Grand Jury finds multiple failures to protect San Luis Obispo residents

June 24, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

The San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury found that San Luis Obispo has failed to protect its residents from loud and ruckus parties hosted by Cal Poly students, according to a report released on June 23.

The city also failed to enforce permit requirements for rowdy fraternities. Meanwhile, the SLO City Council increased the cost of appealing those permits.

Aside from one officer, San Luis Obispo Police Department staff refused the Grand Jury’s interview requests.

As a result of Cal Poly’s increased attendance, university students now comprise nearly 46% of San Luis Obispo’s total population. The changing dynamic has significantly influenced housing availability both on and off campus, infrastructure demands, and neighboring residential community dynamics.

Residents have voiced concerns over noise disturbances, large unauthorized street parties, and fraternity and sorority events hosted in residential areas. These issues have led to tensions between some long-term residents and the student community.

In response to multiple complaints filed by residents that San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly officials have failed to enforce existing rules and municipal ordinances, the Grand Jury launched its investigation.

Unsanctioned, illegal street parties

The St. Fratty’s Day street party has grown exponentially over the past several years with major impacts to neighborhoods near Cal Poly, including property damage, personal injury, and illegal and dangerous behavior. In 2024, an estimated 7,000 people gathered on residential streets where they broke mutiple car windows, fences and alcohol bottles.

The chief of police then declared his department’s 2024 response a success as no students or officers were injured, a deduction not shared by residents who had their property vandalized and their lives disrupted by loud music, screaming and yelling.

In 2025, Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo officials successfully conducted a zero tolerance operation focused on stopping the loud and destructive St. Fratty’s Day parties. Cal Poly offered an on-campus alternative event, a concert that 6,000 people attended.

Prior to 2025, “the city failed to effectively provide a multi-pronged, cohesive approach to manage or shut down large unsanctioned, costly and unruly events such as St. Fratty’s
Day,” according to the Grand Jury. “This created an unsafe environment, with increasing size of unruly crowds, property damage, injuries and public disturbances.”

In its report, the Grand Jury commended Cal Poly and the city on their 2025 zero tolerance operation.

Noisy and rowdy neighbors, zoning, and fraternities violating permit requirements

Even though the city has an ordinance making it unlawful for any person to willfully or negligently make “any noise which disturbs the peace and quiet of any neighborhood or which causes any discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitivity in the area,” the city has failed to fully enforce the law, according to the Grand Jury report.

The Grand Jury also looked into citizen complaints of “illegal fraternities” operating in residential zones and determined the city has failed to enforce codes that prohibit fraternity and sorority activity in those zones.

The city also failed to consistently enforce permit requirements that make fraternities provide an annual list of parties and events, notification to neighbors, and parking plans. “Strict enforcement of these conditions would contribute to a reduction of the disturbances in the neighborhoods,” according to the Grand Jury.

At the same time, the SLO City Council increased the cost of appealing permits, which the Grand Jury found “disproportionately impacts ordinary citizens, as the high costs create barriers for those raising concerns about community issues such as noise or safety.”

The Grand Jury made the following recommendations to San Luis Obispo:

• Continue to work with Cal Poly to develop a multi-year plan to stop the illegal street parties.
• Develop and implement an ongoing formal process to identify illegal fraternities and bring them into compliance.
• Initiate a task force to explore the creation of a “Student Overlay Zone” near the campus that would allow for municipal code requirements to be introduced that would differentiate it from the rest of the city.
• Adopt a tiered planning appeal fee structure to promote accessibility of community concerns by individual residents.
• Adopt more uniform conditions for conditional use permits and enforcement of existing requirements.
• Create formal guidelines and provide training outlining how the SLO City Police Department will respond to requests from the SLO County Grand Jury and other oversite bodies.

The city has 90 days to respond to the Grand Jury’s recommendations.

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