Developers with McKellar-McGowan unveiled preliminary plans March 11 for a 63-unit, for-sale condominium complex on the 3.25-acre site of the old Mission Beach Elementary School at Mission Boulevard and Santa Barbara Place.
\nThe school, which has been lightly used since it was closed in 1996 because of declining student enrollment, is now to be razed to make way for the condo project.
\nIn 2013, San Diego Unified School District Board voted 4-1 to accept a bid of $18.5 million for the old Mission Beach Elementary School site.
\nThe principals of the development company, who joined forces in February, have\u00a0collectively developed more than 15,000 residential units, 2,500,000 square feet of office and industrial property and 5,000 units of master plans and subdivisions.
\nAt the March 11 informational meeting and Q&A session at Santa Clara Point Recreation Center, Chris McKellar, Tim McGowan and architect Chris Barlow gave a brief presentation, displayed conceptual architectural renderings of the project and fielded tough questions from residents.
\nConcerns were raised about the prospect of the condo project worsening traffic congestion, whether it presented a fire hazard and whether it might change the character of the beach community, including examples of noise and other problems by units being reused as short-term vacation rentals.
\nMcGowan said these individual, California coastal-style condo units that are 1,300 to 1,600 square feet in size will likely be priced at $900,000-plus. There will be four units in buildings likely to be constructed in phases.
\n“It will be in the higher-end range of what\u2019s in Mission Beach (now),” McGowan said, adding the complex will be run by a homeowner\u2019s association that will “control a lot of things.”
\n“The pattern of development is the same that\u2019s currently in Mission Beach, with front doors coming off courts and with parking in garages off alleys,” said Barlow.
\nMcGowan said the project originally had been proposed to have partial underground parking. But he said that idea was nixed by community planners and the city because it might “lose alleys, disrupt normal work patterns and threaten Mission Beach\u2019s character.”
\nPlans for the as-yet-unnamed development also call for it to include a small population-based park that would provide green space and could have public art. But it would not be a sit-down, picnic-style space.
\nMcGowan said construction on an approved project design would not likely begin for another year and a half, and take 18 months or more to complete once construction begins.
\nResidents weighed in.
\n“I have concerns about the (high) density and about it being a fire hazard, which is a concern to all of us living in the area because we just had a traumatic experience with a fire,” said one resident.
\n“I suggest low water-use landscaping,” said another resident.
\nOne prospective neighbor suggested there should be something in the terms of the sale of units requiring that those repurposed as vacation rentals be done on a month-by-month basis, rather than week-by-week to avoid noise and other problems.
\nOne resident challenged the project\u2019s appropriateness in general.
\n“You\u2019re not presenting anything here that\u2019s an asset to this community,” he said. “You\u2019re going to cause great difficulty for the community, and it\u2019s not a project I\u2019d like to see. Don\u2019t tell me you aren\u2019t maximizing profits.”
\nAfter the meeting, McGowan said developers will spend the next month making all necessary project submittals to the city.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Developers with McKellar-McGowan unveiled preliminary plans March 11 for a 63-unit, for-sale condominium complex on the 3.25-acre site of the old Mission Beach Elementary School at Mission Boulevard and Santa Barbara Place. The school, which has been lightly used since it was closed in 1996 because of declining student enrollment, is now to be razed […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Tough questions on planned condo project","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268816","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\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}