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Cal Poly begins construction on controversial dorm

September 22, 2015

calpoly dormCal Poly is expected to break ground this week on a $198 million dormitory that will border a residential neighborhood.

The planned dormitory will contain 1,475 beds. It will be built on a lot at the corner of Slack Street and Grand Avenue next to an entrance to the campus.

The university expects to complete the project in July 2018. After the dorm is completed, the university will be able to house 40 percent of students on campus.

Cal Poly plans to eventually have on-campus housing for about 65 percent of undergraduate students, university officials say.

Upon completion of the current project, there will be 8,000 beds on campus. Several thousand additional beds are needed to reach the university’s target.

Numerous city residents have complained that the new dorm will significantly increase congestion and partying in the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Groups of neighbors requested that the city mount a legal challenge to the project, but city officials declined to do so.

A group of neighbors called the Alliance of SLO Neighborhoods then sued, alleging the dorm would create adverse environmental impacts and that the university prepared an improper environmental impact report. A judge ruled earlier this year that the university can build the dorm.


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Have you ever tried to drive on Grand around 4PM? That will be a whole new realm of Hell in 2018!


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Have you ever tried to sleep around grand at 4 AM? That’s the bigger long term issue for the residents over there. I’d sell now if I were you.


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As a landlord in SLO I don’t mind the competition to house more students on campus, the real problem is that Cal Poly is trying to bring in more students each year to completely overload the City’s infrastructure. I will always have renters but the city won’t always have a quality way of life and I’m willing to give up how much I charge for rent not to have the City pushed beyond its limits.


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You are all too rare a bird, Jon Tatro!


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“Residents for Quality Neighborhoods” and “Alliance of SLO Neighborhoods” are a few people with lots of time and money and feel they should have veto power over city decisions. I grew up in a downtown SLO family neighborhood with students, bought in a downtown neighborhood with more students. The fact that I am a multi-generational life-long resident does not give me special powers. Sure, the neighbors have worked with the police and code enforcement to sit on some bad apples, but as I once said to an unreasonable person who demanded that the clean-cut engineering students pick up their skateboards when going down the 0-100 block of Broad Street due to the noise on the pavement; if you don’t like college students move to Santa Maria, problem solved.


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Residents would have had to matter before something could have been done to stop this. You don’t. Students spend at school and off–and the city strives to make them happy.


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Yippie! Rents should drop a little in the second half of 2018.


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There’s a big demand for grape growers and Poly will need the housing for these, in demand, students. Local Control, Local Education for Local Jobs. Oh yes, Ag willl use their Local Water until the City Corps force the sale and buy Ag water for more city. LA used to be 4 hours to the south, now it is only 5 minutes away at 5 P.M. and Poly students learn faster.


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J. Estrada: I’m not sure I understand the logic….


“until City Corps force the sale and buy Ag water for more city… ??


“LA used to be 4 hours to the south, now it is only 5 minutes away at 5 P.M. and Poly students learn faster.” ???


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Ok let’s change it around, Incorporated Cities like SLO with many votes vs the rural land (the minority votes), the owners of certain perfected water rights that the cities disperately need. Guess what happens, votes, courts and there you have it, a taking with compensation. As for LA, during my years here, the traffic once was 4 hours to the south and today Shell Beach now can resemble LA traffic. With the ever growing Poly, many students come here and instantly feel that they have arrived to their new home and many navigate a way to stay.This is California, where the artificial streams of water flow south while the thirsty stream of people are flowing north. So be it right or wrong the controversial dorm is just another controversy (the people) with a permit to go forward (the Gov).


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Not in my backyard!!!


Oh wait, I chose not to live next door to a university… It’s not in my backyard.


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SpeakTruth Indeed; One does not intentionally chose to live next door to an ever expanding revenue source. I trust there’s a wide-enough buffer between you and Cal Poly’s current property lines.


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