Time to reach new heights in downtown SLO

Editorial - The Tribune

December 13, 2006

For a city whose roots stretch back to the 1700s, San Luis Obispo is growing up - at least that's the issue facing the city's Planning Commission when it meets tonight: Should downtown building heights be allowed to increase to 60 feet from the current level of 50 feet?

Economic vibrancy.
Retailers like to have an airy, roomy feeling on their first-floor sales areas. This means tall windows to bring in light, and a ceiling of 16 to 18 feet. This is nothing new; most of the city's historical buildings have first floors of that height or higher.

Heating, cooling and communication needs.
New buildings now sandwich these utilities - as well as fire suppression, water and sewer pipes - within ceiling and floor spaces. Doing so can add two to four feet of conduit space between floors.

Office and residential needs.
It makes financial and community vitality sense for a downtown multi-story building to include office and residential space on upper floors. Design standards now call for ceilings for offices and apartments to be 10 feet or higher, rather than the traditional eight feet.

All of these incremental needs add height.

San Luis Obispo now has a loose set of standards for building heights in its downtown core. If a building is determined to be of landmark status, for instance, it could get the go-ahead to exceed current 50-foot levels.

The city's Architecture Review Commission has studied the proposal and given its blessing - with caveats. After listening to the public, the ARC supports the height increase if projects contain a minimum of 18 residences per acre, inclusionary housing is built on-site and upper-level viewing decks are in the design among almost a dozen other amenities.