Selecting an alternative solution to implement with

San Luis Obispos Noise Ordinance:

A Recommendation Report
Prepared for: John Ashbaugh
City Council Member
City of San Luis Obispo
Prepared by: Garth Leung, 1st year student
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
March 6, 2016

Office of the City Council

990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Table of Contents
Introduction1
Methods.......2
Introduce Primary and Secondary Research...2
Results.........3
Interview with John Ashbaugh.....3
Online Research...3
Conclusion...4
Introduce both solutions.......5
Pros and Cons of 1st Solution...5
Pros and Cons of 2nd Solution..6
Recommendation6
Appendix.7
Appendix A: St. Frattys Day...7
Appendix B: Interview Questions with John Ashbaugh...7
References...8
Figures Cited Page.9

Table of Figures
Figure 1: St. Frattys Day.7

Introduction
Because college students here at Cal Poly are known for being rowdy and rambunctious, the
community of San Luis Obispo decided to update the Noise Ordinance in San Luis Obispo on
July 21, 2015. The topic of this recommendation report is to offer an alternative solution to work
with the noise ordinance so that both college students and residents of San Luis Obispo are
satisfied. This report is intended the City Council of San Luis Obispo, so that they may consider
an alternative solution and the Noise Ordinance.
The City Council of San Luis Obispo has tried several times to limit the social aspect of parties
from college students [1] [2]. These past legislations date back to May 8, 2009 where the city of
San Luis Obispo revised the Social Host Ordinance to hold party hosts responsible for underage
drinking at their homes [1]. Once again, on April 6, 2010, the city of San Luis Obispo passed the
Unruly Gathering Ordinance where crowds of 20 people are subject to being fined. Earlier in
January 2010, the City Council also decided to toughen the citys noise ordinance so police
officials can write citations earlier in the night [2]. As you can see, the City Council of San Luis
Obispo has had a clear past of passing limitations on the social life of college students.
To research deeper into this topic, my interview with City Council Official John Ashbaugh
revealed that a problem still persists even though the Noise Ordinance is in place. John explained
that although the Noise Ordinance decreased noise complaints by 33% last year, noise
complaints have increased again just this year [3] From this information, an implication that can
be made is that another solution must be enacted because the updated noise ordinance by itself is
not sufficient to handle the social culture of college students.
In this recommendation report, I will outline the methods I have used as research, I will discuss
the results that have been discovered from research, I will explain how the results translate to the
solution, and finally I will recommend the final preeminent solution.
Finding an alternative solution to the noise ordinance is imperative because this problem of noise
and social culture of college partying wont be limited unless there is a solution. The topic of
finding another solution is timely because Greek Life, which contributes to the social scene of
college, will only get bigger [4]. Because of the growing student population here at Cal Poly,
there could be more noise problems in the near future. Therefore, finding a substitute to the
ordinance is necessary.
My recommendation for alternative solutions to add to the noise ordinance in San Luis Obispo
are the following:
1. Cal Poly building more student housing
2. Cal Poly creating a partnership with the City of San Luis Obispo and investing in
single family homes to stabilize neighborhoods

