AGENCY APPROVES PLAN FOR TRANSIT CENTER

Mixed-use project in Oceanside to include affordable housing

As many as 101 affordable housing units and 547 marketrate apartments or condominiums are included in a mixeduse development proposed as part of the Oceanside Transit Center redevelopment project.

Development of the 10.2acre transit center site will include construction of a 40,000square-foot office building to replace the building the North County Transit District administration occupies in the 800 block of Mission Avenue.

The affordable housing will be built on the Mission Avenue property, and the market-rate units will be constructed at the transit center on Tremont Street, according to the preliminary plans. The existing 556 ground-level parking spaces at the transit center would be retained or replaced one-for-one, and 160 more spaces would be added for NCTD employees.

“This is really exciting to see,” said Tony Kranz, an Encinitas City Council member

and chair of the NCTD board, when rough details of the plan were presented at the board’s September meeting. “The percentage of affordable housing in the project is significant. Overall, it’s going to be an excellent transit-oriented development project.”

The board voted unanimously to award an exclusive negotiating agreement to Toll Brothers Inc., one of four companies that submitted proposals for the project. The other three were Holland Partner Group, National Community Renaissance (CORE), and Rhodes Moores, LLC.

“Toll Brothers was the highest-ranking proposer ... (based on) financial strength ... a thoughtful and deliberate approach ... and the benefits they provide to both NCTD and the city of Oceanside,” said Tracey Foster, chief development officer at NCTD.

The negotiating agreement gives Toll Brothers 18 months to work exclusively with the transit district on the finer points of the deal. A completed agreement is due back to the board on Sept. 30, 2021, Foster said.

Construction could start as early as 2024 and be completed in five years, she said.

Oceanside Councilman Jack Feller, who represents the city on the NCTD board, said Oceanside has been involved in the process from the beginning.

“We are satisfied with this selection,” Feller said. “I know there are things they want to work on, and this gives them the beginning point of that.”

The transit center serves 11 million passengers annually on NCTD’S Coaster and Sprinter commuter trains and Breeze buses, Orange County’s Metrolink commuter trains, Riverside Transit Agency, Amtrak passenger trains, and Greyhound buses.

The ground floor of the office building will include a new 3,000-square-foot ticket counter for NCTD, Greyhound and Amtrak passengers. Also planned is the relocation of the bus island on the north end of the transit center for improved connections to rail and other transit services, and improved rail platforms, waiting areas and other facilities.

Plans also call for opening up Cleveland Street as a pass-through route. The street now stops at the bus island on the north side of the property.

The transit center’s parking structure, completed in 2006 with 450 spaces, will not be affected by the redevelopment.

Ground lease payments are estimated at $350,000 annually to the district for the mixed-use development, Foster said.

While board members generally liked the plan, some questioned the decision to place the affordable housing on the Mission Avenue site, which is about a half-mile east of the transit center.

“To me, it seems like the affordable housing would be better at the transit center itself,” said board member Jim Desmond, who represents the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Transit district officials said the affordable housing plan is one of many things to be fine-tuned in the upcoming negotiations.

“This is a business deal,” said NCTD Executive Director Matt Tucker. “It has to work for both the privatesector entities and the public-sector entities. There’s a long way to go ... now we have to go through the next set of details.”

The district owns the entire block north of Mission between Nevada and Clementine streets. The building was constructed as a bank in 1967 and acquired by the district in 1996. NCTD has its administrative offices on the first and second floors, the board meets in the basement, and the third f loor has been vacant since a longterm tenant moved out about 2013.

The cost to renovate the building has been estimated at $8.8 million, which exceeds the market value of the structure, so it would be demolished as part of the redevelopment project.

NCTD has been talking about redeveloping the Oceanside Transit Center since at least 2008, when a series of community meetings were held to discuss the idea.

Similar redevelopment projects have been discussed at times for the district’s transit centers in Carlsbad, Escondido and Solana Beach, but none of those ideas have progressed as far as the Oceanside plan.