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SDfan May 13, 2019 10:13 PM

I think there is more political nuance to what Hasan is doing than some folks give him credit for. The man did run a regional planning body covering 20M people and 100+ cities and counties, and won a transit ballot measure to boot. So, I think he can figure out how to handle 3M folks under just 19 jurisdictions.

My take is that he's going as far left on transit as possible to bring right wingers to the center left. Right now, Gasper, Desmond and Co. are asking for some HOV lanes and connectors, and minor expansions on rural highways. That isn't a full throttled "build freeways everywhere now" approach that their predecessors would have demanded. It's actually very weak in comparison.

Hasan is politically savvy, IMO. He's got the other side admitting we need more mobility options, and they're asking for way less in terms of highway expansion.

Now, I do think that Gasper, Desmond and Co. are exaggerating their position. Calling into question a yet to be presented plan is one thing; threatening recall elections of their colleagues at SANDAG is another, and I hope they get called out more for it.

Obviously, Gasper needs to draw attention away from her support and connections to Trump, and highlighting a local issue like traffic is a traditionally clever way to sidestep. However, it may not be enough given the demos of her district, and her opponents will have the upper hand on climate action, which polls very, very well in Gasper's district.

Of course, a lot of things will happen before Hasan presents his vision formally to the board in November, so we shall see.

SDfan May 13, 2019 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliNative (Post 8571988)
1. Harbor Island?
2. Coronado (ferry depot)?
3. Coronado Nat. Monument on Pt. Loma?
4. somewhere else?

I like the view from Harbor Island best. For a view of the city & mountains, maybe Pt. Loma heights near the lighthouse.

I don't know the exact exit, but heading north on the 805 from Chula Vista there is a sweet view of the skyline. Also I hear that there is a nice view from Emerald Hills in SE SD.

mello May 13, 2019 10:37 PM

7th Market
 
I called Lori Weisberg from the UT she said they are still positive and an announcement on financing will be coming soon.

BOSA Semi Twin to Pacific Gate: Called BOSA office and spoke to a manager she said he is waiting to see how Manchesters project plays out and thinks that will add value to his new tower so ground breaking on that is at least a year away maybe 2. -- However a recession will have hit by then so we shall see. Chinese buyers have dried up so pricey condo high rises on the bay could be tough.

Skyline view: Its the L Street Telegrah Canyon exit you are talking about off 805 you can hike up past a residential neighborhood on a hill there maybe 1/2 mile east of 805 and get a killer view.

The SE hood view that is nice is the very west end of Paradise Hills Rd the is military housing off of Munda road. Drive up in there and you will find a really nice vantage point at 6298 Bougainville Rd.

SDCAL May 13, 2019 10:43 PM

Thanks Mello for the detective work.

hope we see 7th/Market under construction this year!

SDfan May 14, 2019 2:55 AM

mello you are awesome, thank you.

CaliNative May 14, 2019 8:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliNative (Post 8571988)
1. Harbor Island?
2. Coronado (ferry depot)?
3. Coronado Nat. Monument on Pt. Loma?
4. somewhere else?

I like the view from Harbor Island best. For a view of the city & mountains, maybe Pt. Loma heights near the lighthouse.

Of course I meant to say Cabrillo National Mounument, not "Coronado National Monument". Brain f*rt. Thanks for the other posts above that describe great skyline views besides the above. The most distant skyline views I know about can be seen from Double Peak Park in San Marcos (on a clear day), probably 40 miles away as the crow flies. Some of the peaks to the east like Mt. Laguna probably afford good skyline views, but I'm not sure. It is interesting to note that the current San Diego skyline dwarfs the San Francisco and Los Angeles skylines that existed before the late 1960s (tallest building in SF before 1967 was the 464' Hartford Building--in L.A. it was 454' City Hall). That pesky 500' height limit limits us somewhat, but the sheer number of skyscrapers continues to grow and densify.

