[quote=FlyerInHi]BG. If you wanr to preserve open space and natural resources, you allow high density. The way we have it now, we have sprawl which destroys open spaces.[/quote]
Exactly, brian, “The way we have it now . . .” It’s already done. The horse left out of the open barn door decades ago, right in front of our “esteemed leader’s” noses. We cannot now unring the bell.
Millenia, if approved as shown in the developer’s (pipe dream) gallery, is an example of the creation of MORE sprawl! It is a development on the very edge of Chula Vista …. a long stone’s throw from Otay Valley Rd/Main St, which is Chula Vista’s border with South SD. I posted earlier that Palm Ave (Otay Mesa-SD) is the next exit in I-805 but in fact there is one more Chula Vista exit within one mile of the massive proposed Millenia residential/commercial project (nearly to the scale of the now “scaled down” One Paseo in Carmel Valley). The project’s commercial area copies the design of Otay Ranch Mall with the same nose-in parking but sans the anchor stores that our brethren directly to the south of us love to shop in :=0
Knocking down structures on a lot with a 50+ year-old one-story court apt complex in OB or North Park (SD), plus maybe 2-3 more adjacent residential lots and building something like Millenia (on a smaller scale of course) is considered “infill” and NOT SPRAWL! It could also be considered the “highest and best use” of land which is already zoned multifamily and already has utilities brought to it and services (police/fire/ambulance and public works) assigned to it! It would also draw well-heeled patrons from other parts of the city to shop and dine, especially if it included a pkg garage (more likely in OB than North Park).
The location of Millenia isn’t going to draw anyone out of Otay Ranch except those residents’ occasional guests and a few Mexican shoppers who spent the day shopping at the outlets in San Ysidro or Otay Ranch Mall. It is a large flat acreage in the midst of snake and lizardland which is also a coyote crossing. Utilities are already brought to the north side (mall side, across the street) but not to any future-created streets below (and easements, due to the undoubtedly higher proposed density, if approved).
Otay Ranch Mall has had a hard enough time surviving in the 8-9 years it has been built (it opened the last quarter of 2006, IIRC). It has the THIRD Macys in South County as an anchor with REI (next closest REI was Mira Mesa) and we probably didn’t need another Macys down here. Many of the shops in Otay Ranch Mall today are not the same shops which were there at its opening (it started out with mostly higher-end stores and several of them didn’t fly at that location). If Millenia is planning on attracting higher-end shops to fill its retail space, I think they’ll have a tough time getting them interested in that location.
Yes, as dense as it is (it is VERY dense, folks), Otay Ranch subdivisions and shopping look pleasing, especially to younger Gen X and Millenials, who appreciate new construction. But looks are deceiving. The vast majority of its original homeowners who are still there bought new in Otay Ranch between 2003 and 2007. (1st subdivision to be sold there was about late 2000/2001.) This group saw their home values plummet up to 60% in SFRs and closer to 70% in condos by 2008, experiencing the highest home depreciation of all time within the county of SD. It was so bad that the effects of its depreciation reverberated throughout the city, even affecting the values in older neighborhoods of Chula Vista situated 6-12 miles away where the majority of homes were actually paid off! Those thousands of owners in Otay Ranch who hung on WERE hurting and are STILL hurting because the assessor has now raised Chula Vista assessments en masse back up to 2004/05 levels pursuant to Prop 8. Otay Ranch residents now have a raised ad valoream tax to contend with for FY 15/16 PLUS Mello Roos of 1.4% to 1.7% of assessed value (this area has among the most expensive CFDs in the county) PLUS monthly dues for 1-2 HOA’s to pay for! In addition, their toll road (to get to/from work daily) costs approx $90 month for advance payment of approx 20 days of use (round trip).
I have a good memory and will surmise that many Otay Ranch homeowners who hung on during the “great recession” (to keep their kids in school) are now paying on modified mortgages of 40 years at 2-4% fixed, which included all their missed interest payments when their last mortgage “exploded” on them and they defaulted. Thus, many of them are still upside-down today.
These were younger working families who bought into Otay Ranch, NOT the well-heeled who paid cash for their homes! This group typically doesn’t have the money to dine at five-star restaurants and shop at boutiques due to being heavily in debt to their homes (mortgages and very high taxes and fees, in addition to the expenses of raising a family).
I don’t feel that this pie-in-the-sky plan for Millenia pencils out very well in that location and will only add thousands more vehicles to our surface streets every day (to avoid the toll road, like their predecessors have been doing for the better part of ten years).
There are much better locations in the county to do a (successful) project like this ….. as INFILL.
