Candidate for
Councilmember; City of San Luis Obispo

Concerned About Housing in San Luis Obispo? We Need More Affordable Housing, Now!

The Situation:

In the past four years, the housing affordability index in San Luis Obispo County has fallen from 40% to 20%. The situation in the City is even worse.

This means less than one in five households can afford the price of an average home, if they already have the down payment.

I believe the current City Council has been too slow in reacting to this crisis and not aggressive enough in dealing with it.

The Solution:

Here's what I believe the City should do:

• First and foremost, take aggressive action at the state and local level to force Cal Poly to house more of its students on campus.

  Additional dorms should be built now. And no enrollment increase should take place until after those dorms are built.

• Zone more land for housing and less for commercial development. Increase the density of that housing where appropriate.

• Require all new commercial development to include an affordable housing component or pay in-lieu fees. New residential development is already required to do this, yet commercial development creates the housing need.

• Develop incentives to encourage existing commercial developments to add second-story apartments. This would free up rental housing in our neighborhoods for families.

• Accelerate the build-out of previously approved housing developments. The General Plan allows residential growth of 1% per year. We're averaging half that. We can build the houses faster and still stay within the 1% cap.

• Encourage the County to develop a "new town" at Camp San Luis. This town would be close to jobs at the Men's Colony, Cuesta College, and County operations. This town should include dorms for out-of-area Cuesta students.

• Work with the Dalidio family and the Airport Land Use Commission to make sure housing and not just stores are built on the Dalidio property.

If elected, I'll do my best to do just that. I'd appreciate your support. Thank you.

Andrew Carter