By Anthony Wagner

A new look and feel is coming to Grantville and your opinion is important and valued as part of the City’s development process.

With over 8,000 new multi-family units proposed and $50 million in developer impact fees, chances are pretty good it will eventually affect you. New roads will be built along with the potential for a new library, river-based parks, a fire station and supplemental funding for our local schools.

It’s all documented in the long awaited Grantville DRAFT Programmatic Environmental Impact Report which has been published and released by the City and is available for public review on the city’s website at: sandiego.gov/planning/community/cpu/grantvillemasterplan/index.shtml

The proposed Focused Plan Amendment (FBA) will set out the long-range vision and comprehensive policy framework for how Grantville could develop over the next 20 to 30 years through a Community Plan Amendment to the Navajo Community Plan. It will provide policy direction for future development and has been guided by the citywide policy direction contained in the city of San Diego General Plan.

The proposal includes promoting mixed-use, transit-oriented development with pedestrian and bicycle orientation, and allow for approximately 4,594 dwelling units in the area surrounding the existing Grantville trolley station and 3,681 dwelling units throughout the rest of Grantville.

Based on the analysis and conclusions of environmental impact report, implementation of the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable impacts to the following issue areas: land use (related to noise), transportation/circulation, air quality, and noise (operational).

Traffic has always been a chief concern of the community. Implementation of the proposed FPA would increase density and ultimately result in a significant increase in traffic within the proposed FPA area including access to Interstate 8 and 15. The city hopes to abate some of the future traffic problems by restriping some of the major intersections in Grantville.

The public comment period for you to submit your questions and comments was going to be Feb. 2 but Councilmember Scott Sherman worked with Development Services to extend the deadline to Feb. 17 because there has been a limited public response to the document. The public comment period is an opportunity for you to comment regarding the adequacy of the document.

Please send your written comments to the following address:  Rebecca Malone, Environmental Planner, City of San Diego Planning Department, 1222 First Ave., MS 501, San Diego, CA 92101 or e-mail your comments to [email protected] with the project name Grantville Focused Plan Amendment and project number 346289 in the subject line.

—I’m Anthony Wagner, president of Allied Gardens – Grantville Community Council.  We represent the community interests of Allied Gardens and Grantville. Check out our new website at AlliedGardens.org. Feel free to call me at 619-253-4989 or write me a note at [email protected] or tweet @AnthonyWagnerSD.