Grand Jury said SLO should do more to monitor fraternities — but city says it is
The San Luis Obispo Planning Commission says it’s doing everything it can — “to the extent practicable and appropriate” — to enforce conditional use permits and zoning restrictions associated with Cal Poly fraternities.
The claim comes after a SLO County Grand Jury investigation found the city wasn’t doing enough to curb illegal fraternity activity and related disturbances in the neighborhoods near the university.
The investigation was launched after community members expressed frustration over noisy parties and unsanctioned fraternity activity, including St. Fratty’s Day.
In its report, the Grand Jury recommended the Planning Commission adopt uniform conditions for fraternity use permits and potentially consider revising rules based on future violations.
But the commission says it’s already done that.
“This recommendation has been implemented to the extent practicable and appropriate,” a draft response from the Planning Commission to the Grand Jury read.
The draft was discussed and approved by commissioners and city officials during a meeting Wednesday night.
The response claimed the city has already moved toward creating uniform requirements for fraternities and sororities over the last 10 years and intends to continue streamlining the regulations as it reviews use permits in the future.
It pointed to changes in 2018 that resulted in a codified set of land use conditions for Greek Life organizations.
Since January, the commission has revoked three fraternities’ conditional use permits after violations were reported.
The draft response also said multiple other fraternity permits were pending re-review — the process in which the commission can vote to revoke or update permits.
The Grand Jury’s recommendation also appeared to suggest that the code enforcement department hire more employees or alter working hours to assist with proactive, rather than reactive, enforcement. Typically, code enforcement officers work between 8 a.m and 5 p.m., and are not on the clock when fraternities are most active.
The commission countered that suggestion.
“Extending staff hours or increasing the number of staff available to address fraternity and sorority enforcement would represent a significant increase in ongoing costs to the public at a time when the city is forecasting future budget deficits,” the commission wrote in its response. “Alternatively, redirection or adjustment of existing staff toward this effort would result in decreased service levels and/or delays in addressing other community response workload.”
During their conversation, commissioners said Cal Poly also has a responsibility to help solve the issues surrounding fraternities in SLO.
Cal Poly did not receive direction from the Grand Jury report because the county entity does not have jurisdiction over the university.
“This is very well written, and I think will move us forward,” commissioner Robert Jorgensen said of the draft response. “But I think I also see that it, I think hopefully, successfully sends some signals to Cal Poly that this is a big problem and needs their undivided attention as well and that we’ve got to come up with a common solution.”
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