Permit review
On May 28, 2025, there will be a re-review by the San Luis Planning Commision of the Conditional Use Permits of two fraternities, Delta Chi at 1236 Monte Vista Place and Sigma Nu at 1304 foothill Boulevard and 190 Crandall Way.
On receiving the notices form the City, they were published in a social media post shown below.
General Attitude
I think what is telling about the most upvoted comment in the post is the general feeling of disregard that the poster of that comment has for the neighborhoods that these fraternities live in. “Lfg, (Let’s f**king go) parties gonna be louder and bigger than ever”. If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet that a fraternity member commented. In 2022, we lived next door to a fraternity and dealt with their lifestyle.
Fraternity Sprawl
There are 18 fraternities in Cal Poly’s Interfraternity Council, and each has a main chapter house, mostly in R1 and R2 residential neighborhoods. The fraternities also have multiple “satellite” houses in residential neighborhoods. The negative impacts and issues have been discussed in great length here. This issue needs to be recognized publicly, discussed, and tackled.
Fraternity sprawl and invading neighborhoods are real issues for the residents of these neighborhoods, and no one understands the problem better than the people who live it. In the 2022-2023 school year, there were 60 illegal fraternities citywide that held verifiable events. Today, there are many more, predominantly affecting the neighborhoods around Cal Poly.
Fraternities are only allowed in R-3 and R-4 zones with a conditional use permit issued by the Planning Commission. Of the 18 fraternities in Cal Poly’s IFC only 6 have conditional use permits. Where are the other 13 main houses? In the neighborhoods of course. Holding events! ZBTahiti, Theta Kai-land, Dunk a dude, Car Washes, Dayges (Day time Rages) with cover charges. Philanthropic, I guess
Fraternity Housing?
At the May SCLC meeting, Colin Shea, the Cal Poly IFC (Interfraternity Council) President, gave a presentation on how fraternities are recruited to Cal Poly. Cal Poly is actively recruiting fraternities and by the next school year there will 20 fraternities in the IFC. Where will they live? At the end of the presentation the City Manager pressed Jason Mackford, the Senior Director of Leadership at Cal Poly about fraternity housing. He is essentially the person overseeing Greek life. He was queried on whether Cal Poly communicates to the fraternities about where they can and cannot live and legally hold events. The paraphrased response from Jason Mockford was that they (Cal Poly) does not communicate this information. They don’t have any input or care where the fraternities live, it’s not their issue. This was very telling about the attitude of Cal Poly Greek life. According to them, it’s the City’s problem.
Falling Short
This City and current council champion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; however, I feel those principles frustratingly fall short in the neighborhood where I live. My wife and I have repeatedly been told by fraternity members in our neighborhood that we should move and that we don’t belong here. The fraternity problem has become worse over the past few years.