Point Loma residents packed UPSES Portuguese Hall on Oct. 29 to be updated about the proposed 1004 Rosecrans St. housing development.
The large-scale housing development would have 56 residential units including eight affordable units, three very low-income units, two low-income units, and three moderate-income units. It would also include a commercial suite and 45 underground parking spaces.
The project would be built on the site of the former San Diego County Credit Union in Point Loma Village, now being used for car rentals, next door to Cabrillo Elementary School and the historic Jennings House eatery.
Back in February, hundreds of Point Loma residents packed a town hall meeting in Liberty Station expressing their unwavering opposition to another proposed dense development nearby, the conversion of City-owned H Barracks into a temporary, large-scale homelessness services shelter. That proposal has since been changed into transforming the barracks into a Safe Parking Lot.
The town hall was organized by community activists Margaret Virissimo and Sally Bixler, president of the Point Loma Assembly. “When I heard that our planning board was not allowed to review this project and that it was not subject to public input, I became very concerned and determined to find out how that could happen,” noted Bixler.
“It takes a village to fight all of the projects being dumped into Point Loma by the City,” said Virissimo, before introducing panelists. That group included Eric Law, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s Project Review Committee; Christine Smith, board member for Neighbors For a Better San Diego; Mark Cervantes; Kathy Gallagher owner of Jennings House Restaurant; and Art Castanares, publisher of La Prensa Newspaper.
“This is a topic of great importance to everyone here in the community because our access to information has been blocked since we first heard about this through back channels in June,” noted Law adding developers of 1004 Rosecrans have applied for a complete communities building. “That gives them the waiver so instead of building 14 units on that size lot like they’re supposed to, they can technically build 56,” said Law. “It will be four stories in the front. It will go lot line to lot line with a 30-foot sheer wall in front of Cabrillo Elementary, and a 30- to 40-foot sheer wall immediately adjacent to Jennings House.
“They’re going to populate the entire block. Doing their funny math, they can put almost 2 ½ times the area of that lot in the living area. That’s how they get to 56 units on four stories.”
Law claimed the proposed development will have no provision for residential parking, adding the limited number of subterranean parking spaces being created will not be available to the public but rather will be “sold individually either for the residents or other commercial.”
Smith of the nonprofit Neighbors For a Better San Diego noted the organization formed three years ago to oppose the alleged overdevelopment of accessory dwelling units (ADUs or granny flats). She said the current law “allows you, in every single-family neighborhood, on any single-family parcel, to add up to three ADUs.” She concluded, “Every parcel in Point Loma can be built up this way.”
Gallagher of Jennings House thanked the community for supporting her small restaurant business and helping her through the pandemic. However, she expressed her fear that her business would not survive the long construction period necessary if the apartment building next door was allowed to be built.
Castanares of La Prensa claimed there is a deliberate pattern of high-rise development throughout San Diego’s neighborhoods, including South Park, where his relatives live and work.