Methods
In research process of this recommendation report, there was a variety of research which gave
different perspectives on the problem of noise. The primary method of research includes an inperson interview with John Ashbaugh. The secondary methods utilized were five news articles
and comparisons of Noise Ordinances used in different cities.
Primary - Interview with John Ashbaugh
In order to gain a professional understanding of the Noise Ordinance, I interviewed John
Ashbaugh, a City Council Member of San Luis Obispo who drafted and voted on the Noise
Ordinance. During this interview, John and I conversed about the future of the Noise Ordinance
in San Luis Obispo, its effect on the city and population, and possible different solutions that
could be implemented with the Noise Ordinance. We also discussed his role in the
implementation of the Noise Ordinance along with the effectiveness of the Noise Ordinance.
Secondary - Online Research
I have scoured the web for numerous news articles about the effects of the Noise Ordinance and
the different ordinances passed in San Luis Obispo. The online research has also contributed to
the comparison of different noise ordinances from San Luis Obispo and Isla Vista in Santa
Barbara.
1. Quiet Down, San Luis Obispo by Mustang News
This news article provided concrete numbers which can be used to argue why San
Luis Obispo needs an alternative solution to the Noise Ordinance.
2. Penalties rise for party hosts, underage drinkers in SLO by Mustang News
This article provided information about the Social Host Ordinance that was also
implemented along with the Noise Ordinance.
3. Noise ordinances: fair to students or targeting the college population? by Mustang
News
This resource provided insight of how Cal Poly students felt toward the noise
ordinance.
4. Regulations Behind I.V. Party Life by Santa Barbara Independent
This article allows insight of regulations on the social aspect of college in Santa
Barbara. Although this article is about a different county, the article is a valuable
resource to use as a comparison model to San Luis Obispos ordinances.
5. SLO considers whether to launch housing inspection program by The Tribune
This news article revealed a new inspection program that the City Council will
consider.
6. Cal Poly hosts walk in streets near campus to eyeball neighborhood concerns by
The Tribune

This article illustrates Cal Poly and City officials concerns as they walk around the
streets near Cal Polys campus a week before school officially starts.
Results
From primary to secondary methods of research, there were a variety of sources to be used in
order to collect information. Below are the results gathered from an interview and several online
resources.
Interview with John Ashbaugh
The interview with John Ashbaugh provided an immense amount of information to take into
consideration. Because Ashbaughs role in the implementation of the noise ordinance is the
drafting and voting of the Noise Ordinance, I was able to gain perspective from the official side
of the noise ordinance. John revealed to me that the noise ordinance is working well, but is not
efficient when it comes to limiting the noise of college students. Despite the fact that the Noise
Ordinance did decrease the yearly average of noise complaints from around 3000 to 1500, the
amount of noise complaints has increased from 1500 to 2200 just this year.
John discussed different possibilities that could be implemented along with the Noise Ordinance
in order to build a better community within San Luis Obispo between the permanent residents
and college students. John preached that Cal Poly should build more student housing so that
more of the noise complaints will be on campus which the campus can deal with.
John also introduced the idea that Cal Poly should build a partnership with the city of San Luis
Obispo. By creating a partnership with the city, Cal Poly can invest in single family housing
which houses many of the upperclassmen at Cal Poly. By buying single family housing and
turning them into rental homes for students, Cal Poly can stabilize neighborhoods and therefore
reduce the noise complaints around residents of San Luis Obispo. Instead of creating new dorms,
Cal Poly can otherwise use the money to invest into homes off campus.
During our interview, John discussed the fact that due to the immense amount of college students
leasing in off-campus housing, there is more intensity of noise in these single family
neighborhoods which can in turn affect family households and students. For questions asked
during this interview, please refer to Appendix B on page 7.
Online Research
1. Quiet Down, San Luis Obispo by Mustang News
This news article from Mustang News, published on May 3, 2012, denotes the effects of
the old noise ordinance on the students of Cal Poly. Mustang News recorded numbers
from University Police on noise citations and fines from these citations. In 2008, SLOPD
issued 307 citations due to noise, but after the noise ordinance was enacted, the number
decreased to 277 in 2010 [5].
2. Penalties rise for party hosts, underage drinkers in SLO by Mustang News

This article reveals another ordinance that was also placed along with a noise ordinance.
Despite there being a noise ordinance, San Luis Obispo also revised a social host
ordinance which holds party hosts responsible for underage drinking at their home [1].
3. Noise ordinances: fair to students or targeting the college population? by Mustang
News
Found from Mustang News, this article details the how students of Cal Poly and San Luis
Obispo police feel about the noise ordinance. While the police understand that the noise
ordinance was necessary to control the neighborhood, the students of Cal Poly feel like
they are being targeted [6]. Students feel that they are getting noise violations while
families having noisy parties arent subjected to these same noise violations. This article
also depicted that the noise ordinance was used to decrease noise complaints and calm
down the neighborhoods.
4. Regulations Behind I.V. Party Life by Santa Barbara Independent
Although partying in Isla Vista is common, Santa Barbara decided to take precautions by
passing county ordinances such as the Nighttime Noise Restrictions, Outdoor Festivals,
and Social Host Liability ordinances. The noise ordinance bans loud and unreasonable
noise starting at 10 p.m. everyday from Thursday-Sunday. The festival ordinance
regulates festivals such as Halloween and Deltopia, a spring-break block party in Isla
Vista. The social host ordinance issues liability to parties responsible for encouraging
underage drinking [7].
5.

