A local nonprofit opposed to a developer’s plans to construct 63 condos on two separate parcels on the former Mission Beach Elementary School site have filed a lawsuit challenging the City Council’s approval of the project.
Attorney Cory Briggs May 10 filed the lawsuit on behalf of Mission Beach Citizens for Responsible Development.
On April 11, overriding concerns about traffic, parking and alteration of Mission Beach’s character, San Diego City Council voted 6-2 in favor of the condo project, which had previously been unanimously approved by the city Planning Commission.
The lawsuit maintains project opponents have “exhausted administrative remedies” while arguing that “the public will suffer irreparable harm” as a result of developers alleged “violations of applicable laws.”
The crux of the suit is the contention that an environmental impact report required by the California Environmental Qualities Act (CEQA) for the project was inadequate.
“The project’s EIR,” the suit says, “fails to provide adequate identification and analysis of traffic, parking and transportation, air quality, community character, noise and cumulative impacts. … the EIR fails to provide adequate identification and analysis of measures to mitigate the project’s significant adverse environmental impacts and fails to eliminate or substantially reduce all such impacts. … The project’s approval will result in increased traffic and the demand for parking in a location that already suffers from too much traffic and too little parking.”
Briggs declined comment on the lawsuit other than to say, should it go to court, there’s only a slight chance that could happen this year.
“It’s unlikely to go to court,” Briggs said, noting project opponents remain open to negotiations with developer McKellar McGowan. “We’ll probably be sitting down with them in the not-too-distant future,” he added.
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.
Two projects are actually in play: Mission Beach Residences and Santa Barbara Place Residences. 17 multi-family buildings with 51 units ranging from 1,220 to 2,310 square feet in a mix of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and one single-family residence on a 1.88-acre site with a project density of 27.1 units per acre north of Santa Barbara Place; and Santa Barbara Place Residences, three fourplex buildings with 12 units on a 0.34-acre site with a project density of 35.3 units per acre with units ranging from 1,265 square feet to 1,345 square feet. Each unit has two dedicated parking stalls in a private garage.
The combined condo project was previously opposed by the Mission Precise Planning Board, which appealed the commission’s support of the project to City Council, arguing the project as presently construed violates the community’s Planned District Ordinance, 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. Mission Beach’s zoning was laid out in the early 20th century by San Diego developer and sugar heir John Spreckels.
Some are calling the Mission Beach Residences project the biggest development in the beach community in the last 50 years.
Closed in 1996 because of declining attendance, the former Mission Beach Elementary School and its 2.23 acres of prime coastal real estate were sold at auction by San Diego Unified School District for $18.5 million in May 2013 to the highest bidder, developers McKellar-Ashbrook LLC of La Jolla.