(Mission Times Courier, San Diego, CA) - The city of San Diego illegally approved a large student dormitory project and shut the community out of the process, according to a group of residents calling themselves Rolandans for Quality Infill Development.
The residents, who live near the project site on El Cajon Boulevard and 63rd Street in Rolando Village, claim in a lawsuit that the city ignored its own laws requiring extensive public review and approval of a new permit to build the complex. They also claim developer Carmel Partners deliberately misled the community about whether the project would serve as a student dormitory or luxury family apartments.
The new apartment community, now under construction and being marketed as BLVD63, will have 332 residential units and 4,000 square feet of retail space across four four-story buildings on the property. The residential units include a total of 915 bedrooms.
The site has been a vacant dirt lot since the mid-2000s, when Douglas Wilson Cos. demolished a small shopping center and won city approval for a large, mixed-use housing development with 312 residential units. The plan was abandoned when financing fell through.
City staff apparently approved the new Carmel Partners project through a ministerial process because of its similarity to the original Douglas Wilson project, but the Rolandans for Quality Infill Development argue that the new project, also known as CentrePoint, is so different from the original that is approval should require more public review.
The project has “zoning problems, land use problems, general plan problems, Subdivision Map Act problems, and [California Environmental Quality Act] problems,” said Craig Sherman, the attorney representing the resident group. “There are multiple issues that would thrust this into further discretionary review, study and disclosures.”
The way the project was portrayed helped the developer avoid a more arduous public review, Sherman said.
“They billed this out as luxury family apartments because they knew that a student housing project was going to require higher levels of review and that the impact [on the surrounding neighborhood] was going to be obnoxious,” Sherman said.
Craig Benedetto, a spokesperson for Carmel Partners, rejected those claims.
“There was no misrepresentation,” Benedetto said. “It was billed exactly as it will be built.”
Property owners have no legal right to control whether or not the tenants are students, Benedetto said. It is illegal to discriminate and Carmel Partners has no intention of discriminating, he said.
Nearby residents say that what makes it a megadorm is not the leasing practices but the design of the apartments. There are 146 four-bedroom units, and many of the bedrooms are large enough for two beds.
“You’d think anybody with any sense could see what this was,” said Jan Hintzman, member and former president of the Rolando Community Council. “These are not units that anybody would believe are units available or designed for the general public, for the apartment market.”
There is no doubt students are a target demographic for the leasing team. The BLVD63 leasing office is located directly across from San Diego State University, just off the footbridge over College Avenue, and marketing materials tout the “low key luxe” theme of the complex, describing the atmosphere as “high on life, with maxed out style.”
But a leasing agent there said that while many students have expressed interest in leasing an apartment at BLVD63, the complex has also received substantial interest from working professionals and families.
“This is not a megadorm,” said Benedetto, the Carmel Partners spokesperson. “It’s a luxury apartment community.”
BLVD63 will provide “unbelievable” amenities and features for its residents, Benedetto said, including free WiFi throughout the complex, two resort-style pools and spa with private cabanas, a 7,000 square-foot fitness center, outdoor fire pits and grills, an aquarium and a clubhouse with a game room, media center and technology center. Each residential unit has its own washer and dryer, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, simulated wood grain cabinets and laminate flooring. The residences come fully furnished.
Those luxury amenities should make the property a cash cow for the developer.
An accounting consultant hired by Carmel Partners wrote in a May 13 letter that the company expects rental revenues of $12.2 million per year from apartment tenants and $300,000 per year from retail tenants once the project is completed. The consultant estimated the total project cost of approximately $102.8 million, including land.
But regardless of the features, the sheer density of the project makes it inappropriate for the neighborhood, Hintzman said.
“There’s no reason to put it here except that somebody wants to make a fistful of money, and that’s frustrating,” she said. “If we’d gone through the process and this was our outcome, I guess we’d say ‘we’ve tried,’ but we never had a chance.”
In fact, Carmel Partners did reach out to the community by attending multiple Rolando Community Council meetings even though there was no city requirement to do so, Benedetto said.
Hintzman acknowledged this but said their presentations were too vague to be useful.
“They really weren’t interested in talking to us or hearing from us,” she said. “They said, ‘You guys have no role in this — we’re going to build by right and this isn’t a necessary conversation; go away.’”
Residents claim the project is 770 spaces short on parking, but with 1,091 parking stalls and 34 motorcycle spaces, BLVD63 actually has far more parking than the 787 spaces required by city code, Benedetto said.
The features are not enough to satisfy area property owners, said Rhea Kuhlman, president of the nearby College Area Community Council.
“It’s not something that I think anyone in the College Area is going to be very happy about,” Kuhlman said. “Trying to pack people in like sardines, which is what this project has done — it’s going to lead to quick deterioration… These are the kind of buildings that turn into slums in 20 years.”
The idea that this project will hurt the neighborhood is wrong, Benedetto said.
“This is not going to be a detriment to Rolando,” he said. “It’s going to be a point of pride for their community. People always get concerned about change. We certainly appreciate that and understand it, but at the end of the day that fear will dissipate when the property is open.”
The future impact remains to be seen, but what it boils down to for Hinztman and others is that a profit-hungry corporation swooped in to exploit the neighborhood and the city did nothing to stop it.
“We’re thinking community, and they’re thinking money,” Hintzman said.
Jeremy Ogul is a staff writer with Mission Publishing Group. Have a news story or tip? Email him at jeremy@missionpublishinggroup.com and follow him on Twitter @jsogul.
