Journal Article

by Dave Romero

 

When my family moved to San Luis Obispo in 1956, the population was 17,000 with few jobs, little housing, limited shopping, and light traffic. It was a pleasant place to live, and we often look back on those days with nostalgia. The City Fathers were very concerned with the lack of shopping, housing and jobs and took many actions to meet these needs so as to follow the then accepted formula for prosperity. We even hired a Chamber of Commerce Manager primarily on his reputation of being able to attract industry to our community.

 

As my mother once told me, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." Cal Poly started a huge growth spurt, followed by the California Men’s Colony, Cuesta College and Atascadero State Hospital, then Diablo Power Plant construction, expansion of utility companies, state, county and city agencies. Boom times arrived, and the City population grew at a compound rated of 3.5% during the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, it became obvious that such a growth rate had some downsides, and the City began adopting stricter and stricter standards for development review. The City adopted controls to achieve a 2% growth rate in the 1980s and a 1% growth rate in the 1990s. The City used very restrictive annexation policies, deliberately failed to address water supply needs, and adopted high development fees and an extremely complicated development review process. And it worked–or did it?

The 1989 City population was 41, 207. In 1999, population was 42, 446. This gives a population growth rate of .3%, less than 1/3 the adopted rate of our planning documents. With such a very slow growth rate over the past 10 years, why do we have such endless arguments in SLO about too much growth? The very restrictive policies of the City have slowed development of new housing which is the critical factor in measuring growth. Many jobs have developed in SLO during the past 10 years, but with housing so restricted and expensive, many, if not most new families choose to settle in Morro Bay, Atascadero, Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach. These folks commute to and from SLO, overloading the approach roads. During the day we are a city of 60,000 + population. We have done almost nothing to relieve traffic congestion during the last eight years while we have experimented (and failed) with trying to encourage use of alternative forms of transportation. We must some day soon re-examine our approach to traffic management or we’ll continue to live with ever-increasing congestion.

I believe that the slow growth rate in SLO City during the 90s is an aberration, and that the more rapid statewide growth will soon exert pressure within SLO. A recent article in the LA Times stated that the 1998-99 statewide growth was 1.65% with a similar growth rate in each of the two previous years (this is five times SLO City’s growth). Growth hasn’t caught up with us yet in SLO City.

 

I am currently reading a State of California publication entitled "Growth Within Bounds." It was prepared by a blue-ribbon committee in response to AB1484 (1997) that established a commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century. It contains much solid information. Following are a few comments from the publication relating to growth.

 

Cal Poly is now planning for 3000 more students (plus support faculty and service personnel), Cuesta College continues to expand as more young people seek better education, the Men’s Colony is in an expansion mode with California’s growing population, stricter laws and tougher sentencing. With more money available for highways, Caltrans is rapidly expanding. Health care programs are expanding. The City government has no real control over any of these. Our children and grandchildren would like to stay and raise their families here. All of these add up to inevitable growth for San Luis Obispo. And, I don’t believe there’s any way it can be stopped over the long term.

So, what should we do about it? Well, we could move to Oregon, Colorado, or New Mexico. For many of us who truly love SLO, that’s the coward’s way out. I believe we better serve our City by staying and doing all we can to accommodate growth (rather than trying to stop it), while protecting our quality of life, high-level government service and irreplaceable resources.

Mom taught me a prayer, "Lord, please give me the strength to change the things I can change, to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference." I hope we all can follow it as we guide the future of SLO City.