The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) and some Point Lomans are characterizing the March 19 decision by the San Diego Planning Commission to overturn a hearing officer\u2019s previous approval of a controversial apartment-to-condo conversion on Carleton Street as a “pivotal moment in slowing the destruction of the Roseville neighborhood\u2019s community character.”
\n“We (PCPB) appealed the hearing officer\u2019s approval of the map waiver for the four-unit Carleton project,” said PCPB chair Julia Quinn at the advisory group\u2019s March meeting. “We had concerns about the project, having been told it was two beds and 2.5 baths when it was actually three beds and 3.5 baths. “The commission was told there were also concerns about setbacks and with the project complying with the 30-foot coastal height limit. They approved our appeal,” she said.
\nRoseville is one of San Diego\u2019s oldest neighborhoods, dating back to the mid-1800s. PCPB planner Don Sevrens laid out many of the advisory group\u2019s concerns about condo conversions and map waivers in a letter posted on Nextdoor.com and on PCPB\u2019s Facebook page.
\n“The current trend is to tear down ancient single-family homes and replace them with three-story, multi-unit buildings, which can be erected without any hearing or public review,” said Sevrens. “To expedite their projects, developers apply to build apartments buildings, then later ask for conversion to condominiums in a process known as a map waiver.”
\nThe impact of apartment-to-condo conversions, Sevrens claimed, is to “change the face of Roseville without any public discussion or review, one project at a time.”
\nHowever, Sevrens also pointed out that, due to a quirk in the city\u2019s municipal code, a condo conversion requires a hearing before the area\u2019s advisory and elected citizen planning board.
\nIn November, the PCPB Board overwhelmingly recommended against the Carleton Street project\u2019s being converted to condos for a variety of reasons, including “deception” over the number of unit bedrooms and the project\u2019s alleged non-compliance with off-street parking requirements.
\nIn February, a hearing officer overruled the PCPB board but, according to later testimony, ordered that the units be recorded in official documents as three-bedroom condominiums.
\nThe final appeal then came March 19 before the appointed city Planning Commission. In a 5-1 vote (Commissioner Austin dissenting), the commission overturned the hearing officer\u2019s decision and sided with PCPB.
\n“The units, still not finished, will remain as rental apartments instead of being subdivided and sold as condominiums,” said Sevrens of the impact of the Planning Commission\u2019s decision.
\nCritics alleged there were many flaws, omissions and irregularities concerning the Carleton 4 project, with the most blatant being a miscount of bedrooms and bathrooms. Three-bedroom status for the four-unit building requires 13 parking spaces, and the project has only 12.
\nBoard chair Julia Quinn filed the appeal on the planning group\u2019s behalf and detailed the other flaws, alleging the building is 33 feet high, violating the area\u2019s 30-foot height limit, as well as being constructed without a grading permit and with other expired building permits.
\n“The third-floor \u2018lofts\u2019 or \u2018dens\u2019 contain closets and bathrooms and are really third bedrooms and violate municipal code parking requirements,” said Quinn on behalf of PCPB in a letter to the Planning Commission. “PCPB was concerned that the current city approval process allows building permits to be issued for apartments, without community review, and only subsequently allows communities to provide input during the map waiver process when the construction is (already) under way.”
\n\u00a0PCPB recommended that the Planning Commission deny the Carleton map waiver request due to alleged misrepresentation of the facts of the development, that the city\u2019s definition of what constitutes a “bedroom” is incorrect, that the permit for this project has already expired, that a grading permit for the project should have been required and that the right-of-way permit for new sidewalk, driveway, water service and sewer laterals had also expired.
\n“There is no further appeal,” said Sevrens noting PCPB chair Quinn said that, after a year, the developer could seek to get a waiver on the parking deficiency and file a new application.
\n“Meantime, board members and community activists say it is imperative that there be a dialogue on the race to density in Roseville and closer review of individual mult-unit projects,” Sevrens concluded.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) and some Point Lomans are characterizing the March 19 decision by the San Diego Planning Commission to overturn a hearing officer\u2019s previous approval of a controversial apartment-to-condo conversion on Carleton Street as a “pivotal moment in slowing the destruction of the Roseville neighborhood\u2019s community character.” “We (PCPB) appealed the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Carleton condo decision a 'pivotal moment' in Roseville neighborhood in Point Loma","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299090","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=299090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}