HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/2/2024 Item 7a, Cooper
Allan Cooper <
To:E-mail Council Website; CityClerk
Subject:Letter To SLO City Council
Attachments:706_27_24...lettertocouncil.pdf
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Dear City Clerk -
Would you kindly forward the letter attached below to the City Council? This
letter pertains to the City Council's July 2, 2024 Meeting: Item 6A: "Review
and Adopt Revised Citywide User and Regulatory Fees". I would also like this
letter to be placed in the City's Correspondence File. Thank you!
- Allan Cooper
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
Re: July 2, 2024 Meeting: Item 6A: Review And Adopt Revised
Citywide User And Regulatory Fees
From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown
Date: July 27, 2024
Honorable Mayor and Council Members -
A serious concern of ours is the following. A non-applicant
administrative appeal to the City Council is being proposed to
increase on October 1, 2024 from $797.27 to $ 3,408.00. A non-
applicant’s administrative appeal of a permit, of a variance or of a
small subdivision will be increased from $442.79 to $2,070.00.
This is in comparison with the City of Sonoma’s (population: 10,739)
administrative appeal fee of $257.00, the City of Lake Elsinore’s
(population: 73,463) administrative appeal fee of $210.33, the City of
Los Angeles’ (for property owners within 500 feet of the development
project) administrative appeal fee of $64.00 and the City of Davis’
(population: 66,850) administrative appeal fee of $317.00.
The extortionate fees that you are considering, fees which are
completely out of sync with other California communities similar and
not-so-similar to ours, will effectively keep your voting constituency
from exercising their right of appeal. Even if this is not what you want,
the perception remains that you seem to consider all appeals
frivolous. These increased fees are sending the wrong message as
you are making it harder for people to be involved in City government.
When Dan Buettner in his 2010 book titled “Thrive” identified San Luis
Obispo as one of his so-called “happiest places in America”, he
stated that the reason for this was that with more citizen participation
San Luis Obispo’s focus shifted away from optimizing the business
environment to maximizing quality of life. Sadly, only seven years later,
through a joint Dan Buettner - National Geographic study, San Luis
Obispo lost this highly coveted top ranking. This has been
compounded by the fact that over the past five years our State
legislators have effectively usurped almost full jurisdiction over one of
the key powers always previously held by local residents and locally
elected officials: The ability to decide what our city will look like and
feel like over the next few decades. With all of this in mind, you should
be endeavoring to want more people more involved in City
government, not less. Thank you!