Will O' Wisp May 14, 2019 9:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliNative (Post 8571988)
1. Harbor Island?
2. Coronado (ferry depot)?
3. Coronado Nat. Monument on Pt. Loma?
4. somewhere else?

I like the view from Harbor Island best. For a view of the city & mountains, maybe Pt. Loma heights near the lighthouse.

You've hit all the high points, but I'll add a few more.

1. Mr. A's in Banker's Hill. Second only to Harbor Island in my humble experience. The best views are on the outdoor patio, which you'll usually need to reserve in advance. They have a dress code which they do enforce (minimum of collared shirt and nice jeans, no t-shirts or flip-flips) and plates are $50-80 not including drinks.

2. Marston Point in Balboa Park. Just an fyi, it's directly under the flight path into Lindbergh so expect a fair bit of noise (of course, for some that's a bonus).

3. Palm St pedestrian overpass across the 5. Probably one of the best places to watch aircraft coming into Lindbergh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDfan (Post 8572054)
I think there is more political nuance to what Hasan is doing than some folks give him credit for.

I can see many of your points, and ultimately we can never truly know what's going through Ikhrata's mind.

What I see, however, is Ikhrata attempting to apply his LA area strategies in SD without taking into account the major differences between the two regions, both political and physical.

First off, unlike SCAG, SANDAG collects taxes directly from its entire jurisdiction and builds most of the region's transportation infrastructure itself. That gives it a massive amount of power compared to its LA area counterpart, but that also subjects it to a comparatively larger amount of pressure from local governments. In LA, Imperial County can ignore SCAG's vision if it chooses to and put its taxes into freeways instead. Cities and unincorporated communities in SD don't have that right, and so naturally they're going to exert a heck of a lot more pressure on SANDAG to determine what gets built.

So it might less informative to think of Ikhrata as moving from an agency that plans for 20m people to one that plans for 3m, but rather from an agency that has a $50m annual budget to one that has a $1.3b annual budget. He's not making paper plans anymore, Hasan Ikhrata effectively has total control what transportation infrastructures does (and doesn't) get built in SD county. That's a level of power and political influence exponentially greater than what he had at SCAG, and he really seems to be enjoying the level of attention from the press this gives him.

And that ties into his other big issue, which is that he also seems to discount the sometimes very personal nature of SD politics. Ikhrata said (to the press, mind you) that he was annoyed with Supervisor Desmond continually asking him about expanding the 78, which he characterized as pushy and uninformed. That's just on the high side of slander against the only elected official in all of NE County, and one with a great deal of influence over the only other countywide body in SD. I'm not saying I support the way Desmond reacted by then burying Ikhrata's plan with negative press coverage before it was even released (and believe me, Desmond is the real leader of this three ring circus. Gaspar is just trying to hitch a ride to reelection), but anyone familiar with SD politics would've known what was going to happen.

I can tell you from personal experience the transition from the LA to to the SD political sphere can be a rough one. There are far, far less players and you're constantly dealing with the same people over and over again. Political decorum and maintaining relationships are extremely important. That's why I post my more controversial opinions online anonymously rather than send them to the press, when I don't even have a fraction of the importance or political attention Ikhrata does... :typing:

As for transit vs freeways, Desmond and Gaspar were already not against totally transit. They were going to be against taxes, especially large ones dedicated for transit, but if Ikhrata hadn't moved towards deleting the 2004 ballot projects they wouldn't be getting nearly the same press coverage they are now. That's a pretty big problem because it's going to be hard enough to sell a major transit push in SD as it is. SD county is roughly the same size as LA county but only has 1/3rd the population, population density, and GDP. To gain the same ridership percentages as LA you are going to need to raise a proportionally higher amount of revenue, aka taxes will probably need to be higher on a per person basis than LA. Considering LA's Measure S barely squeaked through in 2017, that doesn't bode well for an even larger tax increase in historically conservative SD. I like a lot of Ikhrata's thoughts, but I have trouble seeing how he'll come up with something that's really workable in SD.

