HomeMy WebLinkAboutARC 01-21-15 Meeting Correspondence - BlakeJanuary 16, 2015
Marcus Carloni, Associate Planner
Architectural Review Commission
Re: 323/353 Grand Ave
File No. ARC 25 -13
RECEIVED
CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
JAN 21 2015
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
We are writing to oppose the proposed development at the above mentioned address on Grand Ave.
We are residents of the Monterey Heights neighborhood and my husband and I have lived here since
1989. Before that the house was occupied by my husband's family since 1955. We have seen our once
quiet neighborhood deteriorate into what is essentially party central.
The proposed development only serves to further deteriorate the quality of our neighborhoods. What
we have are 4 "single- family" residences, which we all know will not house families. Each house will
have 4 bedrooms with 3 or 4 full bathrooms, and media rooms and family rooms which can easily be
converted to bedrooms.
According to your report each house will occupy about 50% of the lot, this does not factor in the garage
space and decks, which adds almost 800 square feet to the footprint of each house. Then, somehow the
speculator wants to squeeze in parking for 16 students or more likely 20 students once all the media
rooms and dens get converted.
We invite the members of the ARC to have a look at the parking nightmares that these developments
create. Examples such as the PUD at the corner of Grand and McCollum, across the street from our
house, the development on the North side of McCollum, West of Grand Avenue, the Leroy Court, just to
see how poorly the parking and traffic circulation is, including the public streets. The kids living there
park in the common driveway because they can't park in the street, as their on- street parking permits
have all been used up. They do not park in the garages, as that would require cars to be moved every
time they needed to get out of their garage to drive to Cal Poly. This indicates that there are more than
four students living in each of these houses.
This proposed development optimistically presumes that the students will park 2 of the resident vehicles
in their respective garages and the other two in their driveways. Any review of this neighborhood of
students during the school year will show that such optimism shows a complete lack of understanding of
how the student society works. Based on reality, the 4 houses will allow 2 cars per house to park onsite
for a total of 8 resident vehicles rather than the 16 indicated. The inadequately sized, spaced and
impossible to back out of "GUEST" parking will be filled by 6 of the remaining residents leaving 2 to park
in the street along with the 2 of the 8 guest parking permits, leaving 6 permits for visitors that can't park
in front of these units because South bound Grand Avenue has a no parking bike lane/ Where are these
poor deprived students to park? Certainly not on McCollum Street, it is already inundated with way to
many single family resident student cars, both East and West of Grand Avenue.
Why this City continues the fictional belief that R -1 zoning equals single family residences is beyond us.
It is past the time to continue this false assumption. If the new structure is not going to be occupied by
the owner, then the student housing should be treated as such and require parking that would be
required for apartments, including ADA parking requirements and fire department requirements. Sub-
standard lots approved by our City for a developer who is not going to live in any of the units nor care
one whit about the mess that he has created, does not deserve any other breaks. This development
would be better handled if the units were single story, which 95% of the neighborhood was until the City
approved the two story monstrosities that lie East, West and North of this proposed project. The units
should be required to honor the 24% Living Space Average of the current neighborhood. That would
take care of all of the parking issues and provide a place for the garbage cans to be stored at each unit.
The other issue that has not come up is the issue of garbage cans. Right now at the corner of Grand and
McCollum there are about 8 garbage cans that show up on the curb on trash pickup day. Two days after
trash pickup there are still about 4 cans on the curb and these cans stay on the curb the rest of the
week. When we call the city to complain they tell us that it is hard to cite anyone because they don't
know who the cans belong to. How is this going to change for this new development? The City police
department is johnny on the spot when it comes to ticketing those who are parked without a permit,
including a permanent resident who forgot to put the permit on the mirror for one reason or another.
But it seems the city just can't seem to figure out who's garbage can is who's. Maybe we should have
the address of each house, painted on each of the cans in large letters so there is no question who it
belongs to.
This letter does not address the fraternity /sorority issue. The noise from the additional students, their
vehicles, their parties, their trash or any of the other issues caused by housing way to many immature
kids in what used to be a nice residential neighborhood.
Please deny this project or at the very least significantly reduce the size and scope of the project.
Sincerely,
Karen & Berk Blake
blakekaren @sbcglobal.net
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