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Home My WebLink About5/26/2026 Item 5a, Cooper Allan Cooper < To:CityClerk; E-mail Council Website Subject:Letter To The San Luis Obispo City Council Attachments:505_25_26...lettertocouncil.pdf Dear City Clerk - Would you kindly forward the letter attached below to the SLO City Council? This letter pertains to their May 26, 2026 meeting when they will have the opportunity to review Agenda Item 5A "Code Enforcement Priorities - Safe And Livable Neighborhoods And Housing" We would also like this letter to be placed in the City's Correspondence File. Thank you! - Allan Cooper 1 The City is proposing to pull back on enforcement and potentially allow fraternities within those same residential neighborhoods that the Planning Commission found were harmful, and extend the allowance of fraternities into more areas throughout the neighborhoods. Please email the City Council immediately and ask them to: 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: May 26, 2026 Council Meeting Public Hearing Item 5a) "Code Enforcement Priorities – Safe And Livable Neighborhoods And Housing” From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: May 25, 2026 Honorable Mayor and Council Members - The City experienced a fairly signiﬁcant decrease in noise party complaints from 2,896 in 2007 to 1,729 in 2013. Around the same time, a signiﬁcant number of beds opened on the Cal Poly campus. In 2006, 3,600 students lived on campus (about 20 percent of enrolled students) and 2013, 7,241 students lived on campus (about 37 percent of enrolled students). The number of students in 2026 living on campus now stands at 8,000. However there are nine modular residential halls currently under construction and these will deliver 4,200 more beds. This would raise the total number of students living on campus to 12,400 or 50% of the total student population. This should result in a further decline in off-campus noise complaints. Therefore: •we urge you to continue meaningful enforcement against illegal fraternity operations within residential neighborhoods. Fraternity and sorority houses should continue to be required to have Conditional Use Permits.granted by the City of San Luis Obispo. These fraternities and sororities should only be located in R-3 and R-4 zones (SLOMC 17.10.020/17.86.130). •we reject overlay zones or zoning changes that accommodate fraternity expansion into residential neighborhoods. Based on staff’s cursory review, overlay zones are relatively uncommon in other college towns as a standalone regulatory tool . •even though a review of investigation and enforcement activity since March of 2024 indicates that more than 100 unique properties or reported locations have been associated with suspected fraternity or sorority land use or use permit violations, reﬂecting the broad scope of this enforcement issue citywide, the City should continue to uphold our General Plan policies to protect neighborhood livability. •we recommend adopting Santa Clara’s “annual walkabout” with university staff and students, police and code enforcement. Groups of these individuals walk door-to-door to discuss being good neighbors. This program does not speciﬁcally address Fraternity or Sorority houses, but is a geographically based program addressing university related neighborhood wellness concerns. Thank you!