SLO considers whether to launch housing inspection program by The Tribune

This news article explained how the city of San Luis Obispo is working on an inspection
program to examine rental homes around the city. This programs intent is to prevent
blight and unsafe living conditions. This article also exposed that the majority of twobedroom, two-story rental homes were illegally converted into four-bedroom units [8].

6. Cal Poly hosts walk in streets near campus to eyeball neighborhood concerns by The
Tribune
Discovered on The Tribune, this news article depicts the concerns that Cal Poly
administration and City Officials have about the social aspect of partying during the
school year of 2015. This article addressed the fact that Improving neighborhood
wellness in areas around Cal Poly has been an ongoing objective for the city [9].
Conclusion
In the introduction of this recommendation report, I revealed two alternative solutions to add to
the Noise Ordinance in order to control the college social scene. These two alternative solutions
include:

1. Cal Poly building more student housing

2. Cal Poly creating a partnership with the City of San Luis Obispo and investing in single
family homes to stabilize neighborhoods
In my interview with John Ashbaugh, a City Council Member of San Luis Obispo, he heavily
suggested the latter solution of Cal Poly creating a partnership with San Luis Obispo and Cal
Poly would buy single family homes. The logic behind this solution is the fact that the high
amount of rental homes usually houses a high concentration of students, most likely in unsafe
living conditions. Ashbaugh further explains the fact that these high concentration of students
living in these rental homes leads to higher intensity, which include partying, noise, or illegal
activities such as underage drinking, in these neighborhoods. If Cal Poly aligns itself with the
City of San Luis Obispo and invests into single family homes, they can add regulations and
limitations because they would own the specific lot of housing.
To provide an example of how college students find a way to increase their social scene, in [5],
the news article reveals that the noise citations have decreased ever since the noise ordinance has
been updated. However, as time passed, college students still continued their social partying
culture, which was made clear on St. Frattys Day1 [10]. This event illustrates that ordinances
such as the noise ordinance, the unruly gathering ordinance, or the social host ordinance [2]
continue to be ignored by college students. For a visual reference of the ramifications of the St.
Frattys Day, please refer to Figure 1 in Appendix A on page 7. By just adding ordinances,
students will not change their social aspect of college because it is a college culture [9]. Instead
of just adding more bureaucracy through ordinances, the city of San Luis Obispo should work
together with Cal Poly to change the partying aspect of college.
In my first alternative solution, it was suggested that Cal Poly should build more student
housing. By building more housing for students, Cal Poly can potentially shift the partying
culture onto campus where they have full control of limitations. By creating more student
accommodations on campus, Campus Police would be able to control the noise levels and social
partying culture. The new student housing will support the shift of partying culture as more
students will be living on campus. Because the new housing will provide housing for first years,
Poly Canyon Village2 will open up more housing for upperclassmen which will potentially shift
the party culture onto Poly Canyon Village.
Although Cal Poly is already building new student housing [11], this will only account for new
living accommodations for 1,475 students [11]. Because Cal Poly is directly building completely
new housing, there are a plethora of funds and resources being utilized. This is a very expensive
1 St. Frattys Day Started by Cal Polys Greek Life, it is a tradition on St.
Patricks Day where students have a massive block party on Hathaway St.
near Cal Poly
2 Poly Canyon Village is housing recently built by Cal Poly meant to
accommodate upperclassmen, however has began to house first years due
to lack of housing for first years
5

