HomeMy WebLinkAboutComment Received 06-30-2017 - Avila Ranch (General) (Sutherland)
From: Lisa Sutherland <
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2017 5:20 PM
To: Davidson, Doug; Advisory Bodies
Subject: Avila Ranch Project concerns
This is a copy of the letter sent to you all by my veterinarian that lives around the corner from us. I agree and feel the same concern to these points he
has made. Pulling out of our Mello Lane and periodically pulling out from Davenport Creek road is already risky at times. There are definite blind
spots and adding traffic on Buckley road will I am afraid exasperate the dangers of this. Another concern for the development and this is not
confirmed but I heard years ago from a reliable source that the area that the you want to build on was an old Chumash site and miden. You might
want to get that checked out. It would be at the site where there used to be an old homestead on the little hill off Buckley. The house is completely
gone now. I have pictures from when it was still standing but there is a dirt road that leads off of Buckley to the top of the knoll where the site is.
Lisa Sutherland
RECEIVED
4565 Mello Lane
CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
JUN 3 0 2017
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Good day Mr. Davidson and Members of the Planning Commission,
I am writing to document my objection to any further proceeding of the Avila Ranch Project.
While I appreciate the design of the site, and certainly recognize the need for affordable housing in
the community, I see several areas of concern that to date I have not seen addressed in a reasonable
way;
— Traffic;
Buckley road is already dangerous as it is.
There are three significant blind spots for traffic traveling on Buckley road, in that (at present speeds
of 50+ MPH) there is not an opportunity to properly see traffic entering from the south side of
Buckley road from Jesperson, Davenport Creek road, Mello Ln, Hidden Springs road and Thread
lane in time to respond.
The entry is even more hazardous for trucks and trailers, as they take a minimum of 10-12 seconds to
safely enter the road, and even longer if they are required to slow down due to livestock in the
trailers.
These same blind spots place a very significant risk to bicyclists and pedestrians on the road as well.
There is also no proper provision for the traffic of agricultural vehicles traveling on Buckley road.
When I moved here people would even ride their horses down the side of Buckley road, but to
attempt that now with the current traffic level would be impossible.
These current issues will be further compounded by the traffic associated with the Avila Ranch
project which is estimated to more than double to over 9000 cars per day once the project is
complete, and the extension of Buckley Road to Higuera Street is complete.
If you want visual evidence of the problem as it currently exists, just go to the corner of Buckley road
and Hwy 227 at 5 PM on a weekday.
The mitigations I have seen described regarding traffic for this project are only a minor widening of
Buckley road in the area of the Avila Ranch property itself. It seams unreasonable to me that one
could think widening one part of Buckley road, but not the entire road, can solve the increased traffic
and in fact it could make it worse by creating congestion points.
Even if the entirety of Buckley road were to be widened you would still be ruining the agricultural
character of the area, as anyone with a rural or agricultural pursuit would be discouraged because of
the traffic dangers and congestion.
To summarize;
0 The current situation is bad, and creates significant risks to the agricultural traffic and those
of us entering Buckley road from its south side as it is.
To add the traffic from the Avila Ranch project compounds those problems substantially.
• The rural boundary Buckley road offers the city would be destroyed.
2 — The southern boarder of the property is in a significant flood zone. No amount cleaning out creek
beds, etc. will mitigate the water levels that accumulate to over 2 feet in depth over Buckley/Vachel
roads during winter storms — making the roads impassable. The problem is downstream on the
opposite side of the road and cannot be mitigated completely by any efforts on the Avila property by
itself.
3 — The changes to the character of the area will have a direct and negative effect of those of us living
and working on the southern aspect of Buckley road.
As the owner of a veterinary facility which employs over forty tax paying individuals, I see a clear
threat to my business in that the animal owners of the community, especially those that own large
animals, will be discouraged from using our veterinary services as a consequence of the
inconvenience and dangers associated with travel on Buckley road.
Hopefully you can see this puts local jobs in danger, in addition to changing the rural character of the
green belt buffer area those of living to the south of Buckley road provide to the SLO community.
I request that this email be added to all appropriate files and records regarding the Avila Ranch
project, and also that it is individually provided to the members of the San Luis Obispo Planning
Commission.
3