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One Paseo Traffic vs. PHR?

Submitted by ken on

Seems like an odd comparison, to judge the size of a 23 acre development against an entire 2,652 acre community. However, Pacific Highlands Ranch (PHR) only generates about 3x the traffic of One Paseo, and it's 100 times bigger! That's one-third the traffic of an entire community compressed into a tiny little lot! Wow.

Next Meeting: March 28, 2013

Submitted by ken on

The CV Planning Board will hear more information on the proposed One Paseo development this Thursday, March 28, 2013 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM at the Ocean Air Elementary School, 11444 Canter Heights Drive, San Diego, CA 92130 (NOTE: Special time AND location!) This meeting will focus exclusively on traffic impacts. Please attend to show your opposition to this massive, urban project!

Debbie Lokanc for CV Planning Board

Submitted by ken on

Carmel Valley Neighborhood 5 Election

Neighborhood 5 residents:
Vote for Debbie Lokanc, it's important!

The CV Planning Board Elections are this Thursday (March 28, 2013, 5:00 PM at the CV Library). Kilroy and their supporters are working to take two seats on the Planning Board, I assume trying to influence the One Paseo vote. The most important seat in this election is the Neighborhood 5 Residential Seat, currently held by Debbie Lokanc. Her opponent is a One Paseo supporter.

Neighborhood 5 is pictured above, and includes the area bounded by Carmel Creek Road, Carmel Country Road and SR-56. That is, it's the area around Carmel Del Mar Elementary School. If you live in this area, you need to show up and vote for your current representative, Debbie Lokanc! Please vote for Debbie to keep One Paseo supporters off the board. If you don't live in this area, but know people who do, please let them know about the election!

To vote, you must live in Neighborhood 5 (see above), and show proof that you live there (driver's licence, utility bill, etc.), and be at least 18 years old. Multiple people can vote from each household, as long as they're 18, so bring the whole family! Vote at the Carmel Valley Library between 5:00 and 5:30 PM on Thursday, March 28, 2013!

CV Planning Board Meeting Date Change!

Submitted by ken on

The Carmel Valley Planning Board's February One Paseo Special Meeting has been CANCELED for the moment, and will be rescheduled for a date in the future. No information on the reason for the change, but everyone can take the week off -- treat yourself to a night out, or something! Note that the Planning Board will hold a February meeting, but One Paseo will NOT be on the agenda. The regular meeting will be on Thursday, February 28, 2013 from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at the Carmel Valley Library, 3919 Townsgate Drive. For additional information, see This Post on the Meeting, or visit the CV Planning Board Page.

Kilroy and Big Money

Submitted by ken on

A San Diego Reader article: "Kilroy Realty throws one-million dollars at city lobbyists to help with permits for One Paseo". That's One. Million. Dollars. I've heard it was spent over about 3 years, or nearly $30,000 per month. And that's just registered lobbyists! Looking at Kilroy's own financial documents, I read they purchased the property in Q4 2007 for $89M, and as of Q4 2012 they've spent a total of $1.34M $134M on the property. That's $45 Million more Dollars spent on One Paseo over 5 years, or about $750,000 PER MONTH! Where is all this money going?!!

CV Planning Board One Paseo Hearing, Jan 2013

Submitted by ken on

***VERY IMPORTANT MEETING***
CV Planning Board discusses One Paseo
Thurs., Jan. 24 at 7:00 PM
CCA Auditorium, 5951 Village Center Loop Rd.

Kilroy's next attempt to persuade us that building 3X the amount of approved space and pouring 4X the number of allowed vehicles (with 2 new traffic lights!) onto our streets is in the best interests of our community, takes place at a special meeting of the CV Planning Board on January 24th at 7:00 PM at the Canyon Crest Academy (CCA) auditorium.

If you have the time, this would be a good meeting to attend. Bring a neighbor and let's fill that auditorium!

You and your neighbors' attendance will continue to show our Planning Board and City Council that the overwhelming majority of Carmel Valley, Del Mar and Torrey Pines residents oppose the developer's attempt to hijack our quality of life to enhance their corporate profits. There are still unexplored options for an attractive, yet reasonably scaled mixed-use project on this key site. We must pressure the developer into real collaboration with our Community Planning Board to identify better alternatives.

Please join us at the CCA Auditorium at 5951 Village Center Loop Road, San Diego, CA 92130 on Thursday January 24th at 7:00 PM to show your support for a smaller, more appropriate project. The auditorium is on the East side of campus. Arrive early for good parking.

One Paseo Meetings, Jan 2013

Submitted by ken on

Yes, Kilroy has reduced the size of One Paseo, but it's still out-of-scale with the surrounding community, and the change barely puts a dent in the traffic created by the project (now it's "only" 23,000 additional cars!) Sure, they've added a Trader Joe's (hey, we want a Trader Joe's, too!), but that's not the point. Trader Joe's would still work in a much smaller project, something that would fit in Carmel Valley.

