Overriding neighbors’ and planners’ concerns, the city Planning Commission May 26 voted 5-1 to deny an appeal of developer’s plans to build two homes on a split lot some Ocean Beach neighbors consider undersized for the project.
Developer’s plans are to demolish the existing single-family home at 2257 Froude St., and build two new, 1,814-square-foot homes each over a 1,073-square-foot basement/two-car garage on two legal lots.
The project site is unique in a number of ways, not the least being that the street on that it sits straddles two different planning areas – Point Loma and Ocean Beach.
“It seemed to me we were being patronized,” said nearby project neighbors Judy and Tom Parry, retired schoolteachers, who contend the proposed project is oversized and out of character with the surrounding neighborhood.
Parry noted both OB and Peninsula community planning boards, several of whose members spoke at the May 26 planning commission hearing, overwhelmingly opposed to the project.
“I don’t know why we even have planning boards if (the city) is not going to pay attention to their recommendations,” Judy Parry said. She added however that one commissioner threw them a bone in the form of a suggestion to developers that the project might be “softened some by putting in some boxed green trees and some palm trees for shade – things they haven’t done yet.”
Parry contends the project, as presently construed, is “all glass, wood and concrete on the exterior” with “no lawn, no green – no nada.”
Jon Linney, chair of Peninsula Community Planning Board, said the advisory group was displeased by the Commission’s decision on the Froude Street development.
“This McMansion project of two houses on 25-foot lots is a classic example that problems just don’t end at imaginary boundary lines,” Linney said. “We also are seeing problems that can only be addressed if several agencies on the Peninsula take concerted action.  Like the FAA flight pattern changes.
“As the new chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, I plan to invite the chief executives of various organizations – Peninsula, Ocean Beach and Midway planning boards, Point Loma Association, Ocean Beach Town Council and Ocean Beach Development Corp – to a lunch so we can discuss common problems. That way, in the future help can be just a phone call away.”
Linney added it was ironic that the Ocean Beach Planning Board was never informed by the city staff of a horrible project just 20 feet outside its district noting the city’s response was, “We weren’t required to.” Yet the argument that seemed to carry the most weight with the appointed planning commissioners was that a number of McMansions had popped up in Ocean Beach, so why not have a couple on narrow lots in the Peninsula district?
Linney said he felt commissioners “completely ignored that Ocean Beach has had enough forced density, resulting in the outrage and successful defense of the new Ocean Beach Community Plan.”
“The Peninsula board should consider reducing its density standard to match the Ocean Beach limit – a building can occupy only 70 percent of the lot,” said Don Sevrens, who represented the PCPB in its appeal to the San Diego Planning Commission.
The planning commission’s decision on Froude Street is not appealable to the City Council. The Parrys said they are considering whatever alternatives may be available to continue challenging the project.