North City Freeze Stops 4 Projects, but 2 Proceed
Four developments in the La Jolla Village-Torrey Pines area, including a 400-room Sheraton Hotel at the city-owned Torrey Pines Golf Course, failed to gain the go-ahead Tuesday from the San Diego City Council.
Council members, however, exempted Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation from a yearlong building moratorium in the fast-growing Golden Triangle area to allow construction of a 60,000-square-foot molecular biology laboratory to be used for a 15-year, $120-million research program aimed at reducing world hunger.
The moratorium, imposed by the council in April, is designed to prevent additional traffic congestion in the North City until a new traffic study and land use update of the area can be completed.
The Scripps research project was granted an exemption because of the likelihood that the project would lose its funding from the Pittsburgh-based chemical firm PPG Industries.
Also granted approval was a 456-unit apartment complex on a site designated in the University City Community Plan for 320 housing units. The developer convinced council members that he could combine the project with other properties he owns in the area, averaging out density and traffic figures to meet the community plan requirements.
However, requests for immediate development permission by the Sheraton hotel, a commercial-warehouse complex, and two research and development firms were turned down.
Paul Robinson, attorney for Spin Physics Inc., criticized the council for rescinding an earlier approval of its development.
“I’ve got Kodak people in Buffalo who can’t understand why the city (of San Diego) is welshing on the deal,” Robinson said. Spin Physics is seeking to build a 550,000-square-foot building in the Torrey Pines Mesa Science Park area that, according to city planners, already has been developed to double its designated density.
Spin Physics and Gen-Probe, a genetics research firm seeking to build in the Campus Point area east of Interstate 5 and UC San Diego, may continue with their development plans as planned districts, Mayor Roger Hedgecock assured the company representatives. Under planned district requirements, both firms would have to pay for some of the public services in the area and for street improvements needed to handle their addition to traffic congestion.
A Gen-Probe spokesman complained that the firm “can’t meet its corporate commitments without more space.” If construction cannot be started by September and completed by April, Gen-Probe may decide to place its building in Carlsbad, the spokesman said.
The Sheraton Hotel development, stalled for several years because the city could not deliver the Torrey Pines site, will probably not be delayed for long, Councilman Bill Cleator said.
He criticized city planners for not anticipating the problems the over-building is causing in the University City area, and apologized to the representatives of the firms caught up in the moratorium.
