Cal Poly can build Grand Avenue dorms, judge rules

Cal Poly can proceed with its long-anticipated Grand Avenue dorm project, after a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ruled in the university’s favor in a lawsuit filed by a neighborhood group.

Judge Martin Tangeman ruled against the Alliance of SLO Neighborhoods, which sued the California State University’s Board of Trustees, contending its environmental impact report was insufficient.

The project is expected to break ground later this year, with plans to open in fall 2018.

The plan calls for seven four- to five-story towers, a parking structure and about 20,000 feet of space on three sides of the parking structure that could be used as offices, a community lounge, a coffee shop or a welcoming center.

Linda White, the alliance chairwoman, said the group won’t appeal Tangeman’s decision, citing the cost of continuing to pursue a lawsuit.

“We just don’t have the money,” White said. “We’re just normal, ordinary people. If the city had taken up the suit, then we would have been in a much stronger position. But, to the university, we were like a little mosquito buzzing around. Like a little fly.”

White said her home is one of four owner-occupied residences in her Monterey Heights neighborhood amid a group of students.

The alternate site was to the north of campus near Baggett Stadium. The selected site is near the corner of Grand Avenue and Slack Street and an off-campus neighborhood.

A vocal group of homeowners has protested the board’s selected site, saying the addition of 1,475 freshmen will contribute to the problems with noise, trash and partying that occur in the neighborhood.  

“We’ll stay until we just can’t stand it anymore,” White said in a telephone interview with The Tribune on Monday.

Tangeman ruled that case precedent didn’t support the alliance’s contention that the CSU Board of Trustees failed to act according to California Environmental Quality Act law.

Alliance lawyer Babak Naficy argued a host of issues, including that a one-page planning document wasn’t enough to carefully examine projected costs of a new dining facility and bridge, as well as costs for taller buildings, at the H-12 and H-16 parking lot alternate site near the Beef Unit and Baggett Stadium.

Naficy also argued that the university’s argument to “co-locate” the freshman dorm near other freshmen dorms didn’t apply because 1,475 students already would be living together in the new dorm complex.

However, Tangeman said the alliance failed to “successfully challenge the need for a new bridge, or for taller buildings, given the limitations of the alternate site.”

Tangeman also added that the university did provide substantial evidence, including square-footage costs to build a bridge and taller buildings, and cited several mentions of a need to co-locate students, such as in the draft environmental impact report, community discussions and the final environmental report.

“Ultimately, the decision as to the best location for this project, and whether it complies with reasonable policy objectives, is within the province of the Board of Trustees,” Tangeman wrote.

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Cal Poly can build Grand Avenue dorms, judge rules."