CLAIREMONT HOUSING PLAN EYED

New blueprint would add apartments, condos to largely suburban area

San Diego officials are proposing a new growth blueprint that would add more than 6,000 apartments and condominiums to Clairemont, one of the first suburban housing developments on the West Coast in the 1950s.

Many neighborhood leaders have lobbied for a smaller increase in housing, but city officials say the new units won’t significantly damage community character because they are proposed for the edges of single-family neighborhoods.

More than half would be built on a new trolley line being constructed along Morena Boulevard, while the other apartments and condos would almost all be built on Clairemont’s existing commercial corridors.

The plan envisions the transformation of Clairemont’s sprawling shopping plazas into densely built mixed-use “villages” with high-rise housing above the shops. Surface parking lots would be replaced by multistory parking garages.

Because the proposal, called a community plan update, is intended as a 30-year vision for the community, some of the changes may not happen until many years into the future.

City officials say they expect dense developments along the trolley line — which has two stops in Clairemont and one just south of the community — to happen more quickly than the transformations of the old-fashioned shopping plazas.

The plan also aims to make Clairemont less car-dependent and more pedestrian-friendly by widening sidewalks and adding boardwalks, linear parks and bicycle paths throughout the community.

Each of the nine densely built areas in the plan would also have a community gathering space called a “central green,” and the plan envisions spaces for large outdoor markets and live entertainment.

The new housing is projected to

increase the population from 80,000 to more than 100,000 in Clairemont, which is San Diego’s largest neighborhood geographically at 11 square miles.

Clairemont is bounded by Interstate 5 and Pacific Beach to the west, state Route 52 and University City to the north, Linda Vista to the south and Kearny Mesa to the east.

Clairemont’s community plan, which was last updated in 1989, covers 6,755 acres. La Jolla, another large neighborhood, covers 5,718 acres.

Community leaders say the new housing and the 20,000 new residents it will bring make them concerned about traffic congestion, sewer capacity, the community’s three aging fire stations and the number of parks in the area.

“I think most of us are concerned about the companion infrastructure not coming along with the new housing,” said Susan Mournian, a longtime Clairemont resident who led a volunteer panel that studied the proposed changes for three years. “It’s a half-baked plan.”

While Mournian praised the concept of preserving single-family areas and allowing new density only in already commercialized areas, she said it’s bogus to pretend that won’t change community character.

“Even if they’re not touched, they are affected,” she said by phone this week.

Other residents also have complaints about the proposed new blueprint.

“It creates an environment similar to being downtown or UTC, which is not in the spirit of Clairemont — a family suburban community,” wrote resident Chris Daudet in an email to the city.

Supporters of the proposal say the new units are crucial to solving the city’s affordable housing crisis, which many blame on a lack of supply. In addition, supporters say the new trolley line, which will connect Old Town and La Jolla, is the ideal place for high-rise housing.

Jerry Sanders, chief executive of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, said his organization supports the proposal, which he characterized as something that would enhance the neighborhood and respect its unique character.

“The chamber supports this plan and believes additional considerations should be included in this plan and future community plan updates to include more density in areas adjacent to trolley stops and within transportation priority areas,” Sanders said.

Glen Schmidt, a local architect and longtime Clairemont resident who served on Marmion’s volunteer panel, said he sees both sides of the debate and believes the proposal is a good compromise.

“It almost feels good when no one is happy because that means no one has gotten 100 percent of what they wanted,” he said by phone this week. “There is strong political will for more housing, and the need is documented. But people moved here because it’s a suburb, so they are very appropriately concerned about change.”

Schmidt also noted that the proposed increase in housing units doesn’t include all of the potential new housing that could come to Clairemont.

Developers who build near transit can get “density bonuses,” which allow them to build more units than the zoning in the community plan allows. San Diego has also relaxed its rules on granny flats to encourage more construction of them.

Some housing advocates had hoped for even more new housing in Clairemont, which would absorb many fewer units than Mission Valley under that community’s recently approved growth blueprint.

But Clairemont is zoned almost entirely for open space or single-family residential, with only a small percentage of land zoned for multifamily housing, commercial or industrial projects.

The proposed community plan update, which is scheduled to go through environmental analysis this year, would focus much of the new density in “districts” and “villages” characterized by high-density housing.

The three largest villages would be the current site of the Clairemont Town Square, one near the Tecolote Canyon Open Space Park and one built where the city’s Rose Canyon Operations Yard is now located.

The smaller villages would be the Diane plaza off Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Bay View Village, Clairemont Mesa Gateway Village, Tecolote Gateway Village and Clairemont Crossroads Village.

The two “districts” would be on the western side of Clairemont along the trolley line, one near Tecolote Road and one near Costco on Morena Boulevard.

The proposed blueprint is complemented by two “specific plans” the City Council approved last fall around the new trolley stations that are now under construction. Neighborhood groups have filed lawsuits seeking to block both of those plans.