Golf-course redevelopment is a terrific solution to providing new housing in the middle of town. They will work out the kinks like building enough roads.
A judge’s ruling halted construction this week of the 536-unit Junipers development in Rancho Peñasquitos — and could complicate and delay approvals of other dense housing projects across San Diego.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Frazier nullified an analysis of how the Junipers would affect nearby traffic, noise and wildfire threats, saying it had failed to account for two large nearby housing projects. In a ruling that made final a tentative ruling he issued last week, Frazier halted construction of the Junipers, where 36 units are complete, and said it can’t resume until the analysis is redone to account for the long-term presence of the 331-unit Millennium PQ and 826-unit Trails at Carmel Mountain Ranch.
The resident group that had sued to stop the Junipers called the ruling a victory for San Diego’s neighborhoods because it will require developers to provide more robust mitigation when they build impactful, dense projects.
In particular, the residents want Junipers developer Lennar Homes to pay for building more evacuation routes for their wildfire-prone area.
“Our goal in bringing this lawsuit forward is to require the city of San Diego to perform environmental review to address wildfire impacts on redevelopment in our area,” the PQ-NE Action Group said in a statement. “We are very pleased with the final ruling.”
The city and Lennar, which declined to comment Tuesday, could appeal to a higher court.
Or Lennar could settle with the residents, for instance by agreeing to construct additional evacuation routes.
If the ruling isn’t overturned on appeal, attorneys for Lennar and the city say it could have far-reaching impacts on how government agencies must analyze the effects dense housing projects might have on traffic, noise and wildfire threats.
“It would potentially grind development to a halt,” Deputy City Attorney Ben Syz told Judge Frazier in court last Thursday. “The city needs certainty as to what it’s looking at and what it’s analyzing.”
do we want more housing or not…?
Is it really about the wildfires/evacuation or it about anti-development?
It is the best excuse they could come up with.
The chance of the people around the development being affected by a wildfire is a million to one.
I’m mixed on this one but leaning to the developers perspective.
Infill development projects add A LOT of additional traffic to an area. If the ways in/out are a bottleneck it will be a problem. I dont see a fire sneaking up on people so quickly that they cant get out. I can see certain streets going from 5 cars per hour to over 50.
Either way you cant stop already accepted plans. If citys want to make laws about traffic + number of ins and outs to a project fine. But again you cant retroactively apply on already in process projects.
More through routes = less density. Quadrupling the area’s density will most certainly degrade the existing resident’s quality of life but they also know that URBAN planners in charge of vetting these things love density. This is about the only way they can salvage something.
This is the tip of the spear as California has gutted local zoning. Expect ever more takings of this sort.
Personally I would have attacked the water agency for issuing a will serve letter.
I heard that the environmentalists were concerned because they found a rare species on the property. No it was not the California Gnatcatcher but it was something else on the California Endangered Species act. It was a “conservative.”
I lived up in the houses behind where this development is happening. The houses that are already there only have one in and out of that suburb area. The congestion for these additional homes will just cause more. They are also planning on adding another entrance and exit up into the housing area that is already there that will cause additional traffic. Getting out of the housing area now takes them up to 30 mins. due to the work being done. People in this area didnt want these houses and apartments built there. They were hoping for restraunts or something useful. I still talking to friends that live there. They have not halted working on this as one of my friends I spoke too today. Shut this down!!
The issue goes way beyond more evacuation routes in wildfire-prone areas. The Wolford Brief lays out the real issues that the political establishment refuses to acknowledge and resolve. It recommends a solution that 17 million voters have already approved. SANDAG has received a copy of the Wolford Brief. Call them on it. Ask them for a copy of the Wolford Brief at the next SANDAG Board Meeting.
It’s very sad because especially North County San Diego needs more affordable new houses, CONDOS, ETC, * LET’S WAIT TO SEE IF THEY MOVE TOWARDS THE FUTURE!!!