A new development in North Park that is blending luxury with transit-oriented living.
“The Parkline aims to show that you can live in San Diego without a car,” Malick Infill Development CEO Andrew Malick said.
The development that surrounds the Chicken Pie Shop off of El Cajon Boulevard offers more than traditional parking options.
“We have 28 motor vehicle parking spots. Typically that’s what you think about when you talk about parking, but we have a bike garage on-site that has 48 spots, 24 that would be able to support e-bikes with bike chargers adjacent to the bike rack and 24 for just a standard bike,” Malick said.
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The Parkline in North Park has 94 units but only 28 parking spots.
The complex has what Malick calls a transit-oriented lobby, with screens showing nearby bus lines.
Sustainable growth in the City of San Diego is said to be a driving force behind the concept.
“It is imperative that we transition to a city that can support multiple modes of transit. It’s necessary for our climate to transition away from automobile use and it is necessary just from a logistical standpoint. As our city grows, we can’t support everybody in a motor vehicle,” Malick said.
The venture was made possible by a recent change in parking rules in the City of San Diego.
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“The City has changed the parking rules. They did so several years ago. They relaxed the parking rules specifically to allow projects like this that have less parking and that is an attempt to keep those costs down and make it more feasible to build more housing that we need,” Vice Chair of City of San Diego Housing Commission Ryan Clumpner said.
"One of the things that people don't realize is that underground parking in particular is extremely expensive. So for example, per car, the parking can add $60-100,000 per apartment just to accommodate underground parking. That obviously has to be paid for by the residents in the long-run," Clumpner said.
"It's a major contributor to how unaffordable housing is," Clumpner added.
It is believed that similar projects to reduce housing costs could help solve the housing crisis in San Diego.
“Projects like this one are absolutely essential to dealing with our housing shortage and housing affordability crisis as well as our homelessness crisis which is all interconnected,” Clumpner said.
