HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/13/2018 Item 3, Rowley
June 13, 2018
Subject: Final Reviews of the Proposed Zoning Regulations Update
Dear Chairman and Commission Members,
As a resident of San Luis Obispo I am most concerned about actions that will directly affect the
peace and quiet we expect in our residential neighborhoods. Five in particular are High Occupancy,
Home Occupations, roof decks, building design and the percentage floor space for dwellings in the
Neighborhood Commercial zone, and increased parking reductions.
Tier l Actions
I have been told that the current procedures regarding a Director's decision will remain the same.
That, after noticing and before the date noted, if CDD is informed that an Administrative Hearing is
desired, one will be held. However, this appears to be a policy and not codified anywhere.
For clarity, recommend a footnote affirming this policy be included in the Zoning Regulations.
High Occupancy
1. First, it is premature to revise this item. The City Attorney's Office has not yet completed their
research of how other similar municipalities address this problem. Also, this was an ordinance
sponsored by Residents for Quality Neighborhoods and had significant public input before its
adoption. No changes to this item should be made in the Zoning Regulations until said research is
completed and there has been significant input by those who will be most affected - city residents.
2. I find Tiers l, ll and lll to be confusing with regard to what exactly falls into which tier, however,
I've been told that High Occupancy falls into Tier l. I believe for the good of our neighborhoods, that
this should be in Tier ll, i.e., with a mandatory Administrative Hearing.
Recommend no changes be made at this time, except that High Occupancy be moved to Tier ll.
Home Occupations
Previously the City has been mindful not to disrupt neighborhoods with commercial activities by
excluding employees and limiting customers, deliveries and hours of operation. The current
proposal adds an employee, allows customer pick-up, includes beauticians and estheticians, and
increases the allowed hours of operation. Although the activities are limited to six customers, it is
unclear whether that includes customer pick-ups or if these are in addition to the customer limit.
Recommend the hours of operation remain 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and that customer pick-ups be
included in the six customers per day limit.
Roof Decks
Roof decks may be considered an amenity by developers and by the residents of the dwelling, but
they are not considered a desirable feature to residents who live nearby. Party noise is a
significant, on-going problem in many of our residential neighborhoods. Noise is the primary reason
that long-time residents leave San Luis Obispo for areas where they can be free of this continuous
annoyance. And the homes that they leave behind are most often converted to student rentals.
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Roof decks exacerbate the noise problem by allowing noise to travel further (thus annoying more
people). Although roof decks may work well in commercial establishments where controls are in
place, that is not the case in the neighborhoods.
Recommend roof decks be specifically disallowed on remodels, infill projects or ADU's in established
residential neighborhoods and on projects that abut a residential neighborhood - 1340 Taft (ICON)
and 22 Chorro (which was re-zoned from neighborhood commercial to community commercial).
Neighborhood Commercial (C-N)
Neighborhood commercial zones are by their title located next to, within or in close proximity to an
R-1 or R-2 residential neighborhood. As such, what occurs at this site can have a positive or a
negative affect on residents of that neighborhood.
1. Roof decks should not be allowed on C-N sites for the same reasons stated above.
2. The C-N zone was created to provide neighborhood-serving commercial establishments. We
have added a residential component to these sites, but with no guidance on the amount of floor
space to remain commercial. For example, the ICON project at 1340 Taft has only 34% commercial,
22 Chorro has only 4% commercial. This was not the intent for this zone.
Recommend roof decks be specifically disallowed in the C-N zone.
Further recommend projects in the C-N zone (C-C zone would be nice, too) be required to have 60%
of their floor space as commercial with a waiver to no less than 50%.
Parking Reductions
"Build for today, plan for tomorrow" should be our motto. Parking lots can be re-used as something
different - a kiosk, an addition to the building, space for bike racks.
Until Cal Poly constructs sufficient on-campus parking and does something to encourage its use, we
will always have parking problems in neighborhoods near Cal Poly and near bus stops. Until we
have sufficient parking available for commercial establishments and in multi-family developments
we will have parked cars on our residential streets, in hospital parking lots and anywhere else staff,
faculty, students, customers and other residents find to park their cars. Our current parking
guidelines were restrictive, contributing to parking deficiencies in all new developments. These
guidelines were considered sufficient in a previous Planning Commission meeting, yet now there
seem to be more reductions on the number of allowed parking spaces.
Recommend the current parking guidelines be retained in lieu of reducing allowed parking spaces.
Thank you for you time and your attention.
Sincerely,
Sandra Rowley
Resident, SLO
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