(Foto por Jeff Clemetson)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSchupp pointed out another major rental project at the Grossmont Transit Center in La Mesa has been developed with 527 units (15 percent affordable). In that project, underground parking was required for transit use. MTS leased the property for 99 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe project revenue to be more than $600 million over the length of the lease,\u201d Schupp added.<\/p>\n
Circulate San Diego, a regional nonprofit dedicated to advancing mobility, has proposed alleviating the affordable housing crunch by transforming MTS parking lots into low-income housing. Circulate\u2019s proposal, published in the Real Opportunity report, shows MTS has at least 57 acres of available property, much of it underutilized transit parking lots.<\/p>\n
Circulate San Diego has gone on record estimating those marketable MTS properties could support development of 8,000 new dwelling units, of which 3,000-plus could be reserved as permanently affordable low-income housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMTS is planning to create a manual for processing these projects within three months,\u201d said Colin Parent, Circulate\u2019s executive director and general counsel. \u201cWe anticipate at least the start of the RFPs to begin in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without disclosing any sources, Parent added, \u201cThere has been a variety of interest from developers. Proposals have already been submitted to MTS for the Grantville site, and the E Street site. After the publication of our report, we have heard from about a dozen developers asking for additional information about opportunities with MTS properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two spokespersons for the San Diego Housing Federation, which advocates for regional affordable housing, said reuse of underutilized trolley parking lots is a step forward. But they insist some of the rules of the game need to be changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve pushed for is an analysis of the needs and demands on each site, and respond to that,\u201d Russell said asking, \u201cIf only 10 percent of a site is used, why should you have to replace 100 percent of the parking?\u201c<\/p>\n
Federation policy director Laura Nunn said providing affordable housing in MTS parking lots serves two purposes: reducing greenhouse gas emissions while offering low-income residents a viable transportation option.<\/p>\n
\u201cLower-income households have a much lower propensity to own cars,\u201d Nunn noted. \u201cLower-income households also live more densely, with more people per dwelling. By having a dedicated percentage of affordable housing near transit, it aligns with the goal of promoting transit ridership, which also helps reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. It makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
MTS is all in on helping out where it can with affordable housing development, said Schupp. But he added it is only one small answer to finding an overall solution to the affordable housing crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MTS board supports the full development of our property as Transit Oriented Development is critical for our region\u2019s growth and achievement of Climate Action Plan goals,\u201d Schupp said. \u201cWe will be more aggressive in marketing the properties. But even at full build-out, MTS will deliver only a small portion of the new housing needed in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schupp noted estimates are that the regional shortfall of affordable housing presently exceeds 100,000 units. He described Circulate San Diego\u2019s estimate of accommodating 8,000 affordable housing units on MTS\u2019s approximately 60 available transit station acres as overly ambitious from a zoning perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis equates to 133 units per gross acre,\u201d Schupp said. \u201cThere is no land outside of Downtown with zoning that allows that kind of density. Also, that kind of development would require Class A mid-rise buildings, which is very expensive to build and doesn\u2019t pencil out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The property at Grantville, cited Schupp, is zoned for 109 units per acre. \u201cBut feasibility studies show that the land can only support between 40 and 53 units per gross acre,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the effort to fully develop these properties \u2014 which is in everyone\u2019s best interest \u2014 is going to require city zoning changes. And the 8,000 units, however attractive, is likely not achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Characterizing the leveraging of public space for affordable housing as \u201cgood,\u201d Russell added, \u201cWe need to think smart because the scale of the problem is enormous. Every dollar spent on housing in public spaces helps us achieve our goals of promoting transit ridership and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell is optimistic about ultimately finding ways to supply the growing need for affordable housing region wide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is solvable,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to take a long time, and it\u2019s going to take a series of actions, like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Dave Schwab is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Reach him at dschwabie@journalist.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Por Dave Schwab<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":225599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11558","_seopress_titles_title":"MTS OKs transit center housing developments","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11558,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-times-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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