Introduction

This 10 acre site is on the north side of Friars Road across from San Diego County’s largest regional mall (Fashion Valley Center) and shares the traffic signal to the mall’s main entrance. It is zoned CO (Commercial Office) and, over several years, was considered for development of various uses including large office buildings and retail uses. Comprised mostly of steep hillsides, about 1.8 acres of relatively flat area lies adjacent to its Friars Road frontage. Because the Linda Vista Community Plan allows 100% residential uses on the site with approval of a discretionary Planned Commercial Development (“PCD”) permit, AMERICAN PROPERTY ENTERPRISES(“APE”) was able to plan and entitle its 161 unit apartment project named Fashion Walk Condominiums.

With two levels of below-grade parking structure beneath a single 5-story apartment building, the complex’s small footprint of 1.6 acres on the previously-disturbed flat portion of the 10 acre site achieved minimal environmental impacts. Considerably less traffic is generated by residential development of the site, compared to the approved office and retail uses, and over 80% of the steep, hilly terrain was left untouched. Both the traffic increase from the project and the impacts to sensitive coastal habitat were deemed “insignificant” by the Planning Department which recommended approval of the discretionary PCD Permit with a Mitigated Negative Declaration under California’s Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”).

Aware that strong opposition to the project was certain by a small but vociferous group of environmental activists, APE reached out for support from neighborhood residents and business owners by making numerous project presentations to recognized community groups, influential individuals, and all three homeowner associations whose condo communities overlook the site at its northern boundary. Their input was invaluable to APE which not only incorporated their comments into the project’s design but also offered to fund the costs for several traffic improvements even though these improvements were not required by the City. This outreach effort resulted in widespread community support and the most influential leaders in the community appeared personally to speak in favor of the project at each of the multiple Planning Commission and City Council public hearings to consider the project.

The project was approved unanimously by both the Linda Vista Community Planning Committee (16-0) and the Mission Valley Community Planning Group (12-0-1) but still faced stiff opposition from the same environmental activists who have sought for years to prevent any development in Mission Valley because of increasing traffic congestion. These activists appealed the City Planning Commission’s 4-3 approval to the City Council claiming that the project violated CEQA. The Council upheld the approval on a 7-1 vote, however, following APE’s unilateral offer to donate $1 million toward construction of additional road improvements to ease traffic congestion. The entire entitlement process required almost 30 months to complete. The entitled land was sold to D. R. Horton for $22 million in October 2005.