option for Cal Poly because they have to find space, preferably on unused green land, on campus
to build more housing and they have to also construct it from nothing.
On the other hand, if Cal Poly partners with the city to invest into rental houses, Cal Poly can
control lease rates so that students wouldnt have to pay high lease prices due to the fact that Cal
Poly would own these rental houses. Not only will Cal Poly be able to own more student housing
by investing into single family homes, but Cal Poly will also be able to set up limitations and
guidelines because they would own the housing complex. By buying single family housing, Cal
Poly would also be able to fix the overcrowding problem that creates high intensity
neighborhoods [8]. If Cal Poly owns these single family housings, they can create guidelines that
would be able to stabilize these high-intensity neighborhoods.
As shown in [9], improving neighborhood wellness in areas around Cal Poly has been in the
citys interest. If Cal Poly creates a partnership with San Luis Obispo and invests into single
family homes around the campus, they would be able to stabilize neighborhoods which will
further neighborhood wellness. The guidelines that Cal Poly creates can potentially address the
problems of noise, parking, and large social gatherings. Although there are many positive
attributes about the second solution, there are more problems via communication involved. In
order to implement this solution, Cal Poly needs to strengthen their communication with the city.
It will also be difficult for Cal Poly to work out contracts with the city to invest into these rental
homes and turn them into official student housing.
To use a different citys ordinances to compare San Luis Obispo to, we used ordinances in Santa
Barbara county as models for comparison, it can be concluded that ordinances arent enough to
control the noise and partying aspect of students. The county of Santa Barbara passed the
Nighttime Noise Restrictions, Outdoor Festivals, and Social Host Liability ordinances to regulate
Isla Vistas party culture [7]. This article reveals that using ordinances to control students is
difficult due to the fact that students typically dont worry about being singled out and caught.
Because ordinances have a difficult time controlling behavior, Cal Poly should try a more nondirect approach such as investing into rental homes and controlling the living quarters of
upperclassmen.
Recommendation
I recommend having Cal Poly create a partnership with the city of San Luis Obispo and investing
into single-family homes that are used as rental homes for students. Cal Poly would own these
single-family homes and transform them into student project housing for upperclassman.

Appendix A: St. Frattys

Figure 1: On March 7, 2015, Students at Cal Poly threw a block party celebration called St.
Fratty's Day. Due to an inappropriate amount of students standing on roofs, a roof
collapsed and injured 8 people [13].

Appendix B: Interview Questions with John Ashbaugh

1.
2.
3.
4.

What is your role as Council Member?

What is your role in the implementation of the Noise Ordinance?
What is your opinion on how the Noise Ordinances performance?
Are there any alternative solutions instead of Noise Ordinance that you think could
work?

References
[1] Mustang News, "Penalties rise for party hosts, underage drinkers in SLO", 2009.
[2] A. Cornejo, "Stricter noise ordinance to go into effect in SLO next week", The Tribune, 2010.
[3] J. Ashbaugh, "Interview with John Ashbaugh", City Council Chambers, 2016.
[4] Mustang News, "IFC has record-breaking fall rush", 2014.
[5] B. DeLosSantos, "Quiet down, San Luis Obispo", Mustang News, 2012.
[6] A. Sedo, "Noise ordinances: fair to students or targeting the college population?", Mustang
News, 2010.
[7] S. Goldman, "Regulations Behind I.V. Party Life", The Santa Barbara Independent, 2015.
[8] A. Cornejo, "SLO considers whether to launch rental housing inspection program", The
Tribune, 2014.
[9] C. Lambert, "Cal Poly hosts walk in streets near campus to eyeball neighborhood concerns",
The Tribune, 2015.
[10] A. Klein and O. Woo, "8 Hurt in Roof Collapse at Crowded "St. Fratty's Day" Party Near
Cal Poly, SLO", NBC, 2015.
[11] S. Teaford, Cal Poly Student Housing South Fact Sheet, 1st ed. San Luis Obispo: Cal Poly,
2016.

Figures Cited Page

[13] SLOPD, SLO Fire Department, Twitter, St. Frattys Day. 2015.

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