HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/5/2017 Item 7 and 8, Hurd
Christian, Kevin
From:Dia Hurd <magoo282@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:vote on 5 september
To each member of the city council. I think this plan to discuss and VOTE on both the downtown concept
AND the mission plaza plans in the same night is ludicrous! These are two huge and very controversial
(except in yours and the city manager's mind) projects which I feel have not fully received the true public
hearings and discussions before this very quick vote. Again, it feels as it has since we moved here 10
years ago, that you truly do NOT value citizen comment and have done everything to substitute synthetic
and essentially meaningless charts and maps on walls with little stickie dots we are supposed to place on
plans and parts of the plans for these two areas. I always feel that you greatly disrespect us with
kindergarten level "participation" in lieu of meaningful open discussions of these plans. The downtown
concept plan was primarily developed by developers and the chamber of commerce. Then it was
presented to us as complete. I was there. NO ONE from the city was listening.
Ditto on the Mission Plaza plans. They look more like carnival spaces buttressed not by a Historic Mission,
but by the true "owners" of this city. not the citizens.
Please hold off on voting on these plans. They have yet to receive proper consideration. These are such
monumental changes to our beautiful and historic downtown and Mission, for which visitors have paid
huge sums to come and visit in the past, they are being destroyed. The Mission area is not a carnival
space. When we voted at the downtown concept plan in the dog and pony show, to nearly the last
participant, we voted strongly for no higher than 2-3 story buildings. Yet the city has begun and will
never cease allowing 4 and then 5 story buildings. it is already in place to continue this practice.
Visitors come here for the way it was, not the way this council is planning to push through. Honestly two
90 minute presentations. How sad that you continue to think your opinions are the only ones that
count. We used to have a representative council over the years. Now this one has abandoned that
concept.
And one last thing. You have all gone off the official track that was in place here all my decade
before. Folks at the podium HAD TO IDENTIFY that they lived in San Luis Obispo. Doesn't mean that
others cannot comment. But if you are continuing to rely on the outsiders to decide and the builders to
decide (who do not live here and pay taxes here) and renters who do not live here, but are sent to seem
to be in favor of this project and that project. Also, the bicycle club members who do not live here should
have no influence on the policies of this city. If they wish to change the city they DO live in, go
ahead. Just please refrain from offering your opinion on what WE RESIDENTS should do in OUR city. That
is not your right.
Again, please do NOT consider both of these monumental changes to our fair city without much greater
public participation, in OPEN forum, and with published results of the Real Opinions of Residents. To
ignore that kind of process on the 5th September would be another travesty of the first water.
dia hurd
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