HomeMy WebLinkAbout11_13_2024 Item 5a, SmithFrom: carolyn smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2024 11:19 AM
To: Advisory Bodies
Subject: Planning Commission - Agenda 5a - Goal Setting Priorities
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Dear Planning Commissioners,
As you are aware, there have been many Cal Poly fraternities illegally operating in several R-1 and R-
2 neighborhoods adjacent to Cal Poly. There are now so many that the Community Development
Director has expressed her staff is insufficient to effectively deal with these illegal
operations. Apparently, Cal Poly isn't helping the city with this problem, so they will continue and
perhaps even spread further into more neighborhoods. These illegal operations are creating
significant disturbances to the residents living in these neighborhoods, frankly destroying their peace
and safety with large parties with live bands and hundreds of attendees.
Historically, the city has regulated certain activities in neighborhoods to preserve quality of life for
residents living in these neighborhoods which is clear by the city's codes relating to fraternity
operations in residential neighborhoods. However, if these illegal operations are beyond the ability of
our city staff to manage and regulate, it seems prudent to request funding to hire more staff to deal
with this problem.
Consequently, since you are the city's governing body that issues and monitors Conditional Use
Permits (CUP) for Cal Poly fraternities, it would be helpful if during your goal setting priorities, you
could include funding for additional staff for the Community Development Department to develop a
new program to handle Cal Poly Greek Life operations in the City. It could be on a temporary basis
until this current spread of illegal fraternities is resolved, and/or it could continue to augment ongoing
neighborhood enforcement for this and other neighborhood quality of life problems in the future. Our
city population has grown from all the new building, as has Cal Poly's continued increased enrollment,
creating more challenges for an already stretched Code Enforcement Staff. Therefore, providing
more enforcement staffing for this and other problems could help all neighborhoods maintain a safe
and peaceful quality of life in the long term. Director Tway could provide you with how many new staff
members she'd need in order to deal with this problem and perhaps other ongoing enforcement
problems in neighborhoods.
The illegal fraternity operations are a vital issue in residential neighborhoods since if this problem
continues to spread, these neighborhoods will become totally unlivable for anyone other than partying
students. They are nearly there now in some areas with long-term residents being forced out of their
life-long homes because they can't live with the fear for their safety and the constant
disturbances. Considering our city is able to find funds for other programs not nearly as destructive
for residents as this, it would be a shame if the lack of funding was the cause of the further demise of
neighborhoods near Cal Poly and beyond as it spreads.
Thank you for your consideration.
Carolyn Smith
45 year SLO City resident