HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/28/2025 Item 4a & 4b, Anonymous (2)
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:Re-Review of Fraternity CUPs
Planning Commissioners,
I’m writing to urge you to deny the conditional use permits for the fraternities at 1236 Monte
Vista and 1304 Foothill. These properties, and other fraternities operating nearby, have made
it difficult to enjoy the weekends. They have loud parties without any consideration for how it
affects others. They have ignored warnings and citations and have shown that they are not
responsible enough to abide by the conditions of their use permits.
I live in the Alta Vista neighborhood with my husband and our two young children. Noisy
fraternity parties often keep us awake. We can hear noise coming from parties along “Frat
Row” and other areas of our neighborhood pretty much every weekend during the school
year, day and night. We hear and see groups of people walking by, looking for the parties. It
has affected my family’s ability to sleep at night or enjoy being outside in the yard during the
day.
I graduated from Cal Poly about 15 years ago and currently teach therewhile also working a
full-time job. While I was a college student, I had parties and attended parties and was aware
of how my behavior affected my neighbors. The police also patrolled the neighborhoods near
campusand were more aggressive with enforcement. Things have gone off the rails since
then and there is little enforcement of people walking around with alcohol, screaming, and
being a nuisance. The crux of the problem is the fraternities in residential neighborhoods,
permitted and unpermitted.
Item 2.1 of the Staff report, Consistency with the General Plan / Zoning Regulations, says the
fraternity use is consistent with Land Use Element 2.6.5 and Housing Element Policy 8.5.
2.6.5 says: “The City shall work with Cal Poly to develop a proposal to
locate fraternities on campus for consideration by the CSU Board. If locations on
campus cannot be provided, fraternities and sororities should be limited to medium-
high and high-density residential areas near the campus.”
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8.5 says: “Locate fraternities and sororities on the Cal Poly University campus. Until
that is possible, they should be located inMedium-High and High-Density residential
zones near the campus.”
I do not believe the General Plan meant for the city’s neighborhoods to serve as Cal Poly’s
Greek Row in perpetuity. It will never be “possible” to locate Greek life on
campus until the city takes a stand to compel Cal Poly to do something.
The only solution is for Cal Poly to provide housing accommodation for its fraternities on
campus, away from neighborhoods. The lifestyles in a residential neighborhood and Greek
life are not compatible. To that end, the city should be seeking a solution by pressuring Cal
Poly to provide housing for its Greek houses on campus and not allowing the neighborhoods
to become the default Greek Row.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission should revoke the use permits for 1236 Monte Vista
and 1304 Foothill because they have repeatedly not followed the conditions of the use
permits. If someone gets a ticket for driving 120 MPH, they pay a fine and could lose their
license. Those are the consequences of unsafe and illegal actions. Here, the fraternities are
paying the fine and continuing to break the laws without any sense of
responsibility. They’ve shown they don’t respect the law or the neighborhood. Their attitudes
continue to be that they “deserve” to have parties and the college experience and they are
paying a lot to be here. They are only here for a few years, so they tend to care more about
their experience while in college than the long term residents who call this area home. While I
agree they should be able to party and have fun, they should certainly be more considerate of
the neighborhood and either have events on campus or at a venue that supports that use. As
relatively short term residents, the fraternity members aren’t incentivized to follow the rules
since they will be gone by the time there are any real ramifications.
My family is actively looking to leave the neighborhood, but in the meantime we continue to
be impacted. It makes me especially sad for my neighbors who have lived in the
neighborhood their entire lives and are too old to uproot everything and move. I’m hoping that
by denying the use permits, it will force Cal Poly to seriously look at implementing a Greek
Row on campus rather that continuing to make it an issue for the City and residents to deal
with.
The Clerk may provide you with my email so you can contact me if you need more
information. I do not want to be publicly identified because I am afraid of retaliation by
fraternity members, which has happened to several people in the neighborhood already. I
also don’t want to be negatively targeted by members as it relates to my employment at Cal
Poly.
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Thank you,
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