If you're concerned, the project will be presented to the Carmel Valley Planning Board on Thursday, Jan 24 at 7:00 PM at the Canyon Crest Academy, Auditorium, 5951 Village Center Loop Road, San Diego, CA 92130. Additionally, I've heard that Kilroy is presenting a One Paseo Open House on Thursday, January 10 from 4:00-7:00 PM at the Kilroy Centre Del Mar Campus, 3579 Valley Centre Drive, Suite 150, San Diego, CA 92130. If you have a minute, show up and tell them that the project is still too big.

What's going on with One Paseo?

Submitted by ken on

Here's a letter from Gene Helsel and Diana Scheffler with their thoughts on the latest news from Kilroy: "I know it’s holiday time, but Kilroy Realty has released a new “lite” version of the project which they say represents a 30% reduction. While Kilroy is busy spreading their ideas, we want to plant a few ideas in your minds to simmer there until after the holidays. Read more...

Emergency Response During Peak Hours?

Submitted by ken on

Stacy Silverwood, a retired Captain of the San Diego Fire Rescue Department, sent the following letter to Councilmember Sherri Lightner. The letter expresses his concerns about response times if a large project is built at the One Paseo site. This certainly makes me wonder about adding 23,000 additional cars to our already congested roads! Here's the letter: Read more...

Does Trader Joe's make up for everything else?

Submitted by ken on

Trader Joe's Storefront

So, One Paseo will include a Trader Joe's. This single store is about 15,000 SF in a sea of nearly 200,000 SF of retail -- 200,000 SF of retail that will significantly impact our quality of life! The question is, are we really willing to gift One Paseo the rights to build this massive urban development, when a Trader Joe's would fit quite nicely into a much smaller center? That's the way I see this, a gift to a Los Angeles-based developer who is looking to make huge profits off of our community. Are we really willing to live with 3 or 4 times as many cars from this site? Hundreds of new residents without adequate parks to serve them? Out-of-scale buildings giving an urban feel to a suburban community? Sure, we want a mixed-use development, some new restaurants, a Trader Joe's, and more jobs! But, we also want to maintain the quality of life for people who live in Carmel Valley outside of One Paseo! We need a development that fits within the limited roads in our community, and provides us with benefits that outweigh the impacts.

Smaller Project? But, still BIG Traffic!

Submitted by ken on

It's funny, this video was made for the "old" project, but it's still holds true. Sure, the traffic counts are down a bit (Kilroy has not released numbers, but we estimate that it's still 23,000 to 24,000 additional trips per day!) Remember, while One Paseo claims a 30% reduction in project size, that does NOT hold for reduction in traffic counts. Think about the "smaller" project this way: starting from the DEIR values (the only project we have numbers for), the total office space drops about 10% and the total retail space drops about 9%. The hotel is entirely removed, but the hotel didn't generate much traffic in the first place. And, while the residential units are SMALLER, the number of units has NOT changed! That is, there will still be the same number of people, causing the same impact on our schools, streets, parks, etc. It's also interesting to note that Kilroy's 30% reduction relies on the total figures from some mythical initial project submission, one that was never really studied by the community and where traffic figures were never released. So, it's hard for us to compare anything to their starting point. We chose to use the DEIR values as a starting point, as we have more information on that project. Anyway, from a traffic standpoint, the reduction is more like 10 or 12%, leaving, by our estimate, an additional 23,000 or 24,000 cars on our roads every day.

Horse Racing Traffic Terrible even before One Paseo

Submitted by ken on

The fair brought us days of backups, and now the Horse Racing season starts to back things up for the rest of the summer. See the article from the North County Times on Del Mar racing season to add to I-5 commuter woes. Everyone should especially beware the weekends of July 28-30 and August 4-6, when the Surf Cup soccer tournament comes to the Polo Fields (El Camino Real at Via de la Valle.) I've heard about 120,000 total attendance over the two weekends, which is about 20,000 people per day. Looking at the Surf Cup website (www.surfcup.com), there will be nearly 400 teams competing, which is something like 5,000 to 6,000 kids, and their parents! So, don't think El Camino Real might be a good shortcut to bypass the horse racing traffic! And, just to make things more exciting, there are horse shows scheduled both weekends at the Del Mar Horsepark, across the street from the Polo Fields!

Like we didn't have enough to worry about!

Submitted by ken on

The SR-56 Connector DEIR is out with thousands more pages of information on impacts to Carmel Valley and Torrey Pines... One interesting point: It appears the One Paseo DEIR Traffic analysis relied on the best case version, the Direct Connectors. If any other option is picked for the SR-56 connectors, traffic on Del Mar Heights Road will increase by 4,000 to 9,000 trips per day, making the One Paseo gridlock even worse!

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