HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/18/2017 Item 14, Clark
Christian, Kevin
From:Mike Clark <clark4slo@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, July
To:Harmon, Heidi; Gomez, Aaron; Pease, Andy; Rivoire, Dan; Christianson, Carlyn
Cc:Gallagher, Carrie; Christian, Kevin
Subject:Council Meeting -- 18 July 2017 -- Item 14
Mayor Harmon and Council --
There are many reasons to be cautious in approaching the San Luis Ranch development,
and you have already heard or read about most of them. The most obvious ones are that
with the project will come more traffic than our road infrastructure can support, more
unknowns for our water supply, and serious questions about our water and sewer
infrastructures’ ability to carry the additional loads.
My concern, and one that I have not seen addressed, is that you and the voters may
think that you are approving a net gain of 580 additional homes to our housing inventory
and that approximately 1,160 (two adults per house/condo) who live and/or work in town
will find a home in town. Who could be against that?
However, I ask you to consider the ultimate impact of the commercial development
aspect of the project. The developer tells us that San Luis Ranch will ultimately add a 200-
room hotel, 200,000 sq ft of commercial space, and 150,000 sq ft of office space. Do we
have any idea what that means in the way of adding new workforce jobs to our town?
No doubt, you and the city staff have access to more comprehensive planning figures
than I do, but from a layman’s search of various Internet sites, I have come up with a
rough estimate for workforce staffing of San Luis Ranch’s projected commercial
development(s). At build-out, I believe that San Luis Ranch will generate +/- 1,100 new
jobs for a workforce that will then need workforce housing.
Keep in mind that those are new jobs that do not currently exist in San Luis Obispo. If
my calculations are close (see below how I got this approximation), we will have gone
through the process of thinking we are helping “solve” our housing shortage, but all that
we have done is tread water. We will have added workforce housing for 1,160 +/- and then
followed up adding 1,100 people to the workforce who will then need workforce
housing. Have we really solved anything?
This does not strike me as smart planning. I realize that my numbers could be way off –
reality could be better or worse than I calculate. However, I believe that you owe it to
yourselves and our residents to think about it and find a more accurate estimate than I can
make – or perhaps a better project. If you do not, we may generate more unintended
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consequences for future generations to deal with.
Thank you for your consideration and good luck with making a good decision.
Mike Clark
San Luis Obispo
Assumptions and Calculations
a. A 200-room three-star hotel would have a staff of 8 per 10 rooms or 160 employees; a four-
star hotel, 12 per 10 rooms or 240. I doubt we will have a four-star hotel, and even a staff of 160
seems high to me. However, I am not in the business and will simply offer that as a starting
point.
b. A total of 200,000 sq ft of commercial space could be almost anything but seems to be in the
range of one employee per 300 to 600 sq ft. Using the more conservative 600 sq ft per employee
yields approximately 330 new employees, but it could be a much higher number.
c. An office space of 150,000 sq ft is a little easier to estimate and seems in the range of one
employee per 150 to 250 sq ft. Once again, being conservative and using 250 sq ft per employee
yields roughly 600 new employees. This could also be a higher number.
Adding the above numbers up (600 + 330 + 160) yields approximately 1,090 new jobs at San
Luis Ranch. If all of those new jobs are filled by people living at San Luis Ranch, we will have
added homes for a mere 70 people more than will be employed at the Ranch.
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