HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-17-2017 Item 12, DwyerCOUNCIL MEETING: -17-1 RF-EIVE0
ITEM NO.:
JAN 17 1017
S1.0 CITY CLERK
From: Gary Dwyer <
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2017 3:04 PM
Subject: Item 12 on January 17th meeting
To: E-mail Council Website cemai1counci1@s1ocity.org>
To: SLO City Council
Re: Appeal of 560 Higuera St. (South Town Eighteen)
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council,
Recent studies regarding the quality of life in San Luis Obispo have consistently indicated the
enjoyable 'small town feel' and the special relationship the town has with 'the creek'.
For many years there have been discussions as to how to improve and extend that special
relationship with the creek and all of the existing and proposed projects on Higuera street do nothing
to improve that relationship.Three projects on Higuera will do little or nothing to improve the cities
relation to the creek. They will continue to ignore any relation to the creek and we will continue to
have a 'special relationship' with a creek that is exactly two blocks long.
The three projects I speak of are the thirty-six modular units going in behind the Red House
(formerly a trailer park). The (not quite yet) proposal for the parking lot_ adjacent to The Ciopppino
restaurant and the more than four(4) storey building proposed for 550 Higuera.
These projects can not be simply considered on an individual basis. The city has the responsibility to
consider their cumulative effect on the neighborhood, the city, and the creek.
Of course, the appeal is only about one building, but the creek is about the city and how it thinks of
itself and how it presents itself. Token bushes at the top of the creek bank does absolutely nothing to
increase either viability or public access to the creek corridor. These projects should demonstrate we
care (increasingly) about our creek system and these projects simply turn their back on it in order for
private developers to maximize profit. This action is not in the public interest.
The proposed building at 560 Higuera is a naked attempt at maximizing profit with total disregard for
the community. It is possible to say this because the height is totally incompatible with the
surroundings. At Mor than 47 feet it just squeaks under the 50 foot limit where there are more
restrictions. It is simply too tall. There are dozens of three storey buildings in town that seem to turn
a very healthy profit so when the developer squeals and says that it. 'won't pencil out at three
stories', you don't have to believe him. The proof is all around you. If there are dozens of
three storey buildings in San Luis Obispo, there must be hundreds of two storey apartment buildings
that have been making tidy profits for decades.
The reason the developer wants to make it so tall is because of the parking and the proposed parking
is a joke. Tandem parking is not even an idea when you consider certainly some of the apartments
are going to be rented to students and every student has a car and that means 2 or three cars per
unit. College kids schedules being tied to the commercial spaces downstairs is impossibly uninformed
and a recipe for chaos. No matter how fast the parking garage on Nipomo gets built, the residents of
560 Higuera will not use it.
The ARC can fiddle and adjust colors and textures all it wants, but the mitigation of noise from the
balconies is only possible with solid masonry. Sound will travel over any panel, even if it is glass. Ask
any acoustic engineer or recall standing across the creek from Novo at night. Lots of buildings
have parking beneath, but they usually have a back wall, often for seismic rigidity, but also for safety
and security. It also means you don't shine your head lights into your neighbor's lives.
Dana street does a lot for the city. It provides seventy-five free parking spaces every day and they
are used primarily by people who work downtown. It is a capital idea that should be continued. (Even
after the Nipomo garage is finished.) Dana street has the Odd Fellows Hall, a Funeral Parlor, The
Community Foundation, a derelict city -owned adobe, commercial office space, single family houses,
apartments, and condominiums. It is exactly the kind of diverse and mixed-use neighborhood the
city is trying to encourage. It deserves more respect from its neighbors across the creek.
What this comes down to is this: The 560 Higuera project disrespects the neighborhood. It is too
large and too tall for the site and needs to be redesigned in a manner that recognizes and respects
city scale, the neighborhood, and the creek. When it is reduced in size. the parking problems will go
away.
Please uphold the appeal and send this project away.
Sincerely,
Gary Dwyer
Emeritus Professor of Urban Design
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, California