After delaying their decision in the fall, the La Mesa City Council has approved the original design plans for the Palm Street Ventures LLC apartment building, despite mixed opinions from business owners and residents.

The plans for a mixed-use building located at 4757 Palm Ave. was on the agenda in the city’s consent calendar on Jan. 10. And the council voted unanimously in favor, 4-0, with councilmember Lauran Lothian abstaining. Multiple residents came forward during the meeting to voice their opinions — some in favor, most opposed.

Lauren Cazares, a La Mesa resident, spoke in favor of the design during the public comment opportunity.

“‘Community character’ is used as a cop-out for not building these affordable and mixed-use housing,” Cazares said. “We need to move this forward so that we can move forward with affordable housing in the City of La Mesa. There is nothing that is going to take away the character of La Mesa Village. La Mesa Village is not being threatened. This is an empty lot that we are building on.”

However, Christine Miller, a business owner whose acupuncture office is across the street from the location, said she is concerned.

“I thought, ‘This can’t be for real,’” Miller said. “We were hoping it would stall out [in the fall]. We were hoping it would still stall out in January, but, evidently, that wasn’t the go.”

The number of parking spaces is one of the main concerns business owners like Miller have. The plans include 29 parking spaces which is less than one parking space per unit.

However, the parking and infrastructure of the plans were already settled by the planning commission last year, and the appeal process to request any changes have closed, according to La Mesa’s Director of Community Development, Kerry Kusiak.

“The design and review considered it back in August or September,” Kusiak said. “The planning commission, about that same time, looked at the site development plan. The planning commission approved the project and that’s the actual entitlement. That’s what says under law you can build the project.”

Moreover, due to California state legislation, specifically the State Density Bonus Law, developers are able to utilize certain incentives such as less parking and increased height which might otherwise be in contrast to local orders.

“By the time it got to the council, because it had been approved by the planning commission and there had been no appeal, the council’s discretion on whether or not to allow the project was pretty constrained,” Vice Mayor Colin Parent said. “It’s using California’s State Density Bonus Law. When projects include affordable homes, the applicant gets extra certainty and assurances that the government will approve the project.”

Another concern business owners and residents had about the approval process of these plans was the city’s communication.

Craig Maxwell, owner of Maxwell’s House of Books in the Village, said he didn’t know these plans were in the works until it was too late to voice his disapproval.

“By the time I heard about them, it was a fait accompli,” Maxwell. “It was obvious that the project was already slated to go and the council was going to approve it.”

Miller said she also would have appreciated notification.

“If the city wants to do things, I think they need to be a little more forthcoming even if they’re not required to let everyone know,” Miller said. “Whether we like it or not, just tell us about it.” However, the plans have been updated online throughout the process on the Active Developments Project website and an interactive map which contains the project’s renderings.

Since the project’s technical plans were approved by the planning commission, the city council could only review and vote on the design plans, according to Parent.

“There’s two different committees that have to approve it — the planning commission and design review board,” Parent said. “The planning commission approved it, but the only thing that came to the council was the design review question.”

When the initial design was presented to the council in October, various concerns were voiced which resulted in an alternative design being brought forward in January with minor color changes, according to Kusiak.

“The city council wanted to know information on how it was they were able to support the ratification of the design review board’s approval. In particular, they had some questions about climate action, health, some public and safety things about sidewalks and such, and somewhat the colors and appearance,” Kusiak said. “[The developer] came back with some modifications to the project that addresses the council’s questions.

Brian Garmo, Palm Street Ventures LLC partner, said that the changes that were made were minor.

“We did propose some lighter colors/alternate colors,” Garmo said. “More or less, the design of the project has stayed pretty consistent. There’s been no drastic changes.”

The original design ended up moving forward.

Joel Christman, a resident living near the Village, said he was disappointed that the minor changes weren’t approved.

“I was disappointed for two reasons. The first one was that it was approved. The second one was that there was a proposal to change some of the colors of it to make it blend in a bit more with the city, and that wasn’t even accepted,” Christman said.

While some residents retain their dislike of the plans, the developer, Jason Meram, said in the council meeting that the goal with this building is to build up the village, not disrupt.

“We’re not an outside agency,” Meram said. “I want you guys to understand that we are not an outside organization that’s coming in here and trying to disrupt the downtown. We’re looking to help rebuild it.”

Garmo also said that these plans have the potential to address the lack of housing La Mesa is currently experiencing.

“The city has identified the fact that they need more housing so we’re trying to fill that void,” Garmo said. “We are offering some affordable units as well which I think will bring some opportunity for people that weren’t able to move into La Mesa before.”

Parent said that even with the nuanced issue of housing in La Mesa he would like to see the community welcome the new building.

“The one thing I would say is there’s lots of different perspectives about how much housing we should build or where it should be located,” Parent said. “I think those are fair questions for debate. But I’m really hoping that La Mesans can embrace our new neighbors when we have them and welcome them into our community.”

The next step in the process requires the developers to create construction drawings and present those to the city for a building permit.

To stay up to date on these plans, you can visit the Active Development Projects website and the interactive map. Residents can also sign up to receive alerts regarding agendas for any of the City’s boards and commissions, including the Design Review Board and Planning Commission, through the City website.

Additionally, all city council agendas are available online for the public.

Photo by Kendra Sitton