HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-23-16 PC Correspondence - Item 2 (Smith)Lomeli, Monique
RECEIVED
Subject: RE: PC correspondence CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
MAR S 3 2016 Meeting: CC 03123/1 to
From: carolyn smith [ COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT item;
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 11:16 PM
To: Advisory Bodies
Subject: Planning Commission Meeting - March 23, 2016 -- Item 2, 1035 Madonna Road
Please include this correspondence in Agenda Correspondence for the March 23, 2016 Planning
Commission Meeting regarding 1035 Madonna Road, Item 2. Thank you.
I have lived in the Laguna Lake area for 37 years. Over the past 8-10 years, the
traffic in my area has become worse and worse as development has increased without
the much needed traffic infrastructure to accommodate the development. The Home
Depot, Costco, and the Target shopping Centers, along with the homes at DeVaul Ranch
and Rancho de Tolosa apartments, were all built without sufficient traffic circulation
improvements being made which resulted in 10 years of severe traffic congestion on
Madonna and the LOVR area. Now, even with the completed LOVR Exchange, traffic is
still congested on Madonna, South Higuera, and LOVR.
The San Luis Ranch development, with its proposed 500+ residential units, will cause
our already extreme traffic problems in this area to significantly worsen. There is no way
Madonna Road and LOVR arterials will be able to accommodate the traffic from this
much density. Furthermore, if you consider the cumulative effects from this project, the
proposed Madonna Senior Housing plus 250+ residential units, and the Avila Ranch
Development with its 720 residential units, all being proposed in the Southern portion of
the city, traffic will become gridlocked. While it is expected growth will increase traffic, it
is irresponsible planning to allow development to create dangerous and unsafe traffic
conditions. At the very least, this project, as with the Avila Ranch project, should require
the Prado Road extension to be completed at the very first phase of development. To
wait until several phases are built first is total disregard for the safety of existing and
future residents. We cannot continue to pack more traffic into already over -burdened
arterials and not expect severe consequences.
Parking in a project such as this can be problematic. Many residents own two or more
vehicles and there at least three or more vehicles in student rental homes. Back hauled
garages, as being proposed in part of this development, do not allow two vehicles to
park in the driveway (because there isn't one). Residents are then forced to park at the
curb in front of their homes for quick stops during the day. For those residents who do
not use their garage for vehicles—they use it for storage and other purposes—there will
be no off street parking at all, resulting in a large number of vehicles parked in
the street curbs day and night. A drive through Serra Meadows, particularly in evenings
and weekends, clearly demonstrates this problem. While some residents may use
bicycles, most will not and even those who use bicycles some of the time, will most
likely still own at least 1 to 2 vehicles. Large numbers of vehicles parked on each side of
narrow streets is dangerous to pedestrians and children living in the development as
well as bicyclists. It also causes a hazard for the safe passage of large emergency
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vehicles. Please consider these concerns when making decisions regarding circulation of
this project.
While everyone agrees our city needs "affordable" housing, we must recognize that as
long as Cal Poly remains far behind in building their on campus student housing, our city
will continue to suffer affordability problems, no matter how many new homes we build.
There are currently nearly 14,000 Cal Poly students and several thousand Cuesta
students renting homes in our city. These students are renting many homes that were
formerly our affordable family housing. As Cal Poly and Cuesta increased enrollment
over the past many years, without building adequate housing for their students, sales
and rental prices have escalated, thereby creating the housing affordability problem we
are now experiencing. While Cal Poly is currently building a long over -due dorm
complex, by the time it is completed in 2018, it will not provide much housing relief
since increased enrollment will take up a block of those new beds. Cuesta provides no
housing at all for their students, therefore, as their enrollment increases each year,
there will be more Cuesta students living in the city. If Cal Poly would build, more on -
campus housing sooner, rather than later (10-20 years from now is not soon enough),
and temporarily suspend enrollment increases, many of the homes that are now rented
by students would again become available for families to purchase or rent at more
affordable prices. While some of the new homes being proposed in this project may be
required to be ""affordable" (at least by design), many will sell at market prices. They will
be purchased by investors, who can afford to pay top dollar for the homes, and then be
rented to 5 or more students at top dollar rental prices. Families simply cannot compete
with these sale prices or rents, therefore, affordable housing will continue to be a
problem. If we truly want to solve our affordable housing problem, we must resolve the
lack of on campus student housing. It is the gorilla in the room that no one is willing to
tackle.
Carolyn Smith
San Luis Obispo
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