We moved to San Diego in 1961.

I don’t have much recollection of Grantville as it was then but I remember Mission Valley dairy pastures, buying milk and eggs at Golden Arrow, and a truck farm in front of the Mission (along Friars Road before realignment).

Zoned for light industrial in 1949, Grantville became a fascinating mix of thriving small businesses offering a wide variety of goods and services. To list those businesses would take up the whole of my allotted space. Rather, I invite you to go to Google Maps, center on Twain and Mission Gorge, and focus in. As you do the names of so many, many businesses will pop up.

The question is, “What is happening in Grantville?”

The answer to that question begins with the 2015 Grantville Focused Plan Amendment (FPA) that addressed the existing mix of mostly older, underutilized commercial activities, and the variety of auto-dependent commercial service uses that are maintained in older industrial type structures. The plan envisions a transition to transit-supported residential, workforce housing, and local neighborhood retail with new commercial and employment opportunities.

Grantville begins at the north near Old Cliffs and Mission Gorge Road and runs south between the river and Mission Gorge to I-8. The 2015 FPA zoning provides for apartment buildings with residential dwelling spaces above first floor commercial and retail businesses. At the north the density is one unit per 1,500 square feet of lot area with an automobile orientation. As you move south the emphasis shifts to pedestrian access to the trolley station and the density gradually increases from 1,000, to 600, to 400 square feet of lot area for each unit. That is kind of technical.

We get a better idea of what this 2015 plan means by taking a look at several new developments (more construction in the area pictured above).

Zephyr at Mission Gorge and Greenbriar is exclusively market rate apartments with no retail. Vora on Twain to the west of Mission Gorge consists of 725 market rate apartments built in four stories over the first floor commercial/retail spaces. Gravity on Mission Gorge Place is a variation on the theme with “live/work” units on the first floor, units constructed with the back of the unit as residential and the front for the resident’s business, and four stories of market rate apartments in the four stories above. The development at the Grantville Trolley Station is the densest allowed under the FPA. Other than the commercial areas occupied by Home Depot, Toyota, Soapy Joe’s, and Honda the whole of Grantville will become a community of apartment buildings such as these.

Generally, that is what the 2015 FPA expected for Grantville. But then “Affordable Housing” and “Transit Priority Areas” entered the building codes.

Affordable Housing and Transit Priority Areas provide incentives in excess of what is allowed under the 2016 FPA. Affordable housing allows a developer to increase density on condition that a share of the units are reserved for lower income residents at a lower rent. Transit Priority Area allow increased housing density and reduced provisions for parking along public transit lines. The net effect of Affordable Housing and Transit Priority Areas is to encourage density well in excess of what is already allowed by the 2015 FPA zoning density and to reduce the number parking spaces for residents.

Developers are required to pay Developer Impact Fees (DIF) to offset the costs for Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) that are needed for infrastructure in the areas covered by the local community planning groups. The Navajo Community Planners, Inc, (NCPI) has recommendation authority for the use of those funds in Grantville, Allied Gardens, San Carlos, and Del Cerro. By example, at the request of the NCPI a significant portion of the $7,000,000.00 on hand has been designated for the San Carlos Library construction. The Navajo communities could see another $10,000,000.00 from Grantville development.

So long as the developments meet the 2015 FPA and construction standards they are not discretionary. They are ‘by right” and the developers are not required to follow the process that requires a recommendation by the Navajo Community Planners, Inc. (NCPI).

Nevertheless, most developers seek and follow recommendations from NCPI. But there is a movement pending that calls for a significant reduction of the involvement of Community Planning Groups in local development. There is a similar movement to reduce the Community Planning Groups’ control over the DIF that comes from local development.

We must preserve the benefits of the 2015 Grantville FPA. We must preserve our right to control our neighborhoods and to mitigate the impact of local development. We must preserve our control over funds for capital improvements.

To do so we must speak out and insist that all developments, including those that can be permitted “by right,” are channeled through our community planning groups.

We must let our elected officials know that the public, speaking through their community planning groups, is the final voice to be heard on development.

– Shain Haug is president AGGCC.