San Luis Obispo City Council discussed code enforcement priorities for safe and livable housing in a special meeting on Tuesday.
Since 2023, there were 168 requests to investigate fraternities and sororities, with 68 of them coming in the first four months of 2026, leading to 90 formal enforcement cases, according to Timmi Tway, the city’s community development director. Tway recommended that current regulations around fraternity and sororities to be reformed.
“Our current regulations are hard to enforce; it’s very hard for us to enforce them as they are,” Tway said. “So it could be beneficial to take a look and see what we could do to make them more enforceable or to make it more enticing for a fraternity or sorority to get the proper permit and to keep that permit.”
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Laurel Smith, a local resident who lives near Cal Poly, was the first to publicly comment during the meeting. She was staunchly critical of Cal Poly students who do not follow rules and regulations, fearing that some students feel above the law.
“They’re learning to disrespect the residents of this city who pay the taxes because if Cal Poly doesn’t respect us, why should they?” Smith said.
Smith was also critical of Cal Poly. Citing the St. Fratty’s day concert, which she claimed woke her brother-in-law from seven and a half miles away, she said she feels disrespected by the school.
“Cal Poly should follow the city ordinances instead of acting like a sovereign nation,” Smith said.
Presidents from several of Cal Poly’s fraternities such as Beta Theta Pi, Pi Kappa Phi, Delta Upsilon and Phi Sigma Kappa came and spoke in defense of their organizations, claiming the city’s enforcement of regulations is challenging for them.
Joshua Pinsky, a business sophomore and the president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, also spoke. He acknowledged that accountability was necessary for Greek organizations, but said that the current code enforcement structure is “not functioning effectively in the long term.”
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Pinsky said that his fraternity, which lost its conditional use permit in March, spent over 6,000 dollars in modification and appeal fees. He also said that he hoped a new system could be created that establishes “proactive accountability” that still allows for students to be a part of their neighborhoods.
“The current process focuses heavily on punishment and rereview, but not enough on collaboration, realistic operational standards, or long-term solutions,” Pinsky said.
Ela Wojewoda, a public health and political science sophomore, is the education vide president for Gamma Phi Beta. She expressed her love for her sorority and her fellow members, whom she thanked for being a great support system for her.
Wojewoda, however, urged the city council not to make it harder for Greek organizations to hold events, assuring that her sorority is committed to being good neighbors.
“Families and homeowners also host large gatherings and celebrations at their homes, and many of us are simply wondering whether those same expectations and event registration requirements would apply equally to all residents,” Wojewoda said.
A possible solution proposed by Tway and John Mezzapesa, the Code Enforcement Supervisor, was a “Overlay Enforcement Zone,” which could add stricter enforcement in areas closer to Cal Poly, and find incentives for fraternities and sororities to seek a Conditional Use Permit.
Another concern addressed by Tway and Mezzapesa was noise violations. While calls about noise violations are meant for the police department, Tway said that they still get noise complaints about parties and construction when code enforcement is not working.
“We’re a 24/7 shop that can respond to noise complaints of any kind,” said Aaron Schaffer, Deputy Chief of SLO PD.
Requests for investigations have increased across the board in recent years, according to Tway and Mezzapesa.
Tway reported an increase in requests for investigation from 556 in 2017 to 1259 in 2025, an increase of 122%. When reviewing the most common requests for investigations from 2023 to 2025, Mezzapesa reported that 259 requests were related to substandard rental housing, 153 requests were for noise violations and 149 were related to land usage (including disputes over fraternities and sororities).
Mezzapesa warned that the growing number of requests is making it harder for the enforcement division to respond more quickly and for longer, citing an increase in case requests responded to 1-14 days past due since 2023. From 2021 to 2023, most requests were responded to by their due date, according to Mezzapesa.
Tyler Coari, a Cal Poly graduate and organizer with the SLO Tenants Union, said that these delays are causing tenants to endure rent hikes, mold, maintenance workers entering unannounced, and other aspects of substandard housing. He urged the city to hire more code enforcement officers and improve the lives of renters.
“We are a city where nearly two-thirds of residents are renters and after a decade during which our leaders have done very little to materially improve conditions for renters,” Coari said.
Possible solutions discussed by Tway, Mezzapesa and councilmembers included reprioritizing certain requests for investigations or finding ways to raise more revenue for the code enforcement division.
“As workloads have increased, maintaining original response targets has been more challenging; however, even with those pressures, the majority of requests are still addressed with a relatively within a relatively short time frame,” Mezzapesa said.