HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/19/2018 Item 4, Schwartz
Purrington, Teresa
From:Kenneth Schwartz <kschwartz25@gmail.com>
Sent:Thursday, November 15, 2018 9:28 PM
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:Subject: ARC Meeting, 19 November 2018
Attn: Architectural Review Commissioners Amy Nemcik, Richard Beller, Brian Rolph, Micah Smith
Angela Soll, Christie Withers, Chairman Allen Root
You have before you a classic example of the ineptitude of our current planning staff in understanding exactly
what your Architectural Review Commission is charged with accomplishing. Neighborhood compatibility and
building scale. I pray and my neighbors pray with me that your commission has the backbone and fortitude to
set the record straight on the original permit approval and resoundingly deny the request for "original permit
revision."
"Original permit revision???" What a bunch of gobble gook! The "original" building permit issued for the
construction of an R-1 residence is completely out of scale with neighboring residences, requires exceptions to
zoning requirements - especially with respect to building setbacks and reasonable sightlines for safely parking
vehicles on site as well as street parking for visitors and service vehicles, and the impact this out-of-scale
structure has on the grand vista of our community "edge" from south-bound lanes of Highway 101. And the
Planning Staff wants to allow more?? Does our staff have any architectural training at all?
The changes proposed in this application only exacerbate the problems generated by the structure proposed
in the original application.
The Monterey Heights subdivison was established in the early 1920's. Lot sizes, street widths and other
subdivision characteristics were of a different scale; cramming oversized structures to provide living quarters
for non-traditional families only exacerbates the decline of SLO neighborhoods of which Monterey Heights
was a proud pioneer.
Yet, with all of this base history, our planning staff lauded this incompatible structure and recommended
approval. How very, very, very sad!!! This is not architecture; this is chaos!
Commissioners, please do your job; deny this request!
Kenneth E. Schwartz, FAIA
Acting Dean Emeritus, Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design
201 Buena Vista
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
A bit of history . . . . I was Mayor of our City for ten years during which the ARC was originally formed. It wasn't an easy birth. Telling someone what they could and couldn't do
with their own building that required an aesthetic/environmental "fit" with surrounding structures was a tough sell. As an architect myself, I was skeptical. But another
architect, Ethan Jennings, had a client who wanted to build a commercial office building on a then parking lot running between Monterey and Higuera Streets in the shadow of
the Anderson Hotel. The client was a realtor who wanted to maximize floor area and make an architectural "statement." The west façade of the proposed building was
presented as mirror glass. Try to visualize that!! The town flipped and San Luis Obispo had an ARC at the next City Council meeting. KES
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