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Home My WebLink About9/7/2021 Item 7b, Keehn Wilbanks, Megan From:Becky Keehn < To:E-mail Council Website Subject:City Council Meeting September 7th, 2021 - Agenda Item 7B - Westmont Project This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. Dear City Council Members, I am writing to you regarding Agenda Item7.b. REVIEW OF A TENTATIVE TRACT MAP (TRACT 3157) TO CREATE 23 RESIDENTIAL LOTS ON A 4.98-ACRE SITE WITHIN THE LOW\[1\]DENSITY RESIDENTIAL (R-1) I am deeply concerned about the density of this project for both road safety and environmental reasons. As a 30-year resident on Stanford Drive which has been a cul de sac/dead end street since the 1950’s, I am very concerned about the viability/safety issues of Stanford Drive being one of only two access streets to 18 lots of the proposed development. With the planned density of single dwelling homes which can have up to 5 bedrooms along with ADU’s & DADU’s, I think a more realistic examination should be made of how many vehicles this could easily add to those entering and existing Stanford Drive on a daily basis. My hope is that more due diligence would be done to assess the reality of Stanford Drive’s vehicle congestion when Cal Poly and Cuesta students return in late summer/early fall. When they do, their cars and trucks line our street bumper to bumper on both sides. You really need to see this in person to grasp the impact it has when driving on Stanford. In addition, I very much disagree with the premise that this plan will make Stanford Drive safer. When the street is lined with cars/trucks there are many blind spots and tight driving spaces that already exist due to the narrow curving nature of the street. When you add in the through traffic for this project, the potential for accidents involving people like myself and others backing out of our driveways is exponential and I believe should cause real concern for you as City Council Members. I am a realistic person, and I understand that the Applicants for this project have a right to develop their property. I just want to implore them and the City of SLO to truly take into consideration the effects this current project will have on its surrounding neighbors. st Below, I have am referencing in blue, quotes from the 1 Planning Commission’s Agenda packet for this project regarding the LUE Policy 2.2.3 Neighborhood Traffic: Item 2 – Packet page 5 LUE Policy 2.2.3 Neighborhood Traffic: Neighborhoods should be protected from intrusive traffic. All neighborhood street and circulation improvements should favor pedestrians, bicyclists, and local traffic. Vehicle traffic on residential streets should be slow. To foster suitable traffic speed, street design should include measures such as narrow lanes, landscaped parkways, traffic circles, textured crosswalks, and, if necessary, stop signs, speed humps, bollards, and on- street parking and sidewalks. LUE Policy 2.2.4 Neighborhood Connections. This Westmont plan proposal ignores this LUE Policy. The traffic caused by this project will not only be intrusive but unsafe as Stanford Drive is a narrow curvy road with cars and trucks parked on both sides of the street which makes for a very narrow passage for cars driving past each other. When Cal Poly and Cuesta College are in session, driveways are 1 full and finding open street parking on Stanford is almost impossible. As mentioned by others on this block, our street has turned into approximately 50% student rentals with 4-5 students per house, most of them own cars and trucks which populate the street. Item 2 – Packet page 6 The design of the subdivision protects the existing neighborhood from intrusive traffic by only connecting the two existing streets to the south, avoiding any increase in cut-through traffic between other existing neighborhoods and Highway 1. The subdivision design also incorporates a potential bicycle and pedestrian connection to the east, as well as parkways, on-street parking, and sidewalks. I find the above statement incredibly telling. It is basically saying let’s have Stanford and Cuesta residents take the brunt of this project so that other parts of the surrounding neighborhood remain undisturbed. Stanford Drive is simply not designed to be a thoroughfare. I implore all of you to come and drive on this street up to this project so that you can see for yourselves what the reality is and how impractical and unsafe this plan is. Item 2 – Packet page 107 The 2018 OPR SB 743 Technical Advisory on Evaluating Transportation Impacts in CEQA states that absent substantial evidence indicating that a project would generate a potentially significant level of VMT, or inconsistency with a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) or general plan, projects that generate or attract fewer than 110 trips per day generally may be assumed to cause a less-than-significant transportation impact. According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual, 10th Edition, a single-family residential unit generates 9.44 average daily trips (ADT). The project would create 23 new parcels that could result in the development of single family residential uses, with an ADUs and JADUs as potential accessory uses. Operation of the project may create more than 110 trips per day; however, based on the City’s Residential VMT Screening Map, the project is located in an area of the city that would result in average VMT less than or equal to 85% of the regional average, meaning a project in this area would result in VMT generation below the City’s adopted thresholds. Therefore, future potential development Item 2 Packet Page 107 ER # EID-0170-2020 CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO 53 INITIAL STUDY ENVIRONMENTAL CHECKLIST 2021 of the project is not anticipated to generate VMT at a rate that is inconsistent with adopted plans and impacts would be less than significant. th As discussed in the May 26 Planning Commission Meeting and in comments submitted previously, it is more than likely that as Stanford Dr. has evolved over the last few years into more than 50% student rentals, the same will hold true for this development due to its proximity to both Cuesta and Cal Poly. This 110-trip model is incredibly flawed when taking this into consideration. Student rental housing trends are here, and it is easy to predict that these trends will continue. I have a recommendation which I believe would be a wise and practical “planning” modification. I see that the 3 lots on the West side with access to Westmont are noted as Phase 2 of this project. This would permanently take the Westmont St. access to this project off the table which I believe would be completely irresponsible and impractical. This is also the portion of the development most sensitive to environmental concerns which have been so comprehensively described by others. Good planning requires allowing room for improvement/adjustments and this project could be redesigned to allow for this access until much later in the development so that as other phases are developed and populated, the impact on Stanford can be truly evaluated with the option to redirect traffic via Westmont (W) if needed. If Westmont East and West access is completely off the table, then I truly believe the density of this project should be decreased to mitigate the concerns noted above. Lastly, I have many concerns regarding the effects of this project on our beautiful surrounding environment. I will leave these for others more informed than I to communicate how detrimental this development would be. Please make the quality of our neighborhood in both street safety and environmental conservation your priority when considering this project. I ask that you vote No on this development at this time and have it go back to the drawing board for a more thoughtful and much less invasive design. 2 Becky Keehn 628 Stanford Drive San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 3