By Jeremy Ogul

The La Mesa Planning Commission on May 22 voted 4-2 to reject the latest version of the Park Station Specific Plan, which would rezone 4.54 acres of land near the core of La Mesa’s downtown village.

Members of the Kitzman family, through their South Baltimore LLC, have been asking the city to adopt a new specific plan for their property that would allow a higher density and intensity of development than is currently allowed under existing zoning.

Today the property — bounded by Baltimore Drive to the west, the Interstate 8 ramps to El Cajon Boulevard to the north, Nebo Drive to the east and the American Legion Post 282 to the south — is home to used car and RV dealerships.

The latest version of the proposed Park Station Specific Plan would allow building heights up to 75 feet (down from last year’s proposal of 110 feet), up to 363 dwelling units (down from 500 in last year’s proposal) or up to 250 hotel guestrooms on the property. Parking would be required at a ratio of 1.25 spaces per dwelling unit.

Park Station development consultant Sherm Harmer said they need 75-foot building heights to accommodate a hotel. The hotel they have in mind would be six stories, with a lobby and meeting space on the first two floors and approximately 150 guestrooms on the upper floors. The hotel would have about 15,000 square feet of common space, enough for a grand ballroom that could hold an audience of 500-600 people in a theater seating arrangement or 400 people in a banquet arrangement.

“We think there’s a lot of public demand for a hotel,” Harmer said.

La Mesa Chamber of Commerce CEO Mary England said her organization’s board of directors voted unanimously to support the Park Station plan because of the lack of meeting and hotel space in the city.

While the La Mesa Community Center is adequate for smaller events, there is no air-conditioned space in the city that can appropriately accommodate an event of 300 people or more, England said.

“We don’t want to be doing ‘Taste of La Mesa’ in Mission Valley,” she said.

There is also the matter of keeping up with La Mesa’s much larger neighbor to the East.

“El Cajon is getting a Marriott,” England said. “We’d like to be competitive and on a level playing field with them.”

Harmer, the Park Station consultant, suggested that without the Park Station Specific Plan, it would be difficult for South Baltimore to secure the financing necessary to build a hotel along these lines, Harmer said.

“It’s about a $250 million investment, the whole project, and it requires a certain amount of certainty to be able to move the capital for that,” he said.

The majority of Planning Commission members, however, were not convinced there was a strong enough justification to throw out the existing zoning and adopt a new specific plan.

The Park Station site is already contained within the Downtown Village Specific Plan, which allows building heights up to four stories, with taller building heights and greater density allowed under certain circumstances. Commissioner Jim Newland pointed out that if the property owners want to exceed the parameters of the existing Downtown Village Specific Plan, they can apply for discretionary approval on individual projects through the Planning Commission and City Council.

“I’m open to some creativity and some good design and a really good project that we can approve, but I just don’t think [a new specific plan] is the right vehicle to make it happen,” Newland said.

Commissioner Noah Alvey said that approving a new specific plan could inadvertently send a message that the Planning Commission believes the city’s existing land use plans are inadequate. It could also encourage the owners of other large properties, such as the nearby Vons shopping center, to seek their own specific plans.

Nearly every member of the public who spoke in opposition to the Park Station plan said they wanted to see new development on the site, with restaurants, shops and new residential options.

“I am for a mixed-use development, and we’re all for a mixed-use development,” said Aaron Amerling, a homeowner who lives on a street overlooking the project site. “What we’re not for is a specific plan.”

Amerling and other opponents said a specific plan amounted to a “blank check” that would allow South Baltimore — or any future owners of the property — to develop the site without adequate review by the city and community.

Commissioner Janine Hurd Glenn argued that the plan was not consistent with many of the objectives of the La Mesa General Plan. Based on that argument, Newland moved not to approve the plan. Newland’s motion was supported by Hurd Glenn, Alvey and Commissioner Linda Keene. Commissioners George Hawkins and Michele Hottel were in the minority.

The Planning Commission’s decision serves as a recommendation to the City Council. The recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council, which will make a final decision at a future meeting.

—Write to Jeremy Ogul at [email protected].