Executives from Westfield attended last week’s University Community Planning Group (UCPG) meeting, asking members to support an upgrade of University Towne Centre mall, but the group voted the plan down 11-3.
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, to be built at the council’s Gold level. The shopping center design, which includes 250 new condo and apartment units, also upgrades existing features like an adjacent park and would create a new transit center.
Westfield designers used green technology, including recycled water, “cool roof” technology and recycled construction in the new plans.
Westfield officials have spent the past seven years attending community meetings in an attempt to please UC neighbors, they said. They presented their final plans May 13 to an unenthusiastic crowd.
Community members voiced their concerns, mainly regarding an increase in traffic and opening floodgates to other developers because upgrading the center isn’t in the community plan. But Westfield’s executives addressed each of the public’s fears.
“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.”
In addition to the green features, Bradhurst said an upscale department store “” not yet named “” agreed to meld into the new design: it would be the third anchor store. Design plans show upgrades to the current Macy’s and Nordstrom department stores, he said.
Bradhurst said many upscale cafes and restaurants agreed to come to the new UTC. A new “family-friendly” atmosphere with childcare centers and family parking will contrast the European-style cafes and shops.
A new state-of-the-art movie theater will include a restaurant and cocktail lounge, and a movie-buff usher will introduce both blockbusters and film festivals, Bradhurst said.
But community members at the meeting did not envision the same future as Westfield executives.
UCPG board member William Beck made a statement to attendees and Westfield executives, telling the community why he was not in support of the company’s upgrade plan.
“We see and know another side of Westfield,” Beck said.
Beck said he lives near UTC and he listed a number of problems, including a trash compactor with bad odor and rats. He asked Westfield to move the compactor because it was impacting his community but Westfield officials were unresponsive, according to Beck.
“They finally moved it,” he said. “It shouldn’t have taken the expansion plan to do that.”
Beck also said he asked Westfield to fund a traffic signal near the property, but officials said that is the city’s responsibility.
“I don’t know what we can do anymore,” Bradhurst said. “We moved the trash compactor and you can’t just put in a traffic signal wherever you want.”
Although UCPG voted against the plan, Westfield executives will continue to take their plans to upgrade the mall to the city of San Diego’s planning commission and then to the San Diego City Council.