San Diego, California, One Paseo Development Project Veto Referendum (June 2016)
| San Diego One Paseo Development Project Veto Referendum |
|---|
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| The basics |
| Election date: |
| June 7, 2016 |
| Status: |
| Approved by city council |
| Topic: |
| Local zoning, land use and development |
| Related articles |
| Local zoning, land use and development on the ballot June 7, 2016 ballot measures in California San Diego County, California ballot measures |
| See also |
| San Diego, California Municipal elections in San Diego, California (2016) |
A "One Paseo" development project veto referendum measure qualified for the ballot for San Diego city voters in San Diego County, California, on June 7, 2016. The city council voted to rescind the targeted project ordinance directly, however, precluding the necessity of an election.
This referendum measure targeted the $750-million, 23.6-acre development that was proposed for an area in the Carmel Valley community on the south side of Del Mar Heights Road and in between El Camino Real and High Bluff Drive. The project, called One Paseo, was approved by the city council. The approval prompted opponents of the development to launch a signature petition campaign to put the proposal before voters, hoping voters would choose to reject it. Kilroy Realty Corporation was the developer behind the proposal.[1][2]
Ultimately, the developer and opponents of the project agreed on a more modest development. The agreement depended on the city council members rescinding the ordinance allowing One Paseo, which they did on May 21, 2015.[3]
In similar referendum questions, San Diego residents decided against development of the Barrio Logan Community, with nearly 60 percent of voters rejecting Measures B and C in June 2014.
One Paseo project
Location
The proposed project would have been constructed in an area of the Carmel Valley community to the south of Del Mar Heights Road and in between El Camino Real and High Bluff Drive.[1]
Cost
The proposed development would have cost about $750 million.[1]
Size
The proposed site was 23.6 acres in size.[1]
The One Paseo project plan proposed about 1.45 million square feet of development, consisting of about 10 buildings between two and nine stories tall.[1]
Development features
The project was designed to include residential, retail and office space, with more than 600 housing units, a movie theater and almost 3,700 parking spaces. It would have also included some landscaped open space, walkways and bike paths.[1][4]
Developer
The proposal was developed by the Kilroy Realty Corporation.[5]
Images of the proposed development site as of March 2015 and a One Paseo project plan map are below:
Support
Supporters
- Note: Those who supported the One Paseo development and were opposed to the veto referendum petition against it are referred to as supporters in this article.
The proposal was developed by the Kilroy Realty Corporation, which designed a One Paseo development website and organized the campaign to circulate a signature withdrawal petition in opposition to the veto referendum petition.[4][5]
Council members
The following council members voted in favor of the One Paseo development project when it was first proposed:[6]
- Lorie Zapf, District 2
- Todd Gloria, District 3
- Myrtle Cole, District 4
- Mark Kersey, District 5
- Chris Cate, District 6
- Scott Sherman, District 7
- David Alvarez, District 8
One Paseo Carmel Valley, "The vision for Carmel Valley," June 10, 2014 |
Arguments in favor
The One Paseo website presented the development as a sustainable and energy efficient way to enhance "community character" and boost the local economy, while simultaneously increasing mobility by adding millions of dollars worth of walkways, roads and paths along Del Mar Heights Road and El Camino Real.[4]
The One Paseo website featured the following statement in support of the project:[7]
| “ |
Carmel Valley has a unique opportunity to transform its last, large vacant parcel of land into a community gathering space that can provide amenities for everyone.[8] |
” |
| —One Paseo[7] | ||
The One Paseo website also provided the following list of economic benefits to the proposed development:[9]
One Paseo Carmel Valley, "Carmel Valley Can: Have More Places to Meet Friends," October 4, 2013 |
| “ |
Among the economic benefits One Paseo would provide are:
|
” |
| —One Paseo[9] | ||
When the referendum signature petition was certified in April 2015, Kilroy spokesperson Rachel Laing said, “We’ll work hard over the next year to educate voters on the merits of what will be San Diego’s most environmentally sustainable project and the many economic and community benefits One Paseo offers."[6]
Opposition
- Note: Those who opposed the One Paseo development and were supportive of the veto referendum petition against it are referred to as opponents in this article.
