Two fraternities located near the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo campus had their conditional use permits revoked last week.
While the City of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission voted unanimously to revoke the permits, multiple members also expressed frustration with what they described as a broken system.
Conditional use permits are given to fraternities by the city with specific restrictions, such as occupancy rates, gatherings, and noise levels.
If a fraternity has its permit revoked, residents are still allowed to keep living in that building, but the city will no longer allow them to hold official fraternity events there.
Planning Commission Chair Dave Houghton said that the permitting process isn't a very effective tool at regulating fraternities.
“It's not exactly a Swiss army knife,” Houghton said. “It's like a hammer, and it's all we have.”
Hougton also said the conditional use permits don’t have effective mechanisms to encourage fraternities to avoid noise or unruly gathering violations.
“It seems to me it's neither a carrot nor a stick,” Hougton said.
One of the fraternities that lost its permit is Cal Poly’s Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi. It received three noise violations during parties in the last academic year.
Joshua Pinsky, the fraternity president, told the SLO Planning Commission that while any citation is unacceptable, three citations is a lot lower than the 13 from the year before.
“Since those earlier incidents, we have strengthened internal monitoring procedures, improved communication with neighbors, and increased accountability,” Pinsky told the commission.
Pinsky also mentioned an alleged hate crime in February, when a group of men yelled antisemitic slurs at the fraternity brothers and punched one of them in the head.
“ We mention this, not to dwell on it, but to emphasize why having a Jewish fraternity house in San Luis Obispo is important,” Pinsky said, adding that the fraternity holds events where students celebrate Jewish traditions and holidays.
Alpha Epsilon Pi is limited to 19 residents and 25 people on site at any given time, unless they apply for a special event permit.
Pinsky said it’s hard for a fraternity that functions on a quarter system to meet application deadlines for event permits, because of the long processing time.
“It seems like we're kind of beating our heads against the wall."Commissioner Robert Jorgensen
Other members of the commission agreed that the system doesn’t seem to be realistic for student organizations like fraternities.
“It's almost like we've got everybody on a wheel that just spins around, and a new group comes in and we go over the same thing again,” said Commissioner Robert Jorgensen, referencing past fraternities who’ve also lost their conditional use permit.
“It seems like we're kind of beating our heads against the wall without any workable solution here,” Jorgensen said.
Pinsky made the argument that parties will happen near the Cal Poly campus no matter what.
“Students will inevitably gather in a college town like San Luis Obispo,” Pinsky said. “The question is not whether gatherings occur, but whether they happen in environments where people are trained and accountable.”
Cal Poly requires all members of fraternities & sororities to attend trainings in sexual assault prevention, alcohol and drug use.
The fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha also had its conditional use permit revoked for seven noise and unruly gathering citations.
No members of Lambda Chi Alpha spoke at the planning commission meeting to defend their fraternity.