Also, you're awesome mello never change :cool:

CaliNative May 14, 2019 9:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will O' Wisp (Post 8572503)
You've hit all the high points, but I'll add a few more.

1. Mr. A's in Banker's Hill. Second only to Harbor Island in my humble experience. The best views are on the outdoor patio, which you'll usually need to reserve in advance. They have a dress code which they do enforce (minimum of collared shirt and nice jeans, no t-shirts or flip-flips) and plates are $50-80 not including drinks.

2. Marston Point in Balboa Park. Just an fyi, it's directly under the flight path into Lindbergh so expect a fair bit of noise (of course, for some that's a bonus).

3. Palm St pedestrian overpass across the 5. Probably one of the best places to watch aircraft coming into Lindbergh.



I can see many of your points, and ultimately we can never truly know what's going through Ikhrata's mind.

What I see, however, is Ikhrata attempting to apply his LA area strategies in SD without taking into account the major differences between the two regions, both political and physical.

First off, unlike SCAG, SANDAG collects taxes directly from its entire jurisdiction and builds most of the region's transportation infrastructure itself. That gives it a massive amount of power compared to its LA area counterpart, but that also subjects it to a comparatively larger amount of pressure from local governments. In LA, Imperial County can ignore SCAG's vision if it chooses to and put its taxes into freeways instead. Cities and unincorporated communities in SD don't have that right, and so naturally they're going to exert a heck of a lot more pressure on SANDAG to determine what gets built.

So it might less informative to think of Ikhrata as moving from an agency that plans for 20m people to one that plans for 3m, but rather from an agency that has a $50m annual budget to one that has a $1.3b annual budget. He's not making paper plans anymore, Hasan Ikhrata effectively has total control what transportation infrastructures does (and doesn't) get built in SD county. That's a level of power and political influence exponentially greater than what he had at SCAG, and he really seems to be enjoying the level of attention from the press this gives him.

And that ties into his other big issue, which is that he also seems to discount the sometimes very personal nature of SD politics. Ikhrata said (to the press, mind you) that he was annoyed with Supervisor Desmond continually asking him about expanding the 78, which he characterized as pushy and uninformed. That's just on the high side of slander against the only elected official in all of NE County, and one with a great deal of influence over the only other countywide body in SD. I'm not saying I support the way Desmond reacted by then burying Ikhrata's plan with negative press coverage before it was even released (and believe me, Desmond is the real leader of this three ring circus. Gaspar is just trying to hitch a ride to reelection), but anyone familiar with SD politics would've known what was going to happen.

I can tell you from personal experience the transition from the LA to to the SD political sphere can be a rough one. There are far, far less players and you're constantly dealing with the same people over and over again. Political decorum and maintaining relationships are extremely important. That's why I post my more controversial opinions online anonymously rather than send them to the press, when I don't even have a fraction of the importance or political attention Ikhrata does... :typing:

As for transit vs freeways, Desmond and Gaspar were already not against totally transit. They were going to be against taxes, especially large ones dedicated for transit, but if Ikhrata hadn't moved towards deleting the 2004 ballot projects they wouldn't be getting nearly the same press coverage they are now. That's a pretty big problem because it's going to be hard enough to sell a major transit push in SD as it is. SD county is roughly the same size as LA county but only has 1/3rd the population, population density, and GDP. To gain the same ridership percentages as LA you are going to need to raise a proportionally higher amount of revenue, aka taxes will probably need to be higher on a per person basis than LA. Considering LA's Measure S barely squeaked through in 2017, that doesn't bode well for an even larger tax increase in historically conservative SD. I like a lot of Ikhrata's thoughts, but I have trouble seeing how he'll come up with something that's really workable in SD.

Also, you're awesome mello never change :cool:

Interesting comments above.

On a separate topic, the so called "San Diego State West" development that will presumably occupy the Qualcomm Stadium site should have many more high rise apartment buildings, many of them affordable. Room for 5000 units at least on the land, as well as the SDSU expansion if they build up. The housing shortage, particularly affordable units, is untenable if SD is to remain vital. I hope it is not too late to modify the plans. This is public land after all. Another prime area for high rise apt/condo towers might be the sports arena site in Midway, if they could build a new arena downtown (and attract major league basketball/hockey) and free up the land at Midway.