Opponents
The group behind the veto referendum petition targeting the One Paseo development was called Protect San Diego Neighborhoods.[10]
According to the Protect San Diego Neighborhoods website, the following commissions and groups disapproved of the proposed development:[10]
- The San Diego Planning Commission
- The Carmel Valley Community Planning Group
- The Torrey Pines Valley Community Planning Group
- The Del Mar Mesa Valley Community Planning Group
- The Torrey Hills Valley Community Planning Group
The development company called Donahue Schriber Realty Group, which owned a shopping center nearby the proposed One Paseo site, helped to fund the referendum signature gathering campaign.[11][12]
Council members
The following council members voted against the One Paseo development project when it was first proposed:[6]
- Council President Sherri Lightner, District 1
- Council President Pro Tem Marti Emerald, District 9
Arguments against
| ABC 10 News, "Protest over One Paseo proposal in Carmel Valley," Feb. 21, 2015 |
Protect San Diego Neighborhoods and opponents of the project argued that high-density developments such as One Paseo hurt the community by increasing traffic congestion, decreasing property values through restricting views and constructing "150-foot tall buildings near two-story homes." They also argued that the city council set a bad precedent by refusing to listen to the San Diego Planning Commission and other community planning groups, yielding instead to large development interests, a precedent that the voters should dismantle through rejecting the project.[10]
Some opponents also expressed opposition to the idea of cutting down trees in the vacant lot and stated concerns about increased traffic causing a danger to students of the nearby elementary school.[13]
The following statement was presented on the Protect San Diego Neighborhoods website:[10]
| “ |
In February 2015, the San Diego City Council approved the massive One Paseo development, ignoring valid concerns raised by thousands of San Diegans and setting a dangerous precedent that could result in similar high-density overdevelopment in other San Diego neighborhoods. One Paseo is a 1.45-million-square-foot development proposed for the Carmel Valley neighborhood in San Diego. The development is nearly three-times the density allowed by the Community Plan. It would be one of the densest mixed-use projects in San Diego, creating severe traffic gridlock. Despite being sold as “smart growth”, One Paseo is actually the opposite. It is a high-density, car-dependent development that is far from the nearest public transit line. The San Diego Planning Commission didn’t approve One Paseo and the community planning groups of Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines, Del Mar Mesa and Torrey Hills joined thousands of San Diegans to register their opposition to the project’s size and scale, but their concerns were ignored by the City Council.[8] |
” |
| —Protect San Diego Neighborhoods[10] | ||
After the referendum signature petition was certified in April 2015, Jeff Powers, a member of Protect San Diego Neighborhoods, said, “We are thrilled that the voice of San Diegans throughout the city will now be heard. Our elected officials must be held accountable for their actions, and this referendum does just that.”[6]
San Diego City Council President Sherri Lightner, who represented the district that contains the Carmel Valley neighborhood and cast one of only two dissenting council votes on the One Paseo development, said, "If One Paseo is allowed to stand, it paves the way for massive overdevelopment in San Diego and the destruction of community planning in our city."[6]
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Path to the ballot
On March 9, 2015, a group called Protect San Diego's Neighborhoods started a veto referendum petition to put this issue on the ballot after the city council voted seven against two to approve the residential, retail and office development project called One Paseo. On March 25, 2015, the group opposed to the development turned in a petition with over 60,000 signatures. The group needed about 33,224 of them to be valid--a number calculated from 5 percent of the city's registered voters. One Paseo backers, however, announced that they turned in about 29,552 signed requests to withdraw signatures. The next step was for elections officials to investigate all submitted signatures, as many of those submitted by both supporters and opponents were invalid.[1][2]
Ultimately, Michael Vu, the county registrar of voters, found only 3,220 of the nearly 30,000 petition removal requests to be valid, with most of the requests coming from people who had not signed the original referendum petition. Vu also verified that enough of the 61,235 referendum petition signatures submitted were valid to qualify the referendum for the ballot. This left the city council with two options: (1) rescind its approval of the One Paseo development project or (2) put the project before voters in June 2016. The council was scheduled to vote on the referendum petition on May 18, 2015. The vote was delayed until May 21, 2015, however, since a compromise was proposed between the referendum petitioners and Kilroy representatives. On May 21, 2015, the city council did vote to rescind the ordinance that originally allowed the One Paseo project. This vote came after Kilroy Realty and the opponents of the project agreed to a smaller, less dense development project in place of the original One Paseo proposal.[3][6][12]
Similar measures
Measure B: City of San Diego Barrio Logan Community Plan Update Referendum (June 2014)
Measure C: City of San Diego Barrio Logan Community Plan Update Referendums (June 2014)
See also
External links
- San Diego County Elections Office website
- One Paseo website
- Kilroy Realty Corporation website
- Protect San Diego Neighborhoods website & Facebook page
Additional reading
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 KPBS, "City Council Gives Final Approval To One Paseo Development In Carmel Valley," March 9, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 KPBS, "One Paseo Opponents Turn In 60,000 Signatures To Stall Carmel Valley Project," March 25, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 CBS 8, "Opponents of One Paseo project agree on a scaled down development," May 21, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 One Paseo, "Home," accessed March 27, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kilroy Realty Corporation, "Home," accessed March 27, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 U-T San Diego, "Opponents send One Paseo to a vote," April 24, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 One Paseo, "Community Character," accessed March 27, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 One Paseo, "Jobs and Economy," accessed March 27, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Protect San Diego Neighborhoods, "Home," accessed March 27, 2015
- ↑ Donahue Schriber Realty Group, "Home," accessed May 19, 2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Times of San Diego, "Council Vote on One Paseo Delayed Over Possible Compromise," May 18, 2015
- ↑ Youtube: ABC 10 News, "Protest over One Paseo proposal in Carmel Valley," February 21, 2015
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