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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCal Poly 07-11-2018Ci f July 11, 2018 To: Mayor/Council Candidates From: Derek Johnson, City Manager Subject: Responses to Questions submitted to Cal Poly The questions below were sent to Cal Poly. After learning of the City’s policy to share all information provided to one candidate with all candidates, the Cal Poly leadership requested that we share the questions and responses with all Mayor and Council candidates. 1. How can I get my hands on a copy of the Cal Poly Master Plan and the EIR to that Master Plan? Is it possible for you to forward me the links to these documents? Yes. The Cal Poly Master Plan documents, maps and latest information can be found at http://masterplan.calpoly.edu Cal Poly announced earlier this year that the draft EIR will be recirculated. At this point, there is not a date set for the release of the revised draft EIR. 2. What are the time frames for approving and certifying those documents? As mentioned above, there is not a timeline set at this point for recirculation. However, the intent is to go through the EIR process with enough time to be able to present the Master Plan to the California State University Board of Trustees (the governing body for all 23 CSU master plans) in the second half of 2019. There are many benchmarks that need to be met to get to this goal. 3. Does the Master Plan depict where and how the proposed 5000 student enrollment increase would be accommodated in housing on campus and disclose the timing of moving forward with that housing before the enrollment increase occurs? Enrollment growth is not planned for until the necessary housing and academic spaces are built to appropriately accommodate that growth. You can look at the maps at the link above to see the identified places where that housing is planned for. The dark blue areas are planned undergraduate student housing areas. As you may have read about, Cal Poly had an unexpected increase in enrollment in the fall of 2018. Our stated goal is to get enrollment numbers back to the levels that they were prior to that spike. We have adjusted our models with the expectation that we will be able to accomplish this within the next few years and then to only increase enrollment in future years as the necessary infrastructure is in place. Candidate Questions – CalPoly July 11, 2018 Page 2 4. Has the President or his campus planners looked into potential for Public Private Partnerships to deliver the on-campus housing needed to accommodate the enrollment increase? Absolutely. For many reasons, we’re excited about P3 opportunities. In fact, we’re already utilizing this model and partnering with AMCAL, a private developer, on the housing planned for the corner of Grand and Slack. This development is intended for non-undergraduate students, particularly staff and faculty. P3s will also be explored for our additional undergraduate student housing developments. 5. What amount of water resources will be needed to accommodate the increased enrollment and where will those water resources would come from? Assuming new water resources will need to be secured to sustain the enrollment increase, what is the plan and time table for securing them? The majority of our water currently comes from the Whale Rock Reservoir of which the City also has an allotment. We are in conversations about securing additional water sources in the future. Due to the sensitivity of these conversations, I am not able to disclose more information on this at this point. However, all environmental impacts and resource needs must be identified and planned for with any new development on campus. While the Master Plan sets the vision for campus growth and development through 2035, project specific EIRs are still necessary for any large-scale projects including all housing developments. 6. Does the President have any regular meetings with members of the SLO City Council to discuss town/gown issues? The President places high value on his relationships with our elected officials at every level: Federal, State, county and city governments. Cal Poly is a state-serving institution. There are a number of touchpoints that regularly take place between the university and each of these jurisdictions. 7. Would the President be open to participating in a Task Force between the University and the City to meet and confer over issues that arise with the increase in enrollment? We already have a City-University meeting that regularly takes place and includes SLO City elected officials at every meeting. City and university representatives are able to request any agenda items that they have concerns about or think would be beneficial to both organizations to discuss. 8. Has the University considered requiring new students to live on campus for the first 2 or 3 years of their studies? (The University of San Francisco requires all but its senior students to live on campus before they can register for classes.) Candidate Questions – CalPoly July 11, 2018 Page 2 Yes. The Master Plan sets a goal of housing 65% of students on campus by 2035. A consideration as a part of this goal is requiring first and second year students to live on campus. Studies conducted at universities across the nation show higher success rates correlate directly with the number of years that students live on campus. The increased housing on campus is a benefit to our students and their academic success as well as the community as some of the off-campus housing can then be freed up for non-student residents.