28 Jun One Paseo Project approved

The San Diego City Council approved the controversial One Paseo Project, which is expected to pave the way for more housing, retail and office San Diego real estate projects as development pushes further out. One Paseo had been stalled for years amid scaled back plans and mounting criticism of the massive office, commercial and retail project.

Originally, One Paseo in Carmel Valley was a proposed 1.45 million square feet with 608 apartments. office towers, condos and retail space. On Monday, the council approved a much smaller version –a 1.18 square million foot project on a vacant 24-acre parcel – with an 8-to-1 vote. For years, opponents of One Paseo fought it largely due to traffic in an already congested area and the lack of mass transit — at one point, an estimated 24,000 trips per day were projected with One Paseo but that was scaled back to a projected 13,500 daily trips. A transit shuttle was added and a developer-funded traffic signal optimization is expected to improve congestion.

One Paseo had been mired in controversy nearly from the start.The project was scaled back to include six office towers instead of nine; retail was cut from 247,000 square feet to 96,000 square feet; and office space shrank from 484,000 square feet  to 280,000 square feet. At one point, the Developer, Kilroy Realty, and several groups filed lawsuits and led a successful referendum drive despite fierce opposition. Proponents hailed this San Diego real estate project as “smart growth,” where dense housing is built along existing traffic areas to limit encroachment in rural areas.

Opponents are still concerned One Paseo is just too big for the suburban bedroom community 20 miles north of downtown, though the scaled back version converted many opponents into supporters. The project is expected to bring 800 jobs into the area.