HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/19/2017 Item 15, C Smith
Christian, Kevin
From:carolyn smith <cjsmith_107@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:City Council Meeting - September 19, 2017 - Item 15 - Avila Ranch Project
Mayor Harmon and Council members:
I would like to make a few comments regarding the Avila Ranch Project:
TRAFFIC AND AIR QUALITY (significant and unavoidable impacts): I have lived in the
Laguna Lake area for 37 years and drive the LOVR/Madonna/South Higuera area nearly every
day. With the addition of the Tolosa residential development, Home Depot, Target, Costco, and
the other commercial developments, the traffic congestion on the major arterials in the Southern
part of the city have become increasingly worse. Even after the completion of the 101
interchange improvements, traffic congestion on South Higuera, LOVR, and Madonna Roads exist
for much of the day. The 720 new residential homes planned for this project will only add more
vehicles on those roads and the mitigation of longer ques at intersections will only exacerbate
congestion. Traffic congestion is significantly important to residents' quality of life, as
demonstrated in the LUCE Update survey. Without properly preparing our road infrastructure for
the new projects passed and being proposed, congestion will become similar to many Southern
California areas, which is not why people choose to live in SLO. My daughter, who was raised
here, now lives in Orange County and during her last visit to SLO, she was shocked to see her
home town's congestion rising to the level of where she now lives.
Additionally, along with the additional traffic and congestion, comes diminishing air quality. You
can now see a haze of smog over our city as you drive into town. Is this truly what we want for
our lovely city? While growth is healthy and needed, it shouldn't be at the quick pace that is now
occurring and at the expense of the quality of life for which we all moved here—especially if
what is being built will not be affordable for our workforce.
BUCKLEY ROAD: This two-lane country road was not built for and is not prepared to handle
the amount of additional traffic this project will create. Not only will the additional trips from the
project (which I truly believe are sorely underestimated in the EIR) cause safety problems, but
when you open Buckley Road to South Higuera Street, it will encourage more cross city traffic,
making the road even more unsafe. With Buckley being in the county, it's widening is out of the
city's control, so as congestion increases, there will be little to nothing the city can do to help
alleviate the problem the city, by approval of this project, has created. The increased traffic on
this road will be particularly dangerous when you consider the farm and ranch vehicles turning
onto this fast-paced two lane road. Even with the minor improvements recently obtained from
the county at Davenport Creek Road, it will still be dangerous for large trucks and horse and
farm trailers turning onto Buckley Road. Furthermore, without the requisite bike lanes needed
for bike riding safety, the danger increases.
AFFORDABILITY: I find it very difficult to understand why some believe that there will be any
significant number of affordable homes. The percentage of homes that might be affordable are
small compared to those that will be sold at market rate prices. Building smaller homes does not
necessarily equate to cheaper housing. There are small homes all over this city that are selling
for $600,000.+. In fact, many condominiums in SLO are selling for over $500,000. Unless the
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city requires some sort of guarantee from the developer that a significantly higher percentage of
homes will be priced (not just designed) for our workforce, the market will rule the prices of
these homes. Further, when you consider the Community Facilities District (CFD) tax proposed
to be levied on these homes, (likely doubling each home's property taxes) our workforce families
will be priced out of this project. This will not fulfill the goal of creating housing our workforce
can afford to purchase, and begs the question, will it truly be worth diminishing our quality of life
for a handful of affordable homes?
Additionally, Cal Poly has increased its enrollment by over 1,000 students this year and will
continue to increase enrollment each year. Without sufficient on campus housing, many of the
new homes being built in this, and other projects, will be purchased by investors. In fact, I have
friends in real estate who are already receiving phone calls from out of town investors about
purchasing some of the proposed new homes in this project and San Luis Ranch for use as
rentals. If this council does not influence Cal Poly to build more on campus housing soon (not in
20 years), many of the new homes being built here will be marketed and sold to investors as
student rentals. The smaller designs will be perfect for that type of use. Much of our workforce
families or professionals can't compete on the open market with these types of home buyers
(even if they are given first option), so we will have just created more housing at high dollar
prices that only investors and out of towners can afford to buy. I'm afraid many who have
pleaded for affordable housing will be sorely disappointed when they realize these homes will be
out of their price range and all the significant impacts from this project, that we will all have to
endure, will be for naught.
This is a large project that will significantly impact those of us who currently live here and those
who will purchase the homes in this project. Let's make sure it will realistically fulfill the need for
workforce housing and not just be making false promises. If it can't provide what it promises,
then reduce the project so the significant impacts will be reduced.
Please keep in mind that many of us are not against change but believe in responsible change,
taking into account what our infrastructure can handle, while still providing our residents with
the quality of life for which they moved or want to move here. Once this large project, and
others, are built, it will be too late to get back what we have lost.
Thank you for your service and for your careful consideration of this project.
Carolyn Smith
SLO City Resident
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