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8 November 2017
Dear Members of the Architectural Review Committee: �� �� �
The Jack House Committee submitted this letter to your 13 July 2015 joint hearing with the
Cultural Heritage Committee on the San Luis Square proposal. After presentations by what was
then PB Companies, the Jack House Committee had drafted and unanimously approved the
following letter.
Our committee raised four issues with you: degradation of the Jack property's protected
lightshed and viewshed; scale of the project that would overwhelm and design that would clash
with the Jack Garden and House, Carriage House, and Wash House; threat to the Jack Garden
and structures by adjacent unmonitored excavation and construction; and the destruction of a
historic walnut tree. Since, over the last two years, only the last of these concerns has been
addressed. I respectfully submit this letter again.
Kathi Settle, Chair
The Jack House Committee
City of San Luis Obispo
13 July 2015
To the ARC and CHC:
The Jack House Committee is deeply concerned by several aspects of the San Luis Square
proposal. While we are eager to see downtown development projects that will draw pedestrians
along Marsh Street, they must not come at the expense of the Jack House and the Jack Gardens,
two of the City's most significant historical resources. We urge the ARC, CHC, and city staff to
take the following concerns as seriously as we do while considering the concept proposal for San
Luis Square.
1. As proposed, San Luis Square will significantly impact the lightshed and viewshed of the Jack
Gardens, which are specifically protected in section 4.2.B.2 of San Luis Obispo's Communiry
Design Gudelines: "New buildings shall not obstruct views from, or sunlight to, publicly owned
gathering places including, but not limited to, Mission Plaza, the Jack House gardens, and YCLC
Cheng Park. In these locations, new buildings shall respect views of the hills, framing rather than
obscuring them." We ask that any plans for developing this area include a comprehensive study
to ensure that they will not impact the light- and viewshed of the Jack Gardens.
It has been pointed out that the line of redwoods at the edge of the Jack Gardens currently
obscure some of the light and viewshed. However, the dappled light filtering through a row of
trees is signiftcantly different the solid and inexorable shadow cast by a 50- or 60-foot
building. In addition, the trees can be removed or die at any time. Once a building is erected on
this site, the Jack Garden's light- and viewshed will be irrevocably lost.
2. The scale of San Luis Square is entirely out of proportion with the Jack House and is being
unrealistically presented in the current concept drawings. The reality is that the proposed
complex, over 60 feet high in places and requiring variances from existing zoning, would
overpower the Jack House and the Jack Gardens. According to stated measurements, it is both
bigger and closer than the drawings would lead us to believe.
In addition, the project's contemporary design contrasts sharply with the painted wood and
Italianate style of the Jack House and does not offer sufficient visual transition between the Jack
House and the new buildings.
3. We are especially concerned about the risk that the two-story underground garage poses to the
Jack property. Vibrations and destabilization of marshy ground may have significant negative
impact on the Jack House and we ask that aggressive interior and exterior monitoring be put in
place at this delicate historic structure throughout any construction that may take place.
Additionally, the potential impact of the underground garage on the redwood trees remains
troubling. While the plans include preserving the trees, it is hard to see how the excavation of the
adjacent lot would not damage their roots. Even without the current drought, a root injury could
easily prove fatal to one or more of these trees. If they died, there would be no screen between
the Jack Gardens and San Luis Square. Regrowing them would take decades.
4. Last but not least, the San Luis Square proposal seems to include removing a century-old
Southern California Black Walnut tree, likely planted by Nellie Jack, from the northeast corner
of the property where its canopy (which hangs 20 feet over the property line)would interfere
with the Higuera Street building. Under no circumstances should this tree be removed or
damaged in any way.
CEQA guidelines "provide that a project that demolishes or alters those physical characteristics
of an historical resource that convey its historical significance (i.e., its character-defining
features) can be considered to materially impair the resource's significance."
It is clear from both the grant deed to the city and the Jack House's application to the National
Register of Historic Places that the"many mature trees planted by Nellie Jack, who was
particularly fond of trees and exotic shrubs"are considered an integral part of this historic
property.
Thank you.
Respectful ly,
The Jack House Committee
Kathi Settle, Chair