Overriding concerns about traffic, parking and alteration of Mission Beach’s character, San Diego City Council voted 6-2 on April 11 to approve two separate parcels of a proposed 63-unit condo project on the former Mission Beach Elementary School site.
Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, whose 2nd District includes the beach areas between Point Loma and La Jolla, voted with the majority. The two dissenting votes were cast by 1st District Councilwoman Sherri Lighner and 3rd District Councilman Todd Gloria. Ninth District Councilwoman Marti Emerald was absent.
Some are calling the Mission Beach Residences project the biggest development in the beach community in the last 50 years.
Developer McKellar McGowan is proposing a total of 20 buildings housing 63 individual units in a mix of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and one single-family residence on the site at 825 Santa Barbara Place.
Closed in 1996 because of declining attendance, the former school and its 2.23 acres of prime coastal real estate were sold at auction by San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) for $18.5 million in May 2013 to the highest bidder, developers McKellar-Ashbrook LLC of La Jolla.
The project was previously opposed by the Mission Precise Planning Board (MPPB) but approved by the city Planning Commission. MPPB appealed the Commission’s support of the project to the City Council arguing the project, as presently construed, violates the community’s Planned District Ordinance (PDO), the community’s blueprint for development. Community planners insist the project as proposed takes liberties with lot sizes, which have remained unchanged since the community was first developed.
McKellar McGowan insists their project “will have a positive impact on Mission Beach and on our city … replacing this abandoned school site with beautiful homes and a public park … city planning staff found the project in compliance with the governing rules for the area, and the Planning Commission agreed when it gave its unanimous approval.”
On April 11, MB community planners Debbie Watkins and Dennis Lynch gave an organized presentation outline project opposition. The pair asked the City Council to “reconsider the Planning Commission’s rubber-stamp of the project.”
“This project would set an unwanted precedent for future development and change the way Mission Beach has been developed for more than 100 years,” said Watkins.
“We are not NIMBYs (not in my back yard),” testified Mission Beach Town Council president Fred Day. “We’re not opposed to any development on that site. We just oppose the development being proposed.”
Day implored the City Council to “send this back to our Precise Planning Board so we can work out a plan acceptable to both the developer and the community.”
Speaking for project proponents, developer Tim McGowan said “no one is trying to avoid proper mitigation for this project,” adding “We’ve actually gone the extra step (in environmental review).
One local resident, Matthew Gardner, an MB surf shop and rental owner, spoke in favor of the project noting, “I was against it at first but they (developers) changed my mind. I think this project is going to be great and have a positive impact.”
In the aftermath of the City Council vote, Mission Beach residents opposed to the project were mulling their alternatives, including the possibility of challenging the project as proposed in court with a lawsuit.