Despite objections from University City residents and University Community Planning Group (UCPG) members who voted against the project, City of San Diego Planning Commission members approved the expansion of Westfield’s University Towne Centre June 12 by a vote of 5-1, with conditions attached.
Westfield executives repeatedly returned to UCPG, asking members to support a design to expand the shopping center, but many facets exceed UTC’s previous design inside the community plan, so UCPG members voted the center’s expansion down two consecutive months
According to Jonathan Bradhurst, Westfield’s senior vice president of U.S. development, the new UTC/La Jolla would not only be environmentally friendly but the first shopping center in the United States approved by the U.S. Green Building Council, built at the group’s Gold level.
Additionally, Bradhurst said the center would be an asset to the community, focusing on the neighborhood’s fears of breaking the community plan.
Westfield officials said they spent the past seven years attending community meetings in an attempt to please UC neighbors.
“It took us seven years to get here,” Bradhurst said. “It was exhaustive. It does not set any precedent. It shows the strength of the community planning process.”
The shopping center design includes 250 to 300 residential condominium and apartment units, upgrades of existing features like an adjacent park and a new transit center. Westfield designers used green technology including recycled water, “cool roof” technology and recycled construction in the new plans.
Community members and UCPG board members, including developer George Lattimer, voiced their concerns ” mainly an increase in traffic and opening floodgates to other developers because upgrading the center isn’t in the community plan.
Tim Daly, the project’s manager for the City of San Diego, worked as liaison between Westfield and the city. Daly said the area needs additional permits to allow the new design, which proposes to include a new pedestrian bridge, and to expand and relocate the existing transit center with help from SANDAG and TRANSNET.
The planning commission attached two conditions to the approval, said Tim Golba, planning commissioner for the City of San Diego.
“There were minor additional conditions attached,” Golba said. “We asked them to remove the uncertainty regarding the street-level retail along La Jolla Village Drive and Genesee Avenue.”
In the project, they used qualifiers such as ‘where possible’ and ‘if possible,’ Golba said. So the planning commission wanted to make sure Westfield pushed the extra 75 percent retail to the sidewalk, creating more of an urban setting, according to Golba.
The planning group said it wanted confirmation Westfield would fill space with more retail stores.
“The other condition was that future conformance reviews were required to be direct mailings,” Golba said. “Within 300 feet, everyone gets a notice.”
Currently, Westfield can post notice inside a newspaper, but planning commission members said they want to make sure property owners receive proper notice.
Community members attending the last UCPG meeting and the city’s planning commission meeting did not envision the same future as Westfield executives. Instead of increased revenue, jobs and homes, citizens saw an increase in traffic and pollution and an opening of the floodgates to more development.
But the planning commission members said they thought Westfield compromised and made many design changes.
“There were some good modifications,” Golba said. “They deserved credit. We’re accepting staff’s recommendation and it’s going straight to city council.”
The approved Westfield UTC expansion plan will continue its path to the San Diego City Council. For more information, go to www.sandiego.gov.
For more information about UCPG, go to www.uc-planning-group.com.