HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-03-2016 Item Public Comment, PyburnCOUNCIL MEUTING: ?ITEM NO.;
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To: Maier, John Paul
Subject: RE: Water and housing
From: Marx, Jan APR 215 7..016
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 2:04 PM
To: susan pyburn
Cc: Maier, John Paul
Subject: RE: Water and housing
Thank you for your message, Susan. I am including our Assistant City Clerk in this response, so your email
can be posted on the city website as Public Comment for the next City Council meeting.
All the Best
Jan
From: susan pyburn [
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 11:58 AM
To: Marx, Jan
Cc: Ashbaugh, John; Christianson, Carlyn; Rivoire, Dan; Carpenter, Dan; Fowler, Xzandrea; Davidson, Doug
Subject: Water and housing
See attachment as follows...
April 24, 2016
Susan Pyburn
1061 Grove Street
San Luis Obispo. CA 93401
To: Honorable Mayor Jan Marx, City Council Members and Planning Commission:
The Water Forum held last week has promulgated numerous questions and various responses which
will not attempt to re -frame or acknowledge in detail. Since I was unable to attend due to having
received no written notice, my comments are based on my own sense of things as a resident of San
Luis Obispo, and a review of documents and reports which have been made available to me.
It is quite clear that we face a dire water shortage about which there are a range of views as to
severity and likely prospects. No one has a crystal ball. That said, residents are paying more and
using less while city officials push huge projects with no end in sight. All of them use water.
We also have a well documented housing crisis that precludes thousands of people who work here
from gaining access to housing.
I understand SLO is a tourist destination and that the city benefits financially from dollars spent here
as well as fees generated from development. My concern is that economic benefits (not just to city
coffers) severely weight planning decisions and cloud objectivity. Also, I don't believe there is a
shortage of hotel rooms.
Furthermore, I see little reason to trust the charts, models and consultants who seem to be
orchestrated to persuade the public that all is well and to just let things be managed by city officials.
In view of the ongoing drought and weather prognosis as well as water resources available in the
near future, development planning should be limited to housing that is affordable to the workforce at
every level. This overriding need is consistently overlooked and under -developed, negatively
impacting the local economy and overall civic health of our city, not to mention its appeal to tourists.
work at the homeless shelter and I know of many who are holding down jobs and sleeping at the
shelter (if they are lucky enough to get a bed there) because they do not have the wherewithal to
secure housing in our tight market.
The proposed project at Santa Rosa and Monterey can serve as an excellent model of sound
planning by eliminating the hotel and moving forward on ground floor retail that helps support low-cost
housing units to be developed by Peoples Self Help Housing. There is already a huge hotel planned
for upper Monterey Street.
Sadly, housing that is affordable to people of very modest means seems to be the last priority and
planned only in miniscule allocations. Despite repeated documentation, it appears that city officials
are not really concerned about the very real housing crisis ... Just like the drought.
In my view, your position, authority, and responsibility require you to address the needs of the people
who already live here... whatever their resources might be. It seems to me that this duty is obfuscated
by clouds spun by fat cats and big city dreams.
Thank you.
Susan Pyburn
'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never
forget how you made them feel.
— Maya Angelou
A Lens of Her Own www.aloho.us
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