By Colleen O’Connor
It is not “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Another ill-advised MEGA-construction project is about to invade Point Loma.
In numerous columns in the Rag and elsewhere, the obvious has been stated. More neighborhoods under assault from venture capitalists and outside developers with but one architectural design—LEGOLAND-like high-rise boxes. Visit Park Boulevard. Mission Hills. Clairemont. Ocean Beach. Mission Valley. Downtown. La Jolla. Anywhere with space remaining in once desirable neighborhoods, there are now unimaginative high-rises and overstuffed “granny flats,” now dubbed ADUs.
In June of this year, I wrote:
“Point Loma is not just a tourist mecca, a powerful fishing industry, a substantial military presence, home to a national park dream, ship repair and maintenance facilities, but is also an invaluable contributor to San Diego’s economic health. Often unnoticed and until recently happily so.
“Its residents are now constantly fighting off mega developments SB10, the Kettner and Vine project, the colossal new high rise where Midway Post Office once stood, the coming SpaWars’ complex and the ever-changing planned Sports Arena complex. Ocean Beach is already under siege. All rammed through by Mayor Gloria and council. Overstuffed and under-imaginative.”
What happened to “preserving the character of the neighborhood?” Or the City Architect who once prevented these monstrosities? Or parks? Or The Environmental Impact Studies? Forget the tiny pocket park. Too small and fragile. A good rain will erode that south side sand quickly.
Want the mayhem (often voted behind closed doors at City Hall) to stop? Here is another chance.
Sometimes resistance does work. Point Loma volunteers stopped the La Playa path from becoming a meandering cement path around the Yacht club to the airport. They stopped a Historical designated house becoming another high-rise with multiple units. Also, volunteers in Ocean Beach stopped a corner lot in Ocean Beach from yet another building block high-rise development.
Time to resist again. This time, even closer to madness. The project, according to an application submitted to the city of San Diego is a four-story, 56-unit mixed-used building on the corner of Talbot and Rosecrans, abutting the Cabrillo elementary school, the Rec Center and Jennings House eatery.
The project would include limited parking spaces in a basement garage (only for commercial residents) and 1,770 square feet of commercial space and years of destruction/construction debris. Click here for details.
If this project proceeds as planned, the entire enclave of La Playa /Point Lomas is at serious risk of overdevelopment, loss of open space, a school, blocked views, increased density, etc. The City can’t fix its streets, but can flood the neighborhood with more people, less parking, no open spaces and an end to the 30 foot height limit.
Imagine the downtown sunless skyline along the waters’ edge in Point Loma. Once one such ugliness project is approved, others are given carte blanche to follow.
Fear not. There is now some “method to our madness.”
A new campaign to “Protect the Point” has begun.
A web designer is at work. Attorneys have been hired to develop a 501©4 account to collect donations and are in the beginning stages of discovery for research and filings. Already, $5,000 has been collected, but more is needed.
The mailing address for all payments is below and will be in use. Soon, the website will be added to collect online payments and updated information. (Please be sure to put Project 1004 Rosecrans – Protect the Point in the memo line of your check.)
Protect the Point
P.O. Box 6115
San Diego, CA
92166
The BONUS of a great promise. “We will continue to gather donations and keep the 501©4 around in Point Loma long term for other issues we face in our community.”
More disruptions coming. Time to resists iw now
Your statement about Point Loma having “a powerful fishing industry, a substantial military presence, home to a national park dream, ship repair and maintenance facilities” clearly indicates a need for MORE housing, not less.
The industries you listed employ thousands of people in Point Loma. Jobs require housing – and when housing isn’t nearby, THAT’S what creates traffic.
You understand there’s a housing crisis? This can only be solved by building more housing. Not quaint single-family homes, either. Massive apartment buildings must be built, and fast. Unless you like seeing people suffer on the street?
Judd, we don’t have a housing crisis — look at the Sunday UT housing spread — but we do have an affordable housing crisis, and this project has nothing really to do with solving that crisis.
And don’t give me that old tired argument that building anything will help; it doesn’t — and studies have proven this.
Can you share some of these Frank? I would be helpful to have in my pocket to share whenever I get some doubting debbie that we have anything other than an affordable housing crisis and more homes won’t solve our problem.
For starters, try this: https://obrag.org/2024/03/the-case-against-yimbyism/
then go here: https://obrag.org/2020/02/yimbys-newest-handmaidens-of-the-growth-machine/
Agree Frank! We absolutely have an AFFORDABLE housing crisis. That’s why I’m really excited about that Nimitz project finally moving forward. 72 affordable homes in Point Loma for the next generation of the peninsula to set down roots. I wish we had more of those in South Park but as long as they’re going up somewhere I’m happy. Happy New Year to you Frank!
Okay, we’ll have to agree to disagree on this; Nimitz is one of the last open spaces in that part of northern Point Loma and there’s plenty of affordable housing near there, even if “natural”. So, it’s just power politics, agencies and politicians throwing their weight around dissing the community, not letting the local residents have any say whatsoever, because they’re all “racist NIMBYs”, as they were told.
I have a somewhat bold and logical suggestion that the huge Mission Valley and Fashion Valley developments with views of the 8 freeway solve the housing crisis. I’d love to see some statistics about how many people are actually living in those buildings. Housing for a thousand, with 20 residents? Fill those structures up with residents before building more monster sized structures that challenge and overturn existing FAR requirements, existing setback requirements, and other building codes with sneaky footnotes offering incentives. Mission Valley and Fashion Valley are centrally located, near major highways, and near transit. The green line of the trolley has lots of stops throughout Mission Valley and Fashion Valley, plus the Transit Center at the Fashion Valley mall. With more structures currently being built and the golf course a memory of the past, how many residents total could be housed throughout Fashion Valley and Mission Valley in previously existing structures and new developments?
The only time investors learn that these are impractical buildings is AFTER they are built and nobody rents them. The “Developer” as owner is no longer true. It is a new world, and older business districts, put in to support the local community, are prime targets and San Diego identified by nationwide corporations as “best for building.” We live in a new world that began when businesses were entitled to contribute to political campaigns.