HomeMy WebLinkAbout06_28-29_2017 PC Correspondence - Avila Ranch (Godsey)
From: Melissa Godsey < RECEIVED
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2017 7:18 PM CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
To: Advisory Bodies JUN 19 2017
Subject: Avila Ranch Neighborhood Ste. 1' L
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Members of the SLO City Planning Commission,
My family and I live in Los Verdes II, and I'm writing to vigorously affirm our support for the Avila Ranch
neighborhood.
A brief overview of who we are as a family, and the demographic we represent:
I'm 33 years old, married to my husband Michael (a high school English teacher for the past 13 years in SLCUSD),
and together we have a 6 year old daughter, and a 1 year old son. This is my 20th year living in SLO County, 13th in
SLO City. June 2016 would have marked our exit from SLO city, but due to the sheer blessing and generosity of
family -friends of ours, we rent a home in Los Verdes II, walkable to the proposed Avila Ranch neighborhood. (Our
dear friends are renting us their property at well below market value, because they're loving and kind. The house next
door is renting for just about twice what we're paying, just to put it in perspective.)
Grateful though we are, our situation is also highly discouraging. As it stands now, rent in SLO is about $1,000 per
bedroom per month, which was feasible in college (bunk beds!), but not feasible for an average family of four, unless
my infant would stop teething and get a job already (freeloader!).
We desperately want to stay here in San Luis Obispo. Our church, my daughter's school, my husband's job ... this is
our community. Approving the Avila Ranch neighborhood would be a significant affirmation that our city actually
values families like mine, and wants to open a doorway for us to stay. The community has identified housing as a
major city priority—now is the time to demonstrate commitment to a responsible solution.
The housing gap is decimating our community. In the year 2016 alone, five different families in our circle of
community have moved out of state, and this doesn't count the other families who have relocated elsewhere within the
county or California. Since 2010 we've lost nearly all of our close friends to relocation. Neighborhoods in Colorado,
Tennessee, Texas, Oregon, and Washington are directly benefitting from an influx of hardworking, loving families
from SLO. Our loss is their gain.
A community that drives out its young familiesa community that doesn't make room for us—is a community that is
atrophying. If we truly value diversity, that must include economic and age diversity, and we must take the necessary
steps that make it possible for all of us to thrive. Avila Ranch is a big step forward in bringing us out of our
present housing deficit, and slowing the exodus of young families.
And now a (hopefully brief) word about the opposition.
Every time a neighborhood like Avila Ranch is proposed, you have people my parents' and grandparents' age fighting
tooth and nail against it, and it's maddening. The developer has worked tirelessly to address community feedback and
embrace our ideas for further improving the project, yet I hear the same rehashed complaints from the NIMBYs.
Complaints that have been addressed so many times over, it's shameful. Is the Avila Ranch Neighborhood
PERFECT? No. But neither am 1, and neither are you, and neither are the folks nit-picking every conceivable facet of
this neighborhood; perfection is, blessedly, not a requirement for existence.
The need for affordable housing in the city of SLO is clear; it's an inherited problem of leadership past—a wrong that
you're in the unique position of helping to right. I challenge you to own the problem you've inherited, and hope to see
you unanimously approve the Avila Ranch neighborhood in the spirit of responsibly and reasonably enabling all of us
to find our place in the town we give so much of ourselves to.
Melissa Jenna Godsey
El Mirador Court, San Luis Obispo
*so
Let's be Internet friends!
melissaienna.com
Twitter I Facebook I YouTube