HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-21-2016 Public Comment, Neumann
To: Maier, John Paul
Subject: RE: Keep Luneta Drive Closed To Through Traffic
From: Tom Neumann [
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 4:07 PM
To: Marx, Jan; Carpenter, Dan; Ashbaugh, John; Christianson, Carlyn; Rivoire, Dan
Cc: Ann
Subject: Keep Luneta Drive Closed To Through Traffic
Dear Mayor and City Council Members,
My wife and I own a home one block off Luneta Drive on S. Tassajara Drive. City Transportation Division staff is pushing
forward to open the now closed Luneta Drive to through traffic. We are very concerned and adamantly opposed to this
action for safety and quality of life reasons. We understand that traffic volumes could increase by 500 percent if Luneta
Drive is opened, thus destroying this delightful part of our neighborhood and creating significant safety issues.
We strongly encourage the City Council to place this issue on the agenda for an upcoming Council meeting.
I am a retired Caltrans transportation planner and hold a master's degree in city and regional planning from Cal Poly.
What the city is proposing is ill-conceived, given that the vision for Luneta Drive was formed some 50 years, that the city
has only hastily engaged the neighborhood on one occasion because we demanded it, and that the city has not
proposed a traffic study for the Foothill/Broad Street area. Public engagement and a traffic study must be done before
making such drastic changes to Luneta Drive.
The opening of Luneta Drive to through traffic will drastically alter the calm nature of the street. Luneta Drive was not
designed to accommodate traffic as Ramona Drive was. We travel Ramona Drive daily and it operates quite well, even
with the transit buses and commercial trucks. Luneta Drive, on the other hand, is hilly with
curves, attracts pedestrians, bicyclists, runners, dog walkers, and children. These folks know Luneta Drive provides some
safety that Foothill Blvd and Ramona Drive cannot and will never provide. We who are residents have already been
squeezed out by the vast amount of student rentals and encroached upon by student traffic, much of it reckless. Luneta
Drive's closed portion offers us the only respite we have from the constant student traffic in our neighborhood. Why
change that?
It is not students we are opposed to. Our own daughter who lives with us is a Cal Poly student. We ourselves are Cal Poly
graduates. It is the invitation for more student traffic in a residential neighborhood that is already saturated with
student rentals and student traffic. Do residents not matter in San Luis Obispo anymore?
Also of paramount concern is a dangerous intersection close to our home. There is a two-way stop sign at S. Tassajara
Drive and Luneta Drive (Luneta does the stopping). We have witnessed countless cars blow through that intersection
without stopping. Though traffic volumes are now low, it is a dangerous intersection because S. Tassajara Drive is a
steep hill and many students live in the area. The majority of vehicles speed through the intersection, failing to see that
there is a two-way stop. We can see the intersection from multiple windows in our home. Opening Luneta Drive to
through traffic will dramatically increase traffic volumes at this intersection and create a recipe for disaster.
Neighborhood residents were told by SLO Transportation Division Director Tim Bochum that he has no choice but to
open Luneta Drive to through traffic based on the 1960s plan unless the City Council directs him to do otherwise. We ask
the City Council to discuss this issue at an upcoming Council meeting before it is too late.
Thank you
Tom and Ann Neumann
130 S. Tassajara Drive, San Luis Obispo