HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/14/2022 Item 4b, Rarig (2)
Delgado, Adriana
From:Steve Rarig <banorarig@gmail.com>
Sent:Wednesday, PM
To:Advisory Bodies
Cc:Bell, Kyle; Nocket, Kelsey
Subject:950 High Street and 1940 Santa Barbara Street (USE-0477-2022) Item 4b
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
Dear Planning Commissioners, my name is Steve Rarig and our family owns the building at 1998 Santa Barbara Street
named Iron Horse Station. My father originally bought the property in the late 1960’s to establish his wholesale
plumbing and heating supply business. When he moved into the building it was the old SP Milling Warehouse. He chose
this location for his business because it was next to a railroad spur for delivery of his products by rail and truck, and had
good access from High Street and Santa Barbara Street.
In 1990 our family decided to demolish the old SP Milling warehouse and offices and build a new two -story office
building for multiple commercial tenants. The architectural design of our building meets the Railroad District Design
Guidelines and received a Design Award from the City of San Luis Obispo. When we designed our site plan, we
negotiated a DEED OF EASEMENT (Vehicular ingress and egress for 1998 Santa Barbara Avenue) with the City. The
easement allowed us to design our building such that parking would be at the rear of the building and we would have
access to our private parking lot from the upper RTC parking lot. We are required to have vehicular ingress and egress
from High Street and Upham Street per that Easement.
COVID hit us all by surprise a few years ago and many of our tenants had to close their business due to local county
health and state COVID safety requirements. All our tenants wished to keep their leases, many had to close their doors
to the public and some asked for rent relief which we granted. During this period, the city established an emergency
temporary Safe Parking Program in the RTC lot connected to our private parking lot.
Since the temporary Safe Parking program inception, neighboring business in the Railroad Square district and our
tenants at Iron Horse Station have had public health and safety issue problems which are a direct result of establishing
the Safe Parking program at this location. A group of us met Monday for two hours with the CDD Housing Coordinator
and SLO City Homelessness Response Manager to voice our concerns about the program. As a result of comments heard
at that meeting, the CDD Housing Coordinator sent us an email late yesterday stating that the determination on the
Conditional Use Permit would be delayed until the City is able to work with CAPSLO to improve upon the management
of the program under the emergency order.
I hope that your commission received the letters and emails from the local business’s, our tenants, and the Railroad
Museum explaining the issues we have been having with the Safe Parking Program.
I agree with many that the homeless problems are city wide but trying to solve the problem by establishing a Safe
Parking Program at this location is not helping to solve the problem, but is only adding fuel to the fire.
Please take time to drive through the parking lot at the Railroad Museum and through the AMTRACK and public parking
lot today before the hearing- this will give you a good idea of some of the issues we are dealing with.
Thanks for your consideration.
Thanks, Steve Rarig
1
Iron Horse Station
1998 Santa Barbara Street
San Luis Obispo, CA
2