Back in September, a group called Kalonymus LLC filed a building permit application with the city of San Diego’s development services department. This type of interaction occurs every week. So what’s the big deal?
What’s different is that Kalonymous wants to build a 239-foot-tall, mixed-use tower in Pacific Beach, just a couple of blocks from the beach at 970 Turquoise St.
The project this for-profit development firm wants would hold 213 total units — including 10 residential units reserved for very-low and middle-income families — and 311 parking spaces on the 0.67-acre site.
According to the San Diego U-T:
The $185 million project, which is currently being reviewed internally by the department, is invoking a state law — State Density Bonus Law — to bypass the neighborhood height limit and coast through the permitting process. The developer maintains that it is applying state and local laws as intended to create housing, but the project is facing opposition from the mayor, the council member who represents the area and the community.
Assembly Bill 1287, authored by Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, went into effect this year and amended the state law to grant developers an additional density bonus. As such, Kalonymus gets a second 50 percent bonus for its middle-income units, adding another 16 market-rate units to the project.
The developer is also entitled to build an additional 11 residential units by using local density bonuses for including three-bedroom units. The Turquoise project also calls for 139 hotel rooms, which are allowed in part because of the property’s commercial zoning. Kalonymus is also requesting a Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, incentive to maximize the commercial density on the site. FAR is the ratio of a building’s gross floor area to the size of the land. The lot area multiplied by the FAR determines the buildable square footage. The units will be permitted as hotel rooms, technically known as visitor accommodations, but the developer intends to rent them as market-rate apartments.
Now, hardly anyone in PB likes this proposed development. And the red flags and alarm bells are being waved and going off all over the beach area and other parts of San Diego. In fact, 200 residents gathered on Wednesday night before the PB Community Planning Group meeting to protest the project.
Yet, one group in town loves the idea of this high-rise. It’s the so-called “transit and housing advocacy group” that calls themselves Circulate San Diego. They are very pleased with the application of the state law.
Jeremy Bloom, an executive with Circulate San Diego, had this to say:
“The Turquoise project is one of the first in San Diego to utilize AB 1287, and as the principal sponsor of this bill, we’re excited to see it supporting the construction of both affordable and middle-income homes. It’s promising to see this legislative tool being used as intended to help address our region’s housing affordability challenges.”
Critics of Circulate like the Rag have tied the group to developer and corporate influence that is so thick that the group that masquerades as an “environmentally-friendly advocacy group” has actually become a loud and influential voice for the developer elites of the city. So, just remember this about Bloom, about Circulate SD and its leaders like Colin Parent — who BTW is running for the 79th Assembly District right now. Also remember that Todd Gloria — who reportedly doesn’t like the project — loves CirculateSD and holds them in extremely high regard. And of course, Gloria is seeking our vote at this very moment.
La Mesans, if you want to know what you’ll get from Colin Parent if elected, read this article, and you’ll see.
Here’s more: Whose interests does Colin Parent really serve?
AB1287 Density bonus law: 10/11/2023, sponsored by David Alvarez, San Diego, states additional density bonus is given when the housing development provides 24% of the total units to lower income households and 15% to very low income and 44% to moderate income (market rate). Source: leg info.legislature.ca.gov
How is 970 Turquoise project be AB1287 compliant? From what I’ve read, only a few units will be designated affordable.
Where’s Gretchen Newsom and the CA Coastal Commision? Don’t they have jurisdiction on coastal building projects? And where are they on the Tijuana poop flow? Developers and politicians lining their pockets while only 10 of the units are for low/moderate income people? This will fix the homeless problem, what a scam by our elected officials officials.