Nerv May 18, 2019 5:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will O' Wisp (Post 8572503)
You've hit all the high points, but I'll add a few more.

1. Mr. A's in Banker's Hill. Second only to Harbor Island in my humble experience. The best views are on the outdoor patio, which you'll usually need to reserve in advance. They have a dress code which they do enforce (minimum of collared shirt and nice jeans, no t-shirts or flip-flips) and plates are $50-80 not including drinks.

2. Marston Point in Balboa Park. Just an fyi, it's directly under the flight path into Lindbergh so expect a fair bit of noise (of course, for some that's a bonus).

3. Palm St pedestrian overpass across the 5. Probably one of the best places to watch aircraft coming into Lindbergh.



I can see many of your points, and ultimately we can never truly know what's going through Ikhrata's mind.

What I see, however, is Ikhrata attempting to apply his LA area strategies in SD without taking into account the major differences between the two regions, both political and physical.

First off, unlike SCAG, SANDAG collects taxes directly from its entire jurisdiction and builds most of the region's transportation infrastructure itself. That gives it a massive amount of power compared to its LA area counterpart, but that also subjects it to a comparatively larger amount of pressure from local governments. In LA, Imperial County can ignore SCAG's vision if it chooses to and put its taxes into freeways instead. Cities and unincorporated communities in SD don't have that right, and so naturally they're going to exert a heck of a lot more pressure on SANDAG to determine what gets built.

So it might less informative to think of Ikhrata as moving from an agency that plans for 20m people to one that plans for 3m, but rather from an agency that has a $50m annual budget to one that has a $1.3b annual budget. He's not making paper plans anymore, Hasan Ikhrata effectively has total control what transportation infrastructures does (and doesn't) get built in SD county. That's a level of power and political influence exponentially greater than what he had at SCAG, and he really seems to be enjoying the level of attention from the press this gives him.

And that ties into his other big issue, which is that he also seems to discount the sometimes very personal nature of SD politics. Ikhrata said (to the press, mind you) that he was annoyed with Supervisor Desmond continually asking him about expanding the 78, which he characterized as pushy and uninformed. That's just on the high side of slander against the only elected official in all of NE County, and one with a great deal of influence over the only other countywide body in SD. I'm not saying I support the way Desmond reacted by then burying Ikhrata's plan with negative press coverage before it was even released (and believe me, Desmond is the real leader of this three ring circus. Gaspar is just trying to hitch a ride to reelection), but anyone familiar with SD politics would've known what was going to happen.

I can tell you from personal experience the transition from the LA to to the SD political sphere can be a rough one. There are far, far less players and you're constantly dealing with the same people over and over again. Political decorum and maintaining relationships are extremely important. That's why I post my more controversial opinions online anonymously rather than send them to the press, when I don't even have a fraction of the importance or political attention Ikhrata does... :typing:

As for transit vs freeways, Desmond and Gaspar were already not against totally transit. They were going to be against taxes, especially large ones dedicated for transit, but if Ikhrata hadn't moved towards deleting the 2004 ballot projects they wouldn't be getting nearly the same press coverage they are now. That's a pretty big problem because it's going to be hard enough to sell a major transit push in SD as it is. SD county is roughly the same size as LA county but only has 1/3rd the population, population density, and GDP. To gain the same ridership percentages as LA you are going to need to raise a proportionally higher amount of revenue, aka taxes will probably need to be higher on a per person basis than LA. Considering LA's Measure S barely squeaked through in 2017, that doesn't bode well for an even larger tax increase in historically conservative SD. I like a lot of Ikhrata's thoughts, but I have trouble seeing how he'll come up with something that's really workable in SD.

