Days after San Luis Obispo City Councilmember Jan Marx complained about a parking issue in her neighborhood, city staff extended a painted red curb in front of the house of former SLO Chief Building Official Michael Loew—eating into the street parking space once regularly used by him and his wife.
“A white Silverado pickup truck … has been parked at the corner of San Luis Ranch Road and Froom for weeks, without moving,” Marx wrote in a Feb. 27 AskSLO complaint to the city. “Also the curb in that space should be painted red, given the close proximity of the fire hydrant and the crosswalk. … It is hard to avoid hitting the truck, exiting the roundabout and entering the neighborhood.”
Marx and the Loews live at the San Luis Ranch housing development—part of a mix of residential, commercial, and office buildings including SLO Ranch Farms and Marketplace.
The City Council member is on temporary medical leave and didn’t respond to New Times’ request for comment.
Marx’s complaint is based on a 2024 state law often called “daylighting” that prohibits parking near crosswalks even if red curbs and signage aren’t set up. It’s designed to boost pedestrian visibility and reduce traffic accidents.
Under that law, vehicles can’t be parked within 20 feet—about the length of a large car—before a crosswalk or intersection, and within 15 feet of fire hydrants or driveways. In the last half of 2025, city staff’s public awareness efforts around the law included strategic installation of curb markings and appropriate signage, even if they weren’t legally required to do so.
The red curb by the Loews’ house is near both a marked crosswalk and a fire hydrant. According to Marx, her measurements found the red curb to be 14 feet long. She told city staff it needs to be painted to add at least 2 feet to meet the 15-foot requirement under California Vehicle Code 22514. That regulation doesn’t allow people to stop, park, or leave standing any vehicle within 15 feet of a fire hydrant unless it’s attended by a licensed driver in the front seat.
“Extending the red curb all the way to the driveway would make sense, given that cars which presently park in that space often block traffic coming into the neighborhood, especially when cars on the opposite side of the street are trying to exit into the roundabout,” Marx wrote in a second complaint to the city on Feb. 28.
City correspondence—publicly available because of Michael
Loew’s March 13 records request to the city—show Marx’s complaints, photos she took identifying his truck and a measuring tape along the length of the red curb, and emails from city staff confirming a curb extension work order sent two days after receiving Marx’s second complaint.
Michael’s wife, Jacqueline Loew, told New Times she knew who complained about the curb prior to her husband filing the records request because a neighbor alerted her that Marx took pictures of the Loew house and truck on Feb. 27.
“Jan didn’t like that we were parked there; she said it was difficult getting into the development and it was creating traffic,” Jacqueline said. “We responded to the city, like the whole point of narrow streets is to slow down traffic. … Michael was just reminding the city that even with the inclusion of bike lanes around the city, the intent is always to slow down traffic, and it’s a natural deterrent.”
Jacqueline added that the city didn’t notify them about the investigation into the red curb length or that it got extended. She said she came home from work one day in March to find that she couldn’t park her truck in its usual spot. The city had repainted the red curb to eliminate the parking space.
City Transportation Planner-Engineer Brian Wheeler asked to meet the Loews outside their house to explain why they lost their parking spot, according to Jacqueline. But the couple denied his request because they wanted a clear explanation in writing.
“When we first complained, they said that there were design constraints and that those needed to be explained to us,” she said. “Essentially, [they] just justified it based on those inaccurate measurements. Then, it seemed to be at the immediate request of a council member.”
Through Michael’s experience as the chief building officer, the couple was able to secure accurate curb measurements.
“The original red curb was extended to exactly 15 feet beyond the fire hydrant, which left a total of 19 feet, 4 inches to the edge of our driveway apron,” Jacqueline said. “Those are the true measurements before all of this happened, and Jan’s measurements were incorrect.”
When the Loews contacted the city, she said, staff claimed they weren’t going to correct the extended red curb. Instead, they wanted to look at “options moving forward.” Jacqueline said she last heard from the city on April 1.
The city restarted the conversation with Michael on April 7—hours after New Times filed record requests for communications among all parties related to the San Luis Ranch Road red curb extension. According to an April 7 email to Michael—forwarded to New Times by a city paralegal—Assistant Director of Public Works Madeline Kacsinta admitted the calculation error on the city’s part.
“Upon re-evaluation, we found that while daylighting requirements … do apply, there is enough space to maintain those safety standards and retain a minimum 18-foot parking space in front of your home,” Kacsinta wrote. “The original measurements were overly conservative, and we apologize for that. We will be correcting this by restoring the 18-foot parking space and adjusting the curb striping accordingly.”
Kacsinta also apologized to Michael, adding that city staff “did not know who lived at the subject property.” She said that the transportation staff’s review was solely based on location and applicable safety standards.
Kacsinta told New Times that the city receives thousands of submissions to the AskSLO public engagement platform.
In 2025, they responded to more than 2,000 AskSLO requests, including reports of traffic signal issues and illegal parking and requests to remove abandoned shopping carts and for street repairs.
‘We regret the mistake. To help avoid similar situations in the future, staff will make a reasonable effort to provide advance notice when changes occur directly in front of a residence, particularly when it appears the space is regularly in use.’
—Madeline Kacsinta, SLO assistant director of Public Works
Jacqueline told New Times that Marx never talked to the couple about the issue. She still has concerns about how local government is operating and told the SLO City Council about it during the April 7 meeting.
“We also explained that the public record showed the space actually complied with the laws and standards being cited to justify removing it,” Jacqueline said at the meeting. “That did not produce a meaningful response. In fact, there was silence until today’s media attention, and that matters.”
“We regret the mistake,” she said. “To help avoid similar situations in the future, staff will make a reasonable effort to provide advance notice when changes occur directly in front of a residence, particularly when it appears the space is regularly in use.”
On April 13, she returned home to a street update. The city had removed the red curb but shortened the former parking space by 1 foot, still preventing the Loews from parking their truck there. The couple now plans to file an appeal.
“It seems Jan still got what she wanted because we can’t legally park our vehicle as we had prior to the city’s intervention,” Jacqueline said via text.
Kacsinta told New Times that staff is reviewing the change and isn’t planning to reduce the available parking space.
“From time to time, discrepancies can occur between plans and field conditions during installation,” she said, “which is why we are currently sending staff back out to verify the measurements and confirm the striping was installed as intended.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in April 16-23, 2026.