Another Cal Poly fraternity officially loses use permit. Why SLO denied its appeal
Another Cal Poly fraternity filed an appeal to get its conditional use permit back after it was revoked — but the city of San Luis Obispo ultimately denied the request, marking another loss for Greek Life in the ongoing town-and-gown tensions over neighborhood noise.
On Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo City Council took up an appeal filed by Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Cal Poly fraternity whose conditional use permit was revoked by the SLO Planning Commission in March.
Conditional use permits are city-issued licenses that allow certain locations in city limits to be used for certain purposes. The permits carry conditions that place limits on how many people can attend events at the location, noise and other factors.
Losing a conditional use permit means fraternities cannot use their houses for sanctioned fraternal operations, but residents can continue to live on the premises. Fraternities can also typically reapply for use permits.
A slew of organizations lost their permits over the last two years as the city has cracked down on enforcement amid increased scrutiny from community members concerned about noise levels and disturbances in the neighborhoods.
The city’s management of the neighborhood disturbances caused by both sanctioned and unsanctioned fraternity activity was the topic of a Grand Jury investigation, which found that the city wasn’t making enough of an effort to enforce its municipal regulations — claims that the city itself pushed back on.
On Tuesday, fraternity members showed up to advocate for systemic change to the city’s conditional use permit process, asking that the council reconsider the Planning Commission’s decision to revoke their permit after their organization received three citations between April and October 2025.
The City Council, however, voted unanimously to uphold the revocation, with Councilmember Michelle Shoresman absent for the vote.
City representatives encouraged the fraternity members to take their concerns to Cal Poly to advocate for gathering spaces for Greek Life.
SLO Mayor Erica Stewart described the situation as “not a win for anyone, quite honestly.”
“The organizations on campus should be asking Cal Poly: ‘Where can we meet? Where can we do something? What can we do?’” Stewart said.
The decision leaves only two Cal Poly fraternities left with conditional use permits in SLO, down from the around six that were held at peak, code enforcement supervisor John Mezzapesa said during the meeting.
Another fraternity officially loses its conditional use permit
Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter president Joshua Pinksy submitted the appeal on March 23, citing improvements in the fraternity’s behaviors over the last three years and concerns that the city’s regulations are at odds with student organization operations, according to City Council documents.
The appeal highlighted that after receiving 13 citations in the 2023-24 academic year, the fraternity received only two citations in the 2024-25 academic year, and one citation so far in the 2025-26 academic year.
“This shows a roughly 85% decrease in violations over two years,” Pinksy wrote on behalf of the fraternity. “Importantly, this improvement happened despite significant turnover in our membership. This suggests that the changes we made are structural and organizational, rather than dependent on individual members. This trend illustrates a long-term and noticeable commitment to compliance that was not adequately considered in the Commission’s decision.”
The appeal argued that revoking the permit could further push partying and other fraternal operations into the low-density neighborhoods where neighbors have already voiced concerns about noise levels, whereas retaining the permit would allow the fraternity to continue operating in the high-density zoning area.
Pinksy also claimed the fraternity conducted its own survey of neighbors, who largely said they were not disturbed by the organization.
The fraternity requested that additional conditions be added to their use permit rather than revoking it completely.
The City Council ultimately decided to uphold the revocation, though councilmembers acknowledged that more work needs to be done to come to a solution to the neighborhood concerns that benefits all residents.
While no official fraternity events can be held at the location, fraternity members can continue to live onsite.
Stewart also clarified that members of Alpha Epsilon Pi, which is a Jewish organization, would be able to continue hosting faith-based events like Shabbat dinners as long as they were not official fraternity events.
A City Council study session to discuss neighborhood livability further was scheduled for May 26, according to the city’s website.
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