HomeMy WebLinkAbout8/21/2018 Item 17, Anderson
Christian, Kevin
From:Bob Anderson <banderso@rain.org>
Sent:Monday, August
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Zoning regulations on Monterey Street -- as well as height, density and other factors
in other parts of the city
Ladies and Gentlemen of the City Council,
I urge you to be cautious in changing zoning regulations of Monterey from Santa Rosa to Pepper and NOT to let it
become a high-rise street. I agree additional development, both somewhat taller and more dense than existing
development, would be possible and desirable, but I very much hope it would be considerably more sensitive than what
has happened downtown. A blanket 75-foot height limit, regardless of what benefits might be offered as justification, is
a terrible idea.
Buildings that rise straight up from the sidewalk with laughably minimal public space have already done much to destroy
the openness and charm of downtown San Luis Obispo. I urge you to set much more stringent downtown requirements
for staggered setbacks, upper-floor step-backs, large plaza and terrace dedications, broad pedestrian passageways, and
building heights of no more than three or four floors except in the most unusual cases. Where density would provide
large numbers of truly affordable living units would be one such exception for height that I could accept — in
moderation, and always within other restrictions on visual impact.
I also do not believe that downtown should be the location for new density. Jobs, after all, are not concentrated
downtown. As businesses grow on the south side of San Luis Obispo, I hope the city will look at revising the General Plan
to allow and encourage considerably more dense development, both commercial and residential, down Broad Street,
down South Higuera, south of the South Street Hills, near the airport (as airport regulations allow, of course) — on the
south side of the city generally — and not allow potential development areas to be filled with the sprawl of single-family
detached housing. Some of the great cities of the world offer examples for our humble little burg to follow: Paris has
put its skyscrapers outside the center at La Defense. London is growing upward in the East End. San Francisco is rising
and cramming in the previously underused area south of Market without destroying the beloved traditional city north of
Market. If we must grow, we don’t have to destroy the village to save it (if any of you are old enough to remember that
phrase from Vietnam).
I hope you will pause in your thinking long enough to realize that these issues are on the cusp of creating a divide the
likes of which I have never seen in the 45 years I’ve lived in San Luis Obispo.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration,
Bob Anderson
1071 Islay St., San Luis Obispo
(805) 541-1844
banderso@rain.org
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