Also, you're awesome mello never change :cool:


I’m not sure how transit in SD is going to happen going forward but after the pushback that happened on expanding San Diego’s interstate 5 with them going for the smallest change (I’m getting 1 carpool lane on each side where I live) I don’t see hwy 78 getting any great expansion without the locals going after the person pushing for it. I can’t speak for the folks in the south county but expanding freeways or major highways is not popular in the north county by residents unless it’s so far out it has zero negative impact to residents. No one likes the traffic but they seem more willing to put up with it than endless expansion into people’s neighborhoods.

I think the elected officials aren’t in step with residents and learn their lessons the hard way when pushing in the wrong direction.

The 78 surely needs some expansion work but I’d tread lightly on what you suggest if I was making that call.

You can’t expand freeways and highways forever and the residents have to remind the current local elected idiot that as they pass through their terms here...:uhh:

mello May 18, 2019 7:47 PM

I-5 Expansion
 
Nerv: When was it announced the expansion is being cut back? I never heard about this. I thought it was going to be 6 lanes eachway at all times from Del Mar to Oceanside and 7 lanes at some points. It seems like pretty big news that now it will only be 1 extra lane expansion. Can you provide links please. Look at the San Elijo lagoon bridge at Manchester ave in Cardiff it is wide as hell on both sides! How can that possibly be for just 1 extra lane each way? That bridge widening looks like it could easily accommodate 3 lanes on each side. Anyone else notice this?

Construction Update: Anyone see that crappy old appartment building cleared next to the Symphony Towers Marriot in 7th/A ? Looks like that 22 floor tower that was approved almost 4 years ago could be starting.

Will O' Wisp May 18, 2019 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nerv (Post 8577480)
I’m not sure how transit in SD is going to happen going forward but after the pushback that happened on expanding San Diego’s interstate 5 with them going for the smallest change (I’m getting 1 carpool lane on each side where I live) I don’t see hwy 78 getting any great expansion without the locals going after the person pushing for it. I can’t speak for the folks in the south county but expanding freeways or major highways is not popular in the north county by residents unless it’s so far out it has zero negative impact to residents. No one likes the traffic but they seem more willing to put up with it than endless expansion into people’s neighborhoods.

I think the elected officials aren’t in step with residents and learn their lessons the hard way when pushing in the wrong direction.

The 78 surely needs some expansion work but I’d tread lightly on what you suggest if I was making that call.

You can’t expand freeways and highways forever and the residents have to remind the current local elected idiot that as they pass through their terms here...:uhh:

The 5 is getting two carpool lanes, which will later be switched to 'managed lanes' (toll lanes). Or at least, it was under the old plan, although Ikhrata has shown a good deal of support for managed lanes as a revenue generator. The environmental review for the whole project is already done, the only reason SANDAG isn't building both lanes at once is their lack of funding.

And that's perhaps the real issue here, is that SANDAG has a huge amount of territory to cover and very little money to do it with. We're the same size as LA county with 1/3rd the people and money. And currently we're only taxed at 1/3rd the rate LA county is for transit, so right now SANDAG is trying to cover the same geographic area as LA with 1/6th the funding.

That's not even enough to finish a freeway network, much less a more expensive transit network. Just to get us on LA's per capita transit tax rate we'll need to triple our sales tax from 0.5% to 1.5%. But even then SANDAG is only going to get 1/3rd the income their counterparts in LA do, when to get the same results they'll need to spend fairly similar amounts (the per mile costs of rail don't vary much with ridership). Seattle, in a similar position as SD, makes up the difference with a combination of taxes on cars and property which come out to around six times the overall rate San Diegans currently pay for transportation infrastructure, lining up with this figure.

Keep that figure in mind, 6x times the current level of per person taxation. There's a lot of legitimate concern that the sticker shock of raising transportation taxes six times over their current level will put off SD voters. In 2017 LA was barely able to pass California's requirement of a 2/3rds majority for an increase of 2x to 3x. In 2016 Seattle's increase from 3x to 6x only passed by 53%, under California state law that ballot proposition would have failed (not to mention one of the key components in keeping the tax increase even somewhat progressive, a 1% annual property tax, would violate California's Prop 13). Even in the best of circumstances this would be extremely difficult measure to get passed.

