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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/27/2018 Item 11, Yost Purrington, Teresa From:Jenn Yost <jyost@calpoly.edu> Sent:Monday, November 26, 2018 10:37 PM To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Codron, Michael Subject:Agenda item 11 Council Meeting 11/27/2018 Hello City Council, I am writing to you about the re-zoning of upper Monterey St with the Downtown C-D Zoning. My name is Jenn Yost and I live at 1243 Palm St. This zoning change effects the lot immediately adjacent to my property. I am asking that you vote not not to move forward with the re-zoning for the following reasons (and these are different reasons than those I voiced at the last Council meeting). As Michael Codron informed us at the last City Council meeting where this issue came up, the re-zoning of Monterey St came as somewhat of an afterthought to the zoning update changes. He informed us that this portion of the zoning update did not go through the rigorous public process that the rest of the zoning update went through. This means that if you move ahead with this change, you are doing so without a transparent public process. As such, you do not have support from the people that this immediately effects. Michael Codron or the City Attorney (I can’t remember which) also informed us that once you apply the Downtown overlay to any area of town, it is nearly impossible to downzone it. I think the two points above are problematic because the area plan for upper Monterey St has not been completed. It is on the list of things to do, but has not yet been funded. Changing the zoning to this area now is putting the cart before the horse. It could be that after we go through the effort of thinking about what future we want for Monterey St, that we decide the downtown zoning is appropriate, but we do not know that at this point. Most importantly, putting the downtown overlay on Upper Monterey is UNPRECEDENTED in our City’s zoning and we shouldn’t do it without careful consideration. There is no where in our current city zoning where a C-D zoning is adjacent to an R3 or less zoned lot. C-D zoning only ever shares a block with public facilities, offices, and only rarely with an R4 lot. There is also no where in the city where the C-D zoning is immediately adjacent to a historic district. The proposed zoning changes to upper Monterey would do just that. First, they would split the blocks on both sides of Monterey with vastly different zoning on opposites sides of the same block. This is particularly problematic because no where in the City’s design guidelines is that kind of disparity addressed (because it does not currently exist in our city). By splitting the blocks along upper Monterey St, you would be putting C-D zoning on the same block as R3 lots in a historic district. Again, this might be a fine idea for the future, but wouldn’t we also then want new design guidelines to address the transitions between these two types of neighborhoods that I think we all value? Without new design guidelines, the zoning change could result in very bad development. It seems worth careful thought about how we gain all the benefits of up- zoning while also preserving historic neighborhoods. Applying the C-D zoning without that legwork is likely to result in conflict. I am making the argument to be thoughtful about this and engage the community in the planning of this area before you create a zoning change that cannot be reversed. I am in my 30ies and I teach at Cal Poly. I am lucky enough to own my house in the area. I want Monterey St to be a thriving vibrant area of town. I want more density in this area. I want more affordable housing in San Luis but I think we stand to loose more than we gain by moving ahead with this zoning change at this point in time. 1 I am grateful that the council has been considering ways to ensure that residential development of this area serves the people we are trying to accommodate with our housing efforts. I think those are good options moving forward, but until we participate in transparent public planning the development of new design guidelines we should not move forward with the C-S zoning on upper Monterey St. Here is a screen shot of the zoning map showing that C-D zoning is not adjacent to R3s or historic districts. The areas in red here are the areas along Monterey St up for C-D zoning. They are adjacent to the Mill St Historic district and R3 lots. The Cit’s design guidelines do not address these stark transitions since they do not currently exist any where else in town. I have to teach on Tuesday evenings so cannot attend the Council meeting. Thank you for taking this into consideration and thank you all for your service. Best, Jenn Yost --- Jenn Yost, Ph.D. Fall 2018 Office Hours Mon 1 - 3pm, Wed 10-12, Thurs 10-11 Herbarium: Mon 3 - 5, Fri 9 - 11 & 1 - 3 pm 2 Assistant Professor of Botany Director, Hoover Herbarium Biological Sciences Dept Fisher Bldg 33-363 Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407 jyost@calpoly.edu 805-756-5869 3