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Home My WebLink About06-10-2014 ph1 jenkinsKremke, Kate From: Mejia, Anthony Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 8:39 AM To: Kremke, Kate Subject: FW: 6 -10 -14 Agenda item PHI Mission Medical LLC zoning and subdivision request Attachments: Agenda PHI Jenkins 6 -9 -14 letter and photos.pdf R JUN 10 2014 Agenda Correspondence 06/10/14 Item PH1 SLO CITY CLERK Anthony J. Mejia I City Clerk coly of S "„ 1111s <,ms'.)o AGENDA 99a Palm Street CORRESPONDENCE San t iris Obispo, CA 93401 i 1805.18'1,7102 fete 4'4 1n- 14 Item #_.�._ From: info [mailto:info@stewjenkins.com] Sent: Monday, June 09, 2014 6:42 PM To: Marx, Jan; Christianson, Carlyn; mavourneen @charter.net; dancarpslo yahoo.com; jbashbaugh@charter.net Cc: Mejia, Anthony Subject: 6 -10 -14 Agenda item PHI Mission Medical LLC zoning and subdivision request Mayor Marx and Council members, Please find attached objection letter to proposed zoning change and subdivision request for the meeting of June 10, 2014. There are also some photos to support the objection. All the Best, Stew Jenkins Law Office of Stewart D. Jenkins 1336 Morro Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Phone: (805) 541 -5763 Fax: (805) 547 -1608 E -Mail: infogstewjenkins.com STEW JENKINS ATTORNEY 1336 Morro Street, San Luis Obispo CA 93401 Phone: (805) 541 -5763 FAX: (805) 547 -1608 June 9, 2014 Jan Marx, Mayor Councilmembers Ashbaugh, Carpenter, Christensen and Smith 990 Osos Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Re: Council Meeting 6- 10 -14; Agenda item PHI; SUBJECT: AMEND SITE ZONING BOUNDARIES AND VESTING TENTATIVE MAP (TRACT 2928) FOR MIXED - USE PROJECT AT 1321 & 1327 OSOS (CITY FILE NOS. GP /R, ER & TR 96 -13). Applicant: Mission Medical LLC. Project Shorthand: Pacific Courtyards Project. Dear Mayor Marx & Council: The Planning Commission recommending amendment of the zoning for the lot between 1336 Morro Street [our home /office] and 1332 Morro Street, as well as the zoning over the connected two lots at 1327 Osos Street between the historic Seventh Day Adventist Church and the historic Rio Bravo apartments is a mistake. As reflected in the accompanying photos, the vast bulk of the proposed project is in the City of San Luis Obispo's Historic District. Some members of Council may be familiar with the tenn "sacking the horse," which is the process of progressively exposing an unbroken horse to a sack, then a blanket, so that the horse gets used to someone loading something scratchy and unpleasant on the horse's back to tolerate a saddle. The applicant presents 104 pages with drawings of "contemporary" styling with "elements" claiming; that they are "compatible with the surrounding neighborhood."' Rather than be relevant to the merits of rezoning the renderings serve to get the Council used to the scratchy and unpleasant prospect of teleporting into the Old Town. Historic District a business /residential park suitable for a site at the airport without sufficient parking, or adequate mitigations for the congestion that will be caused on one of the City's most important traffic arterials, Osos Street. Please do not be fooled. We oppose the proposed zoning reconfiguration; and oppose the current design. We supported and support the project and zoning decisions made in 2008 which provided ample underground parking, appropriate housing sandwiched between two churches and the high density Brio Bravo apartments, and an office development closer to the City's parking garage for the site. Creating 9 separate residential condominium lots on Morro Street is at odds with the single family residential uses on Morro and Pismo Streets. The proposed zoning; "flip" creates an island of ' E.G., pg PH 1 -30. www.stewjenklns.com high density housing on Morro Street, Leaving the zoning; as currently configured would keep higher density housing in the most appropriate location adjacent to the Rio Bravo apartments, The high traffic flow during business hours makes it inappropriately dangerous to place commercial development on the Osos side of the site. Osos is a narrow street with no turn lane or pocket possible in the affected block without removing parking; along; both sides of the street. This constricted lane width all along Osos Street is the reason the bicycles were routed down Morro Street some years ago. Residential uses on Osos are more appropriate and historically consistent with prior uses before the parking; lot proposed for development was paved. Residential uses should be near Mitchell Park, Churches, and the convenience market on the Osos side of the project. Historically, the block of the Morro Street side of the project has always supported office and commercial uses [see November 2013 letter attached]. This portion of Morro Street is well beyond the traffic calming; portions designated "the bicycle boulevard." Though well traveled by cars to and from the Pacific and Morro Parking Garage, traffic on this block of Morro Street is calm and capable of handling cars entering, exiting, and stopping; to turn into office parking, indeed, in the spectacularly well designed 2008 approved plan, the Morro Street entrance was the primary access way to the adequate underground parking. The Morro Street portion of the site is less than a block from the Parking Garage for professional and commercial customers. An applicant who obtains an approved plan by designing in ample underground parking that adequately considered circulation elements, who thereafter submits a new plan stripped of those advantages, should be regarded as engaging in a bait - and - switch tactic, Bait- and - switch applications will only become more frequent if the Council falls prey to this manipulation at tonight's hearing. The massing and the design ofthe plan being proposed for the site remain out of character for the neighborhood, and out of character with the Historic District. Those design issues are not before the Council. But your best bet for persuading the applicant to return to the 2008 plan previously approved in 2008 by the Architectural Review Commission, the Cultural Heritage Committee, and this Council is to deny the zoning and subdivision change requested. Falsely presenting root -top decking as "open space," the applicant seeks exception- credits to parking requirements. The project's residential element, placed on the wrong side of the project, mimics the finest 1970s styling, sharply clashing with single family structures from 1915, 1869, 1850, and the Master