The San Luis Obispo City Council held a special meeting this week on code enforcement, housing safety and fraternities that have racked up repeated noise violations.
The city’s Code Enforcement team responds to a range of issues from abandoned shopping carts to moldy, unsafe rental units.
They also respond to — and fine — fraternities illegally operating without a conditional use permit.
A forum on Greek life
Director of Community Development Timmi Tway told the council that the city’s current method of regulating sororities and fraternities connected to Cal Poly doesn’t seem effective.
“Frankly, we've revoked a number of conditional use permits, and no one has come back to get a new conditional use permit,” Tway said. “So that's an indication to me, as a land use regulator, that it's not working.”
This year, two fraternities had their conditional use permits revoked for receiving multiple noise violations from city police during parties.
When that happens, the students are allowed to continue living in their home, but Code Enforcement can fine them if they appear to be operating as a fraternity or host related events.
During public comment, multiple fraternity brothers said that those fines and the costs to apply for a new permit were too expensive.
" Since fall quarter, we've been fined over $12,000 for land use and conditional use permit violations, not noise complaints or unruly gatherings,” said Alec Sanchez, a member of Delta Upsilon. He said the high cost forced members “to scramble for extra shifts.”
Some fraternity members also complained that events like charity car wash fundraisers and concerts were quickly shut down.
Vice Mayor Emily Francis argued those events shouldn’t be happening at all, permit or no permit.
“In my mind, fraternity and sorority houses that host events are just not compatible with residential neighborhoods,” Francis said, adding that conditional use permits don’t seem to be an effective tool.
“ Students need meeting spaces, they need event spaces. The solution is for Cal Poly to move these uses on campus,” Francis said.
A new “overlay zone” concept that would map out Greek life institutions and create special regulations in that area was mentioned by city staff and proposed by fraternity and sorority members. However, council members weren’t receptive to the idea.
During the public comment period, SLO resident Karen Adler said that she lives on the same block as two satellite fraternities.
“ One is very respectful,” Adler said “We know when their parties are supposed to end, but as you can imagine, trying to control 100 inebriated guests is extremely difficult.”
“We, the neighbors, pay that price,” she added.
Adler encouraged Cal Poly to “ step up” and create a Greek row designated for sororities and fraternities, like Piedmont Avenue near UC Berkeley.
Cal Poly representative Courtney Kienow told the council that the university didn’t have a stance on whether to abandon conditional use permits as a tool to regulate fraternities and sororities.
“ There were a few comments tonight about a Greek row,” Kienow said “That is still in our master plan although in the near term, we are not focused on that.”
Terrance Harris, vice-president of Student Affairs, said the school is also considering modifying alcohol policies to allow for more on-campus events.
Code Enforcement workloads and unsafe housing
Code Enforcement Supervisor John Mezzapesa told the council that his team’s investigations have more than doubled since 2017.
“This is a relatively small team responsible for enforcing a very broad range of municipal regulations,” Mezzapesa said.
The increasing workload has made it challenging to respond to complaints, he said, but “even with those pressures, the majority of requests are still addressed within a relatively short timeframe.”
Mezzapesa said one possible reason for the increase was the launch of the online tool Ask SLO, which made it easier for residents to file complaints.
The most common Code Enforcement investigations are abandoned shopping carts and unsafe rental housing.
SLO resident and renter Carrie Howell told the council that land use violations, which are commonly Greek life-related, made up a smaller percentage of Code Enforcement investigations than substandard rental housing.
“ I wanted to share my respectful surprise at the city's choice to focus today on fraternity and sorority life, and distract progress towards safe housing,” Howell said.
Thomas Burt, a member of the group SLO Tenants Union, told the council about a time in 2023 when his apartment flooded.
“ These walls were so wet that when I lightly pushed on them, my hand went through the wall,” he said. “This also brought extensive mold to my room.”
Burt said he never reported the issue to Code Enforcement because he was scared of retaliation from his landlord.
Council members’ response
During deliberations, the SLO City Council didn’t come to a specific decision, but said they wanted more discussions on sorority and fraternity-related land use violations.
The council also said it seemed unlikely that the city could afford to hire a new member of the Code Enforcement team.
Councilmember Michelle Shoresman said the department would have to “try to be more efficient and do more with less."
“As much as I hate saying that, it's the reality,” Shoresman said.
Multiple council members also expressed interest in a smoking ban for multi-family homes proposed by speakers during the public comment period.
Mayor Erica A. Stewart closed the meeting by mentioning that on top of student events, birthday parties and quinceañeras have also been reported and shut down, something that made her “feel so bad.”
“We don't really have a lot of large event spaces in the city outside of Cal Poly,” Stewart said. “So we have to think about places that we can gather as a community as well.”