Then on top of that you're throwing on the "broken promises" issue and Ikhrata angering leaders who oppose him by dissing them in the media. Now you suddenly have to deal with a well organized, well funded, and influential opposition campaign with a very voter friendly soundbite. The mayors of SD and Chula Vista, who came out as some of the strongest support for the new plan at the SANDAG meeting two weeks ago, are now refusing interviews on the subject and limiting themselves to vague statements about their overall support of transit. That's the sort of thing a politicians do to avoid tying themselves to a losing position, which isn't exactly a strong show of support from the most transit friendly areas in the region.

I do believe in a transit based future, in San Diego even, but I'm also realistic. It would take a political genius to give this plan even a shred of a chance, and Ikhrata seems more of an engineer than a politician. A more transitionary plan might be better suited to the situation.

Nerv May 19, 2019 2:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mello (Post 8577582)
Nerv: When was it announced the expansion is being cut back? I never heard about this. I thought it was going to be 6 lanes eachway at all times from Del Mar to Oceanside and 7 lanes at some points. It seems like pretty big news that now it will only be 1 extra lane expansion. Can you provide links please. Look at the San Elijo lagoon bridge at Manchester ave in Cardiff it is wide as hell on both sides! How can that possibly be for just 1 extra lane each way? That bridge widening looks like it could easily accommodate 3 lanes on each side. Anyone else notice this?

Construction Update: Anyone see that crappy old appartment building cleared next to the Symphony Towers Marriot in 7th/A ? Looks like that 22 floor tower that was approved almost 4 years ago could be starting.


https://www.californiaeminentdomainr...ded-community/

https://www.californiaeminentdomainr...ded-community/

If you click on the above you can see some of the original options discussed a decade ago. Anyone living in costal San Diego is aware of the value of the land and homes surrounding the 5 as well as the impact of trying to “insert” a mega lane freeway in completely built up cities. The support by citizens wasn’t there a decade ago and is probably far less today. I’ve been around for a number of those meetings with angry citizens. I think the response in north county for freeway and highway expansions is a thumbs down and mass transit is still neutral since all we really have is the coaster and sprinter which seem to have grown on the locals here to some degree.

There’s a lot of money in the north county that can put politicians in the crosshairs if someone more powerful doesn’t want something. Lol
I’ve seen the results of that firsthand too.

They are currently mostly just removing the center of the i5 to add those 2 extra carpool lanes so a lot of area isn’t really impacted other than noise up to Palomar airport road.

They fight hard over everything down here. Even putting up sound walls and what they can look like is open to hard debates.

SDFC May 21, 2019 4:13 PM

How big will this be for downtown?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc...1.html%3famp=y

Will O' Wisp May 22, 2019 1:38 AM

VoSD came out with a trio of fairly interesting articles this week about the continuing SANDAG controversy.

SANDAG’s New Chief Welcomes Heat, Calls Consensus of the Past a Lie

In response to increased criticism of his regional plan proposals Ikhrata has stepped up his rhetoric, stating that every past SANDAG plan has been purposely non-compliant with state environmental law, and thus any previous agreements within SANDAG are null and void because they were based upon these lies.

I'm not quite sure how to evaluate these claims, on one hand it is true that previous SANDAG plans prioritized cars over transit and the 2015 regional plan failed a state environmental review, but there's no evidence previous SANDAG leadership knowingly lied about the environmental consequences of their plans or deliberately attempted to skirt CA state environmental laws. SANDAG always seemed to have had an unspoken policy of focusing on freeway infrastructure and only building just enough transit to maintain compliance, a ratio which they cut a little too fine in 2015 (they only cut emissions by 18% instead of the required 19%), it's likely that in the end their plans would fail to provide all the benefits advertised but there's no real way to prove this.

