Local San Diego groups and community members took to the streets on Saturday to protest a proposed high-rise tower on Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach.
The project named “Vela” would be a hotel and condominium. The pushback stems from the size of the proposed development.
The development would stand 23 stories high in an area where most buildings are 30 feet high or below.
City of San Diego records show there would be 74 units for people to live in, of which 10 of them would be considered affordable housing. The other 139 units would be used as hotel rooms.
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“We are obviously concerned about 23-story building in a neighborhood where almost all buildings are 30 foot and the ones that are not 20 foot came in before Prop D,” said the President of San Diegans for Responsible Planning, Scott Chipman.
Proposition D was passed in 1972. It was a voter initiative that established a 30-foot maximum structure height in coastal areas of the City of San Diego.
Community members are concerned about the height, along with the impact on traffic, parking and more.
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“This street is not capable of handling that traffic. They’d need to redo the sewers, they would need to redo water lines,” Chair of Pacific Beach Planning Group, Marcella Bothwell said.
However, some people in the community are in support of the project.
“If they’re going to build affordable housing all through San Diego, it should allow them to build it here by the coast,” Steve Slagter said.
Critics of the project are also concerned this could just be the beginning.
“This is not the only street that this could occur on. On Turquoise, one side is in the coastal zone and one side is not. Morena Boulevard on the east side could all be high rises. The westside of Rosecrans could all be high rises, so this is really a watershed moment for the future of development in San Diego,” Chipman said.
Chipman, Bothwell and others said they will continue speaking out against the project and are committed to maintaining the current character of Pacific Beach.
