Say NO to Irresponsible Development on Mission Hills Hillside
By Scott Case
Elda Developments is seeking to build a 14-story, 172 foot tall high-rise at 3677 Columbia Street, behind India Street’s International Restaurant Row. This precedent setting development on the Middletown hillside negatively impacts the entire community and is opposed by residents and India Street restaurant businesses. The City is using its Complete Communities (CCHS) program to push this project through its approval process without any community review, comment or appeal. We support responsible development! Join our support against this ill-conceived project at www.StopColumbiaHighRise.org.
Irresponsible Development. San Diegans support responsible development in our neighborhoods to provide affordable housing. This developer is using a city program which is intended to multiply affordable housing, in order to build 161 luxury market-rate units. There are better development options that fit on this hillside lot, than a high-rise that that towers over the existing homes that are capped at 40 feet height.
Fire Safety. San Diego Fire Department (SDFD) preliminary review of this project cited multiple International Fire Code safety issues that impact the entire neighborhood. All these shortcomings require discretionary exceptions by the SDFD. We appreciate our very professional SDFD leadership when we met with them to review this Columbia Street location. It’s our understanding that the city Developmental Services Department (DSD) process limits the fire safety review to specific questions / documents and does not seek a comprehensive perspective and judgement. Thus fire-safety is not paramount to the city’s CCHS process, and this negatively impacts neighborhoods for generations, long after the politicians have moved on. Currently, the city is letting this project proceed despite significant documented fire-safety issues; and when you limit the questions & review, you can control the outcome. This is exactly what DSD policy is doing and putting our communities at risk. The hillside neighborhood street layout, established in the late 1800s, was not designed to support high-rise development. The city has already removed 50 percent of the residential street parking as a lesson learned from the 1991 Oakland Hills fire storm. This high rise should reject this high-rise for the safety issues it creates for the entire hillside.
Aggravates Existing Parking and Traffic Issues. The 161-unit project, with its 70 parking spots, aggravates the current parking and traffic issues on this single-lane (20 foot wide) divided street. SDFD has already stated that the east side of Columbia will need to be red-curbed (removing 16 parking spots) to support a fire lane to exclusively support this high-rise. The new CA state law (AB413) will further remove neighborhood parking. The net effect will be a large increase in the demand for the limited street parking, creating new neighborhood tensions for residents and businesses (patrons and employees). Regular street blockages will back up traffic into nearby high-traffic intersections. India Street restaurant owners are vigorously opposed due to the predictable loss-of-business impact.
Environmental Impact. The project imposes an unhealthy loss of sun light to neighboring homes, as it builds straight up, encroaching into lot set-back zoning requirements. Not only will neighboring residents live within its shadow, but there will be a loss of sunlight to organic gardens and solar panels. This high rise makes no contribution to greenery landscape benefits – only more concrete to heat up the urban core.
Destroys Historic Community Character. The 172-foot-high-rise destroys the character of the historic Middletown hillside that is appreciated by all residents and businesses, with its older homes and low-rise apartment / condo complexes that abide by the 40’ height zoning restrictions. The high-rise tops out at 288 foot elevation – this is more than 30 feet above the Torrance/Wellborn and Pringle/Sutter intersections, impacting all the homes on the hillside and top of Mission Hills. Look up your personal impact on the interactive topographic map at https://en-us.topographic-map.com/map-n9tp/San-Diego/?zoom=15¢er=32.74744%2C-117.17915.
Earthquake Fault Zone Risk. Given the size of this massive high-rise, earthquake induced structural failure will have a devastating impact on the neighborhood. The California Geological Survey’s (CGS) Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone map for this area “accurately locates” an active fault running directly through the two lots for the proposed high rise apartment building. Will there be sufficient third party reviews of the fault studies or will the DSD push through this development given their housing policies, trusting the developer’s geotechnical study? The state’s CGS map may be viewed at https://maps.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/informationwarehouse/eqzapp/.
Helicopter Visual Flight Impacts. Even though the high-rise exceeds the airport’s elevation limits by more than 120 feet, the FAA’s Obstruction Evaluation group has used an Exception to opine that the proposed building is not a hazard to air navigation. There is a reason why no high-rises have been built into this controlled airspace. So, what has changed and why is the city allowing this to proceed? The FAA primarily assess fixed-wing aircraft safety and does not consider helicopter visual flight (VFR) safety operations. San Diego has one of the more complicated airspaces in the nation. We contend that this high-rise impedes low flying helicopter visual safety, as they regularly fly along the Middletown hillside before transitioning across the airport runway and continuing down the harbor. This traffic includes medical evacuation, police, news and military helicopter traffic. If the FAA is not considering helicopter VFR safety, then who is? DSD has permit authority and they should not assume that the FAA’s opinion means that the high-rise poses no flight safety risks. However, DSD is pushing this project forward given the city’s housing policies.
This project is essentially about developer greed, and the City of San Diego is prioritizing the interests of one developer over the hundreds of neighborhood residents. The Corporate developer advertises their objective as “delivering exceptional returns for investors.” The City of San Diego is bypassing all community comment to approve the project. Join us in opposing this project and advocate for responsible affordable housing in our neighborhoods that respects the base zoning requirements which we all abide by. To learn more, visit www.StopColumbiaHighRise.org.
Category: Architecture, feature, Government, Historical, Local News, Politics, Real Estate