Politics Report: Sharp Words at SANDAG Meeting

More info on that last rancorous Board meeting, and a confirmation that Ikhrata is all in on this. He will put his plan up to the board again and again and again until they either accept it or fire him. Gotta give the man credit for that commitment.

How Kevin Faulconer Touched Off a Historic Debate About San Diego’s Transportation Future

The most important man in the room has yet to say anything. Mayor Faulconer was instrumental in placing Ikhrata where he is today, and his support will either make or brake Ikhrata's plans. Has our usually cautious mayor decided that for his last year in office it's finally the time to have out the long simmering public debate over the future of transportation in San Diego, or is he shocked at the level of Ikhrata's extremism when all he really wanted was a slightly more transit friendly executive? Hard to say really.

JerellO May 22, 2019 6:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDFC (Post 8579642)

I really wish some of the Italianate features of Horton plaza could be spared... like the staircase, classical stone “railing” of the Lyceum, the obelisk, the gas lights, etc

SDfan May 22, 2019 9:45 PM

Steel is rising from Pacific Gateway, folks.

https://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c...ed-image_1.png

Boatguy619 May 22, 2019 11:35 PM

I thought Pacific Gateway project was going to be built all at once rather than in phases? Seems like the Navy building is the only thing going up right now. Also why is it steel? Probably a stupid question. But it seems like everything going up around town is concrete and rebar in recent history. But this and 915 Grape are both steel.

Nv_2897 May 23, 2019 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boatguy619 (Post 8581344)
I thought Pacific Gateway project was going to be built all at once rather than in phases? Seems like the Navy building is the only thing going up right now. Also why is it steel? Probably a stupid question. But it seems like everything going up around town is concrete and rebar in recent history. But this and 915 Grape are both steel.

I think that it still is going to be built all at once but they are building the Navy Building at once so that they can move the navy from their old Headquarters into the New building and tear the old building down and put a park in its place. If that makes sense

Streamliner May 23, 2019 4:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerellO (Post 8580396)
I really wish some of the Italianate features of Horton plaza could be spared... like the staircase, classical stone “railing” of the Lyceum, the obelisk, the gas lights, etc

I agree, though it looks like they're preserving that triangular feature at the center at least. I think some of these odd 80's architectural features will be desirable in the near future.

Streamliner May 23, 2019 5:28 PM

Design of condo building behind El Cortez approved
Philip Nolmar
May 23, 2019
San Diego Union-Tribune
Article Link

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...ech-st-two.png

Quote:

A condo tower directly behind the El Cortez building received design approval Wednesday from downtown’s planning agency despite some public opposition.

Critics of the project, including several residents of the El Cortez, argued putting the 12- to 13-story building roughly 20 to 22 feet from the downtown icon would tarnish the building.

Agency board members from Civic San Diego said they were limited to approving the design of the complex, which was received favorably. Also, the project isn’t a done deal yet: It must still be approved at a public hearing of the city’s development services department, and opponents plan to appeal — meaning it will then need approval of the San Diego Planning Commission.
Also interesting at the bottom of the article:

Quote:

First and Beech: The board approved changes to a 429-unit apartment tower near the intersection of First and Beech streets. The 39-story tower was approved in 2016, but developer Willmark Communities sought to add 65 more apartments and make slight changes to the design. The project’s tower will be 425 feet tall and would be one of the tallest buildings in the Cortez neighborhood. The project would include 15 subsidized apartments for low-income renters, less than required to avoid paying the city’s inclusionary housing fee. The developer will also pay $1.5 million in fees, which could be used to pay for subsidized housing elsewhere. It will likely take nine months to a year before construction starts.

220 W. Broadway: A massive project at 220 W. Broadway to replace the former San Diego County Courthouse was approved by the board. Developer Holland Partner Group, of Vancouver, Wash., plans a 37-story building with 431 apartments (including 87 subsidized units), 270,492 square feet of office space and 18,595 square feet of commercial space. The site is 54,647 square feet and bounded by Broadway, Union, Front and C streets. Sale of the land to Holland may still take several months and construction is expected to take around 4 years.


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