HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/15/2024 Item 6b, Gilmore
Taylor Gilmore <
To:E-mail Council Website; Marx, Jan; Stewart, Erica A; Francis, Emily; Pease, Andy;
Shoresman, Michelle
Subject:October 15th Council Meeting - Agenda Item 6b
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Council,
I was born in San Luis Obispo and currently live in the Alta Vista neighborhood with my husband and our
two young children. I work full-time from home and teach at Cal Poly. This neighborhood used to be a
vibrant mix of students, professors, and professionals. With the substantial increase in Greek life at Cal
Poly, this neighborhood has become the "Greek Row" that Cal Poly never planned for and continues to
take no responsibility for.
It is impossible to sleep starting on Thursday night and through the weekend due to loud fraternity
parties. Noise travels because of the terrain of the neighborhood and we hear parties on Foothill even
though we live several blocks away in the single-family residential area.
Even during the day, during the week, there have been times that I’ve had to stop working and go find the
noise to respectfully ask them to quiet down since I can hear them partying through my noise cancelling
headphones. Every time, it is noise from a frat house. There have also been times that my husband or I
had to get out of bed at night when children can’t sleep due to a noisy party. Since non-emergency
always asks for an address, we’ve had to go find the party, which is usually at a fraternity house.
Since a fraternity impacts the neighborhood significantly more than a standard college rental, I agree that
conditions should be added to the use permit for the Lambda Chi fraternity, as requested by the appeal.
1. Do not permit events or parties that will violate the City’s noise ordinance, amplified music, DJs or live
bands.
The bass component of music is especially disturbing. I've found myself feeling incredibly frustrated,
trying to sleep, with the base permeating the walls. I've told my husband that it feels like Chinese water
torture with the contant dripping. The bass of the music can be heard from a long distance and it even
surprises me when I get up and go outside to try to find the location of the music and it doesn't seem
nearly as loud outside. You really can't imagine how disruptive it is until you have lived near a fraternity.
2. Limit the number of people at the fraternity at night, after 10:00 p.m.
Having 48 people in an area outside will make a lot of noise during a time when people need to sleep.
Limiting occupancy to 24 people is more reasonable. Just the sound of that many people talking is loud,
but when you introduce music, it is much louder.
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3. Send the use permit to the Planning Commission for re-review if the fraternity has four violations of
their CUP in twelve months.
Absent a mandated review threshold, there would be no incentive for the fraternity to limit activities that
could lead to violations. Having a threshold holds the fraternity accountable and does not prevent the
city from acting sooner, if they want to do so. The mandated review is important if the violations stack up
to an egregious amount, like four violations of the CUP in twelve months.
4. Noise citations and the fines for those citations should be attributed to the same address.
There are six different addresses and for the purpose of the progressive fine structure for noise citations,
citations against any of the six addresses should accumulate against one address. The students are
smart and know how to work the system. They will rotate which address they give to responding officers
to avoid penalties.
5. “Failure to comply with any of the conditions or code requirements, or the conduct of the use as so to
constitute a violation of Federal, State, or local law, or so as to constitute a public nuisance, or so as to
cause adverse impacts on the health, safety, or welfare of persons in the vicinity of this use is prohibited
and may constitute grounds for revocation of this permit.”
The appeal points out that this is included in other fraternity CUPs and it seems important to have as a
condition of use.
As a resident who is directly impacted by the many fraternities in the neighborhoods near Cal Poly's
campus, I urge this council to add these reasonable conditions to the CUP. While Cal Poly continues to
increase their enrollment, that will only bring more fraternity houses. If this CUP is given without any of
the above conditions, that means future fraternity house CUP will also be issued without any conditions.
Since San Luis Obispo has limited housing, it is only a matter of time before these frat houses are more
widespread and start impacting more residents. As you are all elected to represent us residents, please
consider what is in our best interest.
Thank you,
Taylor Gilmore
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