 Chorro Street that was formerly the residence of Ah Louis . And ﬁnally there is a concentration of residents of Filipino origin located in the City of San Luis Obispo. Program 6.22 is the update of the City’s municipal code to expand objective design standards. This is scheduled to take place within one year of the adoption of the Housing Element Update. In order to bring this about we should be following Marin County’s 15 month timeline which begins with an existing conditions analysis followed by surveys, community meetings, workshops, the development of a draft architectural pattern book and finally public hearings. (for more detail on this timeline see: https://www.marincounty.org/depts/cd/divisions/planning/ long-range-planning-initiatives/objective-design-and-development-standards/project- description). Finally staff has modified Program 7.15 to read as follows: “ Evaluate and update the Community Design Guidelines to provide site design standards for developments with 11 or more residential units to include outdoor amenities such as the following: outdoor visiting and gathering spaces, places to exercise or recreate, and spaces reserved for edible landscape or community gardens. This new addition to the Housing Element was proposed by Commissioner Michelle Shoresman. It is no coincidence that she is also SLO County’s Compliance Officer and media contact for the SLO County Covid-19 public information response team & Division Manager for the SLO County Health Agency. However, a more accurate reading of her motion and intent is as follows: ”Neighborhood quality is especially needed during pandemics.” She stated that this goal “should make reference to walkability, to health and to climate change. The City should encourage residential design that improves our health through the creation of community gardens, though avoiding “food deserts”, through ensuring that housing is free of auto exhaust and that there are opportunities for recreational exercise." Leaving out all reference to pandemics and climate change suggests that neither will have an impact on future housing and settlement patterns. But of course we know that this is not true. You identified that the Downtown and portions of Upper Monterey and Mid-Higuera Special Focus Areas could be appropriate for higher density housing development as described in the new policy 2.13: “Evaluate a ﬂexible density pilot program and initiate an update of the Zoning Regulations and Community Design Guidelines to incorporate ﬂexible density development options in Downtown and portions of Upper Monterey and Mid-Higuera Special Focus Areas to support the production of smaller residential units (150 to 600 square feet).” But according to FM Capital Principal Aaron Kurlansky “social distancing is the antithesis of the tight-knit living style that micro-units and their cousin, co-living, promote”. Girish Gehani with Trilogy Real Estate Partners believes “there will be a move away from micro-units”. And Integra Investments principal Victor Ballestas said “…we started hearing through the grapevine that people that are moving into micro-units are moving out after the year”. Nevertheless, this flexible density policy is reflected in the high density, dormitory style, congregate living facilities already approved at 1144 Chorro Street. This housing type no longer makes sense in a world that will require permanent social distancing in our living and work spaces. Per our letter to you on August 28, 2020, permit me to again quote Michelle A. Williams, dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Angelopoulos professor in public health and international development. She stated the following: “The global outbreak of COVID-19 is in no way an anomaly. Today, infectious diseases are emerging and reemerging more quickly than ever before. Between 1980 and 2013, the number of annual epidemics has gone from fewer than 1,000 to over 3,000. Infectious diseases such as Zika, MERS-CoV, SARS, cholera, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, influenza, and Ebola kill millions every year, and their outbreaks have decimated economies and triggered aftershocks and panic around the world.”