HomeMy WebLinkAbout8/25/2025 Item 4a, Hamlin (2)
Advisory Bodies
Subject:FW: ARCH-0451-2024 Cultural Heritage Committee Hearing Aug.25, 530 pm
From: Robin Hamlin <
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 2:42 PM
To: Hanh, Hannah <hhanh@slocity.org>
Cc: Advisory Bodies <advisorybodies@slocity.org>; Jim Thane < ; German Auto
< ; Rick Griswold < ; Rob Durham < ;
Jon Svehla < ; Joslyn Amato < ;
Subject: Re: ARCH-0451-2024 Cultural Heritage Committee Hearing Aug.25, 530 pm
Hi Hannah,
Thank you for the acknowledgement and the actions you have taken. Would you please also send this
email to the staff members from the other departments and divisions to whom you sent my previous
email? Just to be sure, will my email be seen by all the board members before the Cultural Heritage
Committee hearing, and members of the subsequent hearings? If not, I may ask for a local person
involved to attend the hearing and read my email comments aloud if I cannot do that myself, as I live in
Santa Barbara. I would like to be sure that everyone attending the hearing, including the developers etc
and all the city staff area are aware of these concerns and input.
When I read the 4a section in the link, it wasn’t clear to me what and when are the subsequent hearings.
Can you please elaborate?
Another observation about the traffic in the area: Every driver living there will use Pacific Street to access
the residents’ parking lot and will have to deal with the awkward diagonal intersection of Pacific, Walker,
and Higuera Streets. Pacific is a narrow two way street with parking on both sides and I know that drivers
in that block slow down when they approach oncoming drivers due to narrowness of their lane whenever
there are parked cars on both sides. It’s a little dangerous and the developers may have overlooked
this. Why not be safer and have a second entry driveway on Walker Street? Please do not cave in to the
additional cost and loss of a few parking spaces. Make safety and smart planning the priority. It also
appears that the alley may have a parking lot entrance or utility easement which would be extremely
tight. Residents might start using it too. That alley would get much more use, approaching that of a full
size public street, to say nothing of all residents having to cross the alley between the parking lot and the
apartment building. Traffic southward along Pismo toward Walker and on toward High Street and/or
Higuera will face awkward three-street diagonal intersections that may need special planning to bear the
traffic safely. Those intersections are a short half block from the development but will certainly be
impacted by all the new residents and restaurant customers.
With 49 apartments, there are likely to be upwards of 80 vehicles owned by residents, plus those of their
guests, and dozens of bicyclists in the area. They’ll need and take more than 54 parking spaces. Cyclists
run stop signs and autos slide to stops. Please reconsider the safety of providing absolutely excellent
driver and pedestrian visibility at intersections, both right on the block and a half block away, and at
driveways to the parking lots. May I also suggest there be NO street trees immediately adjacent to
pedestrian crossing areas, street lights, or any driveways. Trees and shadows obscure pedestrians at
1
night especially when street lights are above the tree canopies. Again, you must consider the
environmental impacts and common sense issues, even if no CEQA mandates are followed or required
by the exemption given.
As planned, this dense “multi-family” building has little if any soft green space, no children’s play space,
and is sprinkled with trees surrounded by hardscape and raised steel planters with shrubs like you’d see
at an office building or mall. This does not represent the characteristic home style of the neighborhood
or SLO in general. It retains a commercial, non-residential, feel. The central open courtyard probably
won’t serve as a common space of rest and relaxation because of its lack of privacy and the feeling of
being observed while in it. Patios facing Walker Street will get the oncoming afternoon winds that this
section of town is known for.
Lastly, again as an historical note, in the 1969 flood of San Luis Creek, our office at 1325 Archer (my
father’s office for Bailey Bridges, Inc., back then) on the corner of Pacific and Archer, had a high water
mark on the front door that was about 20” above ground level.
Thank you.
Robin Hamlin
Property Owner, 1325 Archer and adjacent parking lot on Pacific Street
2