HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-27-2016 PC Correspondence Item 2 (Benson)From:
To:
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rcohen@51OCItV.Drg
Advisory Bodies
Edward Benson
RE: PC communication
Planning Commission - 1101 Monterey St. Project
I,4i CP- -I ED
JAN 2 8 2016
I am a physician, a specialist in psychiatry, and have lived in SLO since 1994. 1 came here to work at CIVIC, from which I
ultimately retired. I own a house in the City. I have always been attracted to SLO due to its intimacy and local beauty.
especially like the downtown the way it has been, like a small version of Carmel.
Therefore I am disturbed to learn that your Planning Commission is again considering tall buildings downtown. The ones
already approved are too much. Adding more tall buildings will destroy the character of SLO permanently. It is difficult
enough to deal with the plans of Cal Poly, but those needs are understandable with their decision to expand their
student population.
I don't think the City of SLO is in such great need for more income that you would literally destroy this city and what it
has represented until now. But that seems to be where you're going.
Adding a series of tall buildings to downtown will not only ruin the appearance of the City, but will create marked traffic
jams where none currently exist. It will make traveling around the downtown onerous. And it will be noisy. If you
continue with this trend I won't be going downtown much.
SLO, in my personal experience in visiting or living in many areas of the U. S., is quite unique. It offers a beautiful, quiet,
unhurried center of the City, such that is no longer in existence almost anywhere else in the U. S. That is what attracts so
many tourists and that is a large part of why I have chosen to permanently live here.
I certainly hope you will re- consider your very poor decision - making, which is destroying what we have here.
Edward Benson, M. D.