San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
DEVELOPER LOOKS TO CHANGE PROJECT IN NORTH CITY SAN MARCOS
Asks city to allow taller buildings near CSUSM and remove two bridges
The developers of North City near California State University San Marcos are asking the city to amend its plans for the project to allow taller buildings in exchange for more ground space for pedestrians, which they say will provide a better experience for residents and visitors.
Sea Breeze Properties also is asking to eliminate a pedestrian bridge and a vehicle bridge over state Route 78 as part of a proposed amendment that will go before the San Marcos Planning Commission in the near future.
Discussing the proposed changes at his Mission Hills office with architects Taal Safdie and Ricardo Rabines, Sea Breeze Vice President Darren Levitt said the proposed changes will not add more residential units to the property and will be a benefit to San Marcos residents overall.
“Creating more ground floor open space for pedestrians will help us attract better restaurants, and better businesses will follow,” he said. “It’s better for the San Marcos community, especially for the folks who already live in San Marcos who will come and experience the future downtown of San Marcos.”
Not just the future downtown of San Marcos, but the future downtown of North County, he said. Levitt and other planners behind the project see the mixed-use community as a new focus of the Route 78 corridor, with up to 1.5 million square feet for retail and commercial use and 3,400 residential units.
“I think it’s an opportunity to build an ideal city, which is working, living, entertaining in one place,” said Ricardo Rabines of Safdie Rabines Architects. “This is a great opportunity to start from scratch to create the right balance.”
The city’s University District Specific Plan, originally approved in 2009 and already amended several times, calls for 3,400 residential units on about 200 acres. Amendments over the years have reduced the number of planned hotel rooms from 450 to 250 while retail space was cut back from about 1 million square feet to 350,000 square feet.
Only nine buildings have been constructed so far over two blocks, and an eight-story student housing building is under construction and expected to be complete this summer.
Next up is a centerpiece, 480unit residential building with 20,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor at North City Drive and Campus Way. The proposed amendment asks for the building’s height to be increased from the approved eight stories to 12 stories and to replace a planned road a block north with open space for a pedestrian walkway.
If approved by the Planning Commission and City Council, construction on the building could begin by the fall and be complete in about two years, Levitt said.
The amendment also asks to increase the height restrictions of a building at Twin Oaks Valley Road and Barham Drive from eight stories to 16 stories.
“We’re not asking to build a 16story building tomorrow,” Levitt said. “We are asking for the flexibility, in the future, should the demand be there, and should it make sense, to build 16 stories in that specific location.”
The building could provide about a million square feet of commercial, office and technology space, enough to host the headquarters of a major company.
“This will bring so much work and energy and taxes, the city will just really boom,” Rabines said.
Levitt said the proposed amendment going before the city also asks for the removal of a pedestrian bridge over Discovery Street and a vehicle bridge over SR-78 connecting north to Johnston Way.
The bridge over SR-78 is not needed, Levitt said, because the amount of traffic projected in 2009 is now expected to be much less because of the significant reduction in retail space planned for North City, where a big-box store like Target or Ikea once was planned.
The bridge would have connected to the city’s planned Creek District development north of SR-78, and Levitt said the specific plan for the area is being rewritten as part of the general plan update, and the amount of traffic generated from the development is expected to be less than originally anticipate.
Levitt also said the bridge would cost $70 million to $80 million to build and call for the demolition of some houses.
At least one San Marcos resident has spoken against some aspects of the planned amendment at public hearings.
Kirk Erickson said he lives about a half-mile away from North City and appreciates the developer’s plans to increase open space, but sees the removal of the two bridges and the height increases as bad ideas.
“I don’t see any safe alternatives for people to cross over Discovery from north to south,” he said, adding that traffic will likely increase after the street is widened as part of the San Marcos Creek Project. “As soon as that street opens up, it’s going to be a floodgate of traffic.”
Erickson also said he thinks removing the bridge over SR-78 will create much more traffic on Twin Oaks Valley Road. While the development’s planners see the community as a place where residents will not drive much, Erickson said he expects they still will use their cars on regular trips and add to traffic congestion.
He also has a problem with increasing the height limit to 16 stories.
“I’m a little concerned about the aesthetics and also how they’re presenting this,” he said. “They say, ‘We want to raise the limits, but we don’t have any plans.’ My concern is they’re trying to sugar coat it. When you’re coming down Twin Oaks or Discovery, it’s going to be very ominous.”
Levitt said North City is roughly about 10 percent to 15 percent built out, and its final completion will depend on the market.
As it builds out, he said care will be taken to create a community that feels like a downtown with unique, local businesses, lots of foot traffic and an opportunity to live and work next to a thriving university.
“We’ve had 7-Eleven knocking on our doors since day one to be on the ground floor of one of our projects, and we won’t do that,” he said. “That’s not the type of tenants that’s going to add value to our community. We need to be very thoughtful when it comes to who we tenant so we can continue to build a cohesive, communal environment. Just about every tenant we have today is a San Diego company or primarily based here.”