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Home My WebLink About4-16-2019 Item 13, Various 13 signaturesCOUNCIL MEETING: ❑�107_01 ITEM NO.: %3 April 12, 2019 San Luis Obispo City Council 909 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Mayor Harmon and Council, RECEIVED APR 16 2019 SLO CITY CLERK When Mission Plaza was originally proposed in 1955, our residents, business owners, and community leaders didn't initially embrace the concept. Nor did they recognize the potential to reinvigorate the downtown in 1963 nor 1964. It took nearly 6 years after the closure of Monterey Street in 1966 to be designed, constructed, and opened to the public in its current configuration. Today, we recognize Mission Plaza as essential to the City's "sense of place". Along the way, we all came to understand that big ideas take time to come to fruition, and that community input from passionate stakeholders can produce incredible results that are embraced and enjoyed by everyone. As your council has recognized, Mission Plaza needs a makeover. You have assigned City staff to study and to propose solutions to a range of issues, including universal accessibility, public health and safety (loitering and vandalism), and much needed infrastructure upgrades, while meeting cultural/historic preservation and environmental regulation requirements. Staff has hired consultants and made plans that are appropriate for the work scope they were given. But the scope of work you provided was too limited. In the 2016 Plaza assessment, staff and the consultant teams were limited to the Plaza itself (Chorro to Broad) and the 'dogleg' of Broad and Monterey streets. The resultant solutions then became a "reshuffling of deck chairs," given the programming requirements. The Mission Plaza Concept plan of September, 2017 became a formalization of that exercise, and now we see capital projects being started based on that limited scope. We need to revisit the direction of the community and the Council, identify funding goals that can be supported by the community, and prevent making mistakes that we will be stuck with for the next 60 years. If nothing else, a pause affords an affirmation that all is well. But perhaps, a few new ideas will trickle out that make the Plaza renovation results far exceed the minimal delay that a reexamination will cause. As a group, we feel prior Council direction to staff was too limiting. We encourage Council to take a larger look. Consider the new elements that are now in place or quickly becoming a reality (e.g., SLO Museum of Art, the Palm and Nipomo parking structures, Monterey Place mixed-use, the Creamery, the SLO Repertory Theatre, etc.). How might the Plaza captivate visitors if our planning scope stretched from Chorro to Nipomo streets? Even if the funding is not identified for years, a unified vision can bring the community closer together. We also believe the Murray Adobe was given short shrift in the original planning exercise. As one of four city owned adobe structures from the Spanish Mexican Era and the one in the most prominent location, our responsibility is to commit resources for its long term preservation and to repurpose and activate this historic structure. To distinguish this resource in its setting and encourage public use of the park space as intended, needed public restroom facilities should be relocated to a more suitable location. We encourage you to direct staff to: • Delay current public restroom capital improvements and quickly gather current community input, • Encourage solving multiple problems with a single solution (e.g., combining new restrooms with an accessible path to the History Museum, etc.), • Invite local designers, planners, and stakeholders to conduct a short design charette with quick visuals for community discussion, then • Utilize visuals gained as marketing materials for community buy -in and revenue sourcing, and • Update the Mission Plaza Concept plan based on updated goals and information. Our group consists of adjacent land owners, nearby tenants, historians, architects and planners, designers, city leaders past and present, as well as friends of the Plaza. We offer our support to the Council and staff and welcome divergent ideas, concerns, and solutions. We ask you to simply hit the pause button, take a new look, and refocus the efforts to envision the Plaza for generations to come. Thank you for your consideration, V't Dean Miller Fran Seiple Br ce Fraser John Duirin V Robert Vessely Eric Me er Greg Wynn Bob Pavlik ,rd,11V arill =12 C;