HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/5/2017 Item 12, Yucikus
Christian, Kevin
From:Stanley J. Yucikas <syucikas@calpoly.edu>
Sent:Tuesday, July 04,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:San Luis Ranch Project
To The San Luis Obispo City Council concerning the matter of the proposed San Luis Ranch Project.
The General Plan of our city calls for any development to conform to the following condition: Any Project
must be in keeping with the character of the community. Currently our community does not provide an
adequate number of units to support its current workforce. As a result the current character of our city is one
that is lacking in this type of housing and it can only be assumed the the City Council would wish to mitigated
this condition.
The currently proposed San Luis Ranch Project, while better than nothing with regards to workforce housing,
is by no means a remedy. It is clearly evident that the current standards for High Density Residential Housing
contained in the City's General Plan's Land Use Elements directly contributes to this condition. Housing
requires land and if higher densities are not allowed three things happen; urban sprawl at the expense of
agricultural land, a band-aid and a kiss, or nothing. The council should recognize that it's faced with a choice
between sprawl and higher density in order to correct the current condition of inadequate work force
housing. It's that simple.
There any number of project types, that when examined closely, clearly provide for a high quality standard of
living in a high density environment. Please feel free to look at one such example that is currently undergoing
review in the city of Toronto, Canada ( http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2016/06/design-review-panel-digs-bigs-
mountain-king-west ). This example is presented as but one a way to; 1. Provide an avenue out of the current
shortage of workforce housing, 2. Avoid urban sprawl, 3. Maintain the character of the community with a
project that is designed around and with-in our natural landscape, 4. Provide a development that is
conveniently located to current city services such as waste treatment, transportation, shopping, and freeway
accessibility with the construction of the Prado overpass with ingress egress facilities to Madonna Plaza, and
finally 5. Smart built to include housing for seniors, low income, as well as families with children with day care,
recreational common areas and event areas all located within the footprint of the project area. This all
screams a high quality living environment and when coupled with the fact that the site sits within walking
distance to all kinds of retail shopping and the city's public transportation routs it presents its self as a project
that would be attractive to all.
In all fairness, after attending two meetings of the Draft Environmental Impact Review conducted by the
Planning Commission I reached out to the developers representatives who told me that they could not
consider such a project due to the constraints of the City's current General Plan. I could certainly understand
their position and only hope that the City would be open to a discussion of a higher density concept and
would be willing to discuss such with anyone wishing to learn more about this approach.
Sincerely,
Stanley Yucikas
1
MA - Geography
1756 Partridge Drive
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
805-544-7669
syucikas@calpoly.edu
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