Point Loma Residents’ Resistance to 4-Story, 56-Unit Complex at Rosecrans and Talbot Is Growing

Resistance among Point Loma residents to a planned 4-story, 56-unit apartment complex coming to Rosecrans and Talbot is growing dramatically.

This resistance was evidenced Tuesday night, October 29, when 300 residents packed a town hall meeting on the project at the S.E.S. Portuguese Hall in Roseville. Organized by members of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, a panel of speakers updated the crowd on the project and efforts to obtain more information about the building.

No representatives of city or of the developer were present. In fact, neither the city nor the developer have released pertinent documents on the project and had ignored its obligations to the local volunteer planning board.

Ever since news of the project was broken by the Rag on October 21, anger within the community has grown at the delaying tactics undertaken by the city. The project had come up at the Oct. 17 meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board — which is what Rag writer Geoff Page was reporting on — and more and more residents became infuriated with the city and the complex.

The large-scale housing development planned for 1004 Rosecrans Street would have 56 residential units including eight affordable units — comprised of three very low-income units, two low-income units, and three moderate-income units. It would also include 1,700 square feet of first-floor commercial space and 45 underground parking spaces — not for residents but for customers.

The project would be built next door to Cabrillo Elementary School and the historic Jennings House eatery, where the former San Diego County Credit Union in Point Loma Village stood, now being used for car rentals.

Owned by a business entity called North Star Homes LP, the property’s listed agent is Michael Contreras, owner of MC Properties, according to the California secretary of state’s registry. MC Properties’ website says it manages apartment properties in Spring Valley, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Lakeside, El Cajon and Fallbrook.

That project, which is being reviewed by Development Services, would bypass San Diego’s voter-approved 30-foot coastal height limit through a state density bonus law that is currently interpreted as superseding local voter initiatives — like the 30-foot height limit — and planning rules. The law allows developers to add to their buildings for offering certain quantities of housing considered affordable for lower-income residents. The application was submitted in August.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the panelists included Eric Law, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s Project Review Committee, Christine Smith, board member for Neighbors For a Better San Diego, resident Mark Cervantes, Kathy Gallagher owner of Jennings House Restaurant and Art Castanares, publisher of La Prensa Newspaper.

Dave Schwab of the Peninsula Beacon quoted Eric Law:

“This is a topic of great importance to everyone here in the community because our access to information has been blocked since we first heard about this through back channels in June,” noted Law adding developers of 1004 Rosecrans have applied for a complete communities building.

“That gives them the waiver so instead of building 14 units on that size lot like they’re supposed to, they can technically build 56. It will be four stories in the front. It will go lot line to lot line with a 30-foot sheer wall in front of Cabrillo Elementary, and a 30- to 40-foot sheer wall immediately adjacent to Jennings House.

“They’re going to populate the entire block. Doing their funny math, they can put almost 2 ½ times the area of that lot in the living area. That’s how they get to 56 units on four stories.”

Law claimed the proposed development will have no provision for residential parking, adding the limited number of subterranean parking spaces being created will not be available to the public but rather will be “sold individually either for the residents or other commercial.”

Organizer Sally Bixler, president of the Point Loma Assembly, stated:

“When I heard that our planning board was not allowed to review this project and that it was not subject to public input, I became very concerned and determined to find out how that could happen.”

When Bixler told the audience that while sublevel parking spaces are included in the plan, they would be intended only for commercial use and not reserved for residents, it caused quite a stir in the room. She added the lack of parking would further compound traffic along Rosecrans and Talbot, creating an “unsafe intersection” for the nearby Cabrillo Elementary School and historical Jennings House Eatery.

Law added, “Anyone who lives here knows there is no room for 100 cars in the village.”

Cathy Gallagher, owner of the Jennings House, which sits immediately adjacent to the project site, said the building’s construction and size would be a death knell for her business. She told the crowd:

“I barely made it through COVID hanging by my fingernails. The building, the underground parking, it will destroy me. It will be a year and a half to a two-year project. My regulars aren’t going to want to sit in my building with that happening. After two years I’m not going to make it.”

Gallagher added that the size of the building, which she estimated would be taller than the tree outside her restaurant, would block natural light in the cafe and decimate its ambiance both inside and out. She hearkened to construction of the Village Lights canopy across Rosecrans Street in 2021, which she said blocked the sidewalks leading to the Jennings House and kicked up dust, driving down foot traffic.

Christine Smith, a Point Loman and board member of the nonprofit Neighbors For a Better San Diego noted the organization formed three years ago to oppose the overdevelopment of accessory dwelling units (ADUs or granny flats). She said the current law “allows you, in every single-family neighborhood, on any single-family parcel, to add up to three ADUs.” She concluded, “Every parcel in Point Loma can be built up this way.”

Castanares of La Prensa claimed there is a deliberate pattern of high-rise development throughout San Diego’s neighborhoods, including South Park, where his relatives live and work.

During questioning, a resident asked what constitutes “affordable,” and Eric Law and Christine Smith said the formula used to determine affordable rent is 30% of the area median income, or AMI — currently around $120,000 a year — divided by 12, which comes out to about $3,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. This caused a murmur of disapproval, reports the U-T.

Cabrillo Elementary Principal Rebecca Vogel was invited to the meeting but could not because of a family emergency.

Monthly writer, Tyler Faurot, reported that Richard Berg, a spokesman for the Development Services Department, had previously told the Monthly that the Rosecrans project’s permit review includes whether it meets city parking and traffic standards. However, the process is ministerial, meaning the applicants do not need to seek public input and that review by city staff does not need to include public hearings.

That has brought more frustration from community members.

One speaker at the town hall said she was disappointed that city staff members were not in attendance. “If it is their position and their program, they should be present,” she said.

Mike Bixler, Sally Bixler’s husband, said he was deeply offended by the exclusion of community input. “We cant see a public document, and I don’t know how this vision of loneliness could get this far without any public input at all,” he said.

San Diego mayoral hopeful Larry Turner, an Ocean Beach resident who is challenging Gloria in the Nov. 5 election, attended the meeting and briefly addressed the audience. “This is happening all over the city,” Turner said. “I hear from all the other people in the community … we are missing that representative element. … You should demand more from elected officials.”

Law told the crowd that to halt the Rosecrans project, the community will have to “act in some fashion.”

Community member Mark Cervantes said interviews are underway for a law firm to represent the community in any litigation over the project.

News sources:

Pt Loma-OB Monthly (SDU-T)

Peninsula Beacon