The city of San Diego may be able to deny a proposal for a 23-story, mixed-use high-rise in the Pacific Beach neighborhood.
The project quickly gained the attention of community members for its intent to burst the nearby 30-foot Coastal Height Limit in the area. It also stoked a curiosity among San Diego City Council representatives to understand their power when it comes to the State Density Bonus Law.
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The proposed project would take over the lots of several existing small businesses on Turquoise Street — including popular restaurant and bakery The French Gourmet — and build a more than 200-unit high-rise.
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Of those units, 74 would be residential and 10 of those would be for very low and moderate income households, and 139 others would be “visitor accommodation units,” which are considered commercial and would be for short-term renters, according to the multi-use building permits submitted to the city of San Diego's Development Services Department. The permits also list that the building plans to have two levels of underground parking and a ground-floor commercial space.
“The initial reaction was a little bit of disbelief,” San Diego Council President Joe LaCava, who represents District 1, told NBC 7. “I just found it so unbelievable that somebody would propose something like this [in Pacific Beach].”
LaCava explained that housing projects that fall under state legislation, like this one, do not typically make their way to city council since they only need ministerial approval from staff. However, in this case, the council found out about the project and felt they had to learn more about what their options were.
“It was so unusual, and it was so aggressive in its interpretation of state law,” he said. LaCava shared that he felt the state law “had a noble cause” to make building affordable housing more attractive for developers, but that it is not doing what it should in San Diego.
“For the city of San Diego, it’s particularly frustrating because, unlike other cities up and down the state, we’ve been very aggressive to try to make it very easy to build housing,” he said. “So, these things tie our hands.”
In mid-September, the city reached out to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for “technical assistance” to clarify if this project accurately falls under the State Density Bonus Law. LaCava said it “took a while” for a response, but they learned two important components that could force the proposal to be changed.
“It’s not a matter of if you don't like it or if you think it’s too tall,” he explained. “You have to go through a thoughtful process to actually determine that the waivers they’re seeking, that the coastal height limit they're trying to ignore, actually is a financially critical component to be able to deliver those affordable units.”
This is an analysis that the city plans to ask the developer, Kalonymus, to do, however, LaCava said they are prepared to do an independent one, if needed. He explained that there would need to be substantial evidence to prove that the building does not need all of the additional units to support the affordable ones.
The other component that the city will look at are the “visitor accommodation units.” LaCava said they “really go against the idea of building residential buildings.”
Overall, he said, the city wants to ensure “the state legislation actually achieves what the goal was, as opposed to unintended consequence.”
As for if he feels this 23-story project will come to fruition, he said there’s a “real opportunity” that it will not happen, but that doesn’t mean the development will go away completely.
“What will go there remains to be seen,” LaCava said.
NBC 7 reached out to Kalonymus for a response but did not hear back.
