Revitalizing La Mesa\u2019s west side and replacing blighted properties with thriving businesses or housing is something that Egelko believes can be accomplished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are maybe 20 troubled properties in west La Mesa, and that\u2019s it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a super achievable goal to take these properties and put something better there. And with each one we do, more people are going to be interested in these properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he sees the goal of turning around the west side as achievable, Egelko also thinks the city could be doing more to help make properties along University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard more attractive to brokers and developers.<\/p>\n
Red tape woes<\/strong><\/p>\n Egelko points to his experience in brokering two west side properties as reasons for his criticisms of La Mesa\u2019s red tape problem for developers.<\/p>\n Before it was brokered off to a housing developer, 7640 El Cajon Blvd. was a gas station in the 1950s, then a car dealership, and then an illegal marijuana dispensary.<\/p>\n \u201cThen [the dispensary] got shut down and it was La Mesa\u2019s worst piece of blight \u2014 there was grafitti all over it, there were homeless people there, there was trash.\u201d<\/p>\n And in addition to the state of the property, Egelko said it was particularly difficult to sell because of a \u201cserious lack of cooperation\u201d on behalf of the city in terms of issuing a permit for any kind of business moving in. The property fell out of escrow five times before being bought by a developer who is consolidating it with a neighboring property into an already planned housing development.<\/p>\n \u201cI had so many people who tried to [previously] buy this [property], but because the city\u2019s process to get a permit was so expensive and so lengthy to get approval, it wasn\u2019t feasible for anyone to make a deal there.\u201d<\/p>\n One prospective buyer was a car dealership, which Egelko thought would make permitting easy considering there was another car dealership there as early as 2016 that operated the same use and required the same permit.<\/p>\n \u201cBut [the city] wanted this guy to get an architect, to do a traffic study, to do a noise study \u2014 spend tens of thousands of dollars on consultants to get a permit to put in a business there that was previously there.\u201d<\/p>\n Another property, the old Light Bulb Centre at 7735 University Ave., Egelko had to broker twice because the first buyer ran into red tape that prevented the developer\u2019s plan to turn the building into housing from being profitable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey exhausted themselves trying to get the city on board to do this,\u201d Egelko said. \u201cThey burned through three different architects, they spent eight months going at trying to get it approved and the amount of money they were spending trying to go through the process was completely eating into the profits they were going to see if they were able to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n That development group eventually sold the property to DLS Investments, a larger development company, who are converting the building into La Mesa Lofts \u2014 a seven-unit housing project that will be a mix of studios and apartments. However, large development companies or a neighboring project coming in to scoop up these small distressed properties and turn them around is the exception, not the rule, according to Egelko.<\/p>\n \u201cPieces of blight like this are too small for a major developer who has the patience and the resources and capacity to deal with all the city bureaucracy,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the pieces of blight in La Mesa are smaller properties that it doesn\u2019t make the financial sense to go through all the fixed red tape that\u2019s associated with them.\u201d<\/p>\n It is that conundrum that worries resident and activist Craig Reed, who leads a group called Envision La Mesa that is dedicated to revitalizing west La Mesa.<\/p>\n \u201cWest La Mesa, with the way things are now, requires a certain level of sophistication,\u201d Reed said. \u201cMom and pops who come in, who live in the area and care about the area, to take a stab at it, they\u2019re going to end up [giving up] under the current system.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, only smaller developers would be interested in these blighted properties, but only larger ones have the resources to do anything with them.<\/p>\n Some blight ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n Egelko believes that La Mesa could make itself more attractive to small developers with a few changes to the permitting process.<\/p>\n One would be to consolidate down the types of businesses that need a conditional use permit (CUP) to open.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, tons and tons of businesses require conditional use permits,\u201d he said. \u201cWhereas, in San Diego, many of the businesses that require a CUP in La Mesa, in San Diego you just get a business license and you open up.<\/p>\n
![\"Blight](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/blight-jump.jpg\")
<\/a>