Last Historic structure of the 7`h Day Adventist church. You will be told the neighborhood is eclectic. However, the "eclectic" examples presented by the applicant to build structures mimicking a suburban industrial park are designed to mislead you into a mistake. Those "eclectic" structures are the very things which lead to the creation of the Cultural Heritage Committee, and the voters' commitment to preserve not just historic buildings, but the historic context in areas of the Old Town Historic District. In closing, the history of the current project proposal bears some comment. The Cultural Heritage Committee unanimously declined to recommend the initial design of the project, and has not been permitted to pass on the current design. The Architectural Review Commission sent a slightly adjusted "contemporary" design back to the applicant; one Commissioner noting; that www,stewjenkins.com construction next to historic properties like those adjoining the site needed to avoid being "matchy- matchy," but also needed to avoid being "clashy - clashy." Approving the zoning change requested, and particularly approving the dedicated high - density 9 lots in the residential part of the proposed, will bake "clash y-cl ashy" into the cake. We ask the Council deny the ill considered request to reconfigure the zoning and deny the subdivision of 9 new high - density lots. r Siric ly, Sincere:ly,:' r ins ` I c nlsins S7e'elon ' www.stewjenkins.com 3 I ,Ili N Ff 0 f 4,Otl 414 ;tV ' "q MI Z-V . 0 0 V) cn CD m fi n STEW JENKINS ATTORNEY 1336 Morro Street, San Luis Obispo CA 93401 Phone: (805) 541 -5763 FAX: (805) 547 -1608 November 25, 2013 Cultural heritage Committee Bob Pavlic Chair, Hemalata Dandekar, Vice -Chair Sandy Baer, Thom Brajkovich, Jaime Hill, Patti Taylor and Victoria Wood, Members Atten: Staff - Phil Dunsmore, Kim Murry, Pam Ricci Re: Agenda item 1: ARC 96 -13 Dear Chair Pavlik and Committee Members: We supported the project which was approved in 2009, but oppose the one now presented. The proposed project presented in 2013 is entirely Arehitectually Ineompatible with all historic structures on Osos, Pismo and Morro. Three stories of Metal, Glass, Boxy, Flat Roofing design, and even colors which clash with the wood siding, pitched roofs, wood framed windows and victorian — craftsman buildings predominant on Morro and Pismo Streets. Those elements detract from the beauty of the adjacent 7'i' Day Adventist Church. The hard edges and materials and lack of styling detract from the soft lines of the Rio Bravo Apartments and Grace Church. The residence and office stuctures proposed by the project resembles a suburban industrial park teleported into the middle of San Luis Obispo's historic old town and railroad districts. All other structures on Morro Street have garages out of significant view behind the main structures. The proposal for the Morro side of the project make the unattractive garage doors and metal siding the most visible feature of the project from the street and south- westerly properties. If approved, the project will reduce the value of all adjoining structure, rather than enhancing the character of the neighborhood. We urge the Committee to recommend denial of the project propsed by ARC 96-13, and to preserve the zoning and historically consistent Victorian plan that was approved for the parcels designated 1330 Morro Street', 1321 & 1327 Osos Street in 2009. The 2009 plan was sensitive to and integrated with all historic and cultural elements for the two neighborhoods it traverses, as well as practical and architcctual considerations. Morro Street, historically, was the most direct route used to access the historic railroad station, which is now being restored as a railroad museum. The 1300 block of Morro Street had significant commercial and office uses. Flipping the zones is inconsistent with cultural resources related to each use proposed. 1 1330 Morro :Street is misidentified in the proposal as 1322, which is in the ownership of the Davis Family. www.stewJenklns,com Maintaining the office /commercial use on the .Morro Street parcel placing customers likely to park at the corner public parking garage is more consistent with the historic character of Morro Street, Maintaining the residential use between the 7t" Day Adventist Church and the venerable Rio Bravo Apartments puts prospective townhouse residents within view and immediate access of Mitchelle Park, grocery shopping, playgrounds, and three churches [Grace, 7"' Day Adventists, and Trinity Presbytian (using the 7'" Day Adventists facility on Sundays)]. Flipping the zones is inconsistent with the history of the MOTTO Street neighborhood, which has long hosted mixed uses. The Telegram Newspaper (then competing with the Tribune) and a City office existed on Morro Steet until a fire destroyed much of the block, including our home -Office in the early 1920s. Our Home - Office, 1336 Morro Street, was rebuild. Bordering the subject property to the South -West, our structure was owned by the first woman elevated to serve as Dean of U.C. Berkeley; and she maintained a full service commercial Beauty Parlor in the front of the home and lived in the back of the home when in San Luis during weekends and school breaks. On purchase we found the electrical, plumbing and flooring for the shampoo sinks, hair dryers and electric appliance, as well as the heavy sign anchors high above the porch still in place. All of the structures to the south -east of 1321 & 1327 Osos Street are residential All the structures adjoining and across from 1330 Morro are commercial offices or historic home - offices. All Morro Street buildings host pitched roofing (save one small apartment with pitched rooting features). All homes, and even the 1" American 'title Company, are constructed with shiplap wood siding, with period appropriate windows and window framing. The proposed project clashes. Residential used on the Osos Street side is consistent with the churches anchoring the block, and consistent with access to facilities related to residential use such as park, playground, a seinors club and a convenience store carrying groceries and necesesaries at the corner of Pismo and Osos. We urge the Cultural Heritage Committee to issue a recommendation that the project be denied, and urge the applicant to complete the Victorian designed project approved in 2009 or to redesign the current proposal to be compatible with these historic neighborhoods. Sincerely, Sincerely, .a. Stew Jenkins Diane Jenkins www.stewienkins com