Council OKs Torrey Pines Research Center : Government: Campus wins approval despite fears of traffic congestion, and pollution of the air and Los Penasquitos Lagoon.

The San Diego City Council on Monday approved a 56-acre campus on Torrey Pines Mesa dedicated to basic genetic research, despite findings by the city staff that creation of the facility will significantly contribute to traffic congestion, pollute the air and further foul the waters of Los Penasquitos Lagoon.

Citing their desire to promote scientific study that might some day lead to major health care advances and a desire to enhance San Diego’s reputation as a research center, a council majority voted for the La Jolla Pines Technology Centre over the objections of the Sierra Club and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who represents the area.

“It is rare that we get involved in something so important, not only to the people of this city, but to so many families,” said Councilman Ron Roberts, who voted for the project with Mayor Maureen O’Connor and council members Wes Pratt, Linda Bernhardt, Bruce Henderson and Judy McCarty despite a Planning Department environmental impact report that recommended against it.

Councilmen John Hartley and Bob Filner joined Wolfsheimer in opposing the project.

Situated at the northeast corner of Genessee Avenue and North Torrey Pines Road, the research center would be home to the La Jolla Institute for Experimental Medicine--a research arm of a Swedish pharmaceutical company--and major expansions of the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic and the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation. When fully occupied, the 56.4-acre parcel will contain 831,000 square feet of scientific research space.

All three organizations will concentrate on “basic life science” research that could “identify and characterize the function of genes that regulate cell development, whether it’s normal cell development, or abnormal cells,” such as cancers, said R. Douglas Armstrong, vice president of the nonprofit La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation.

The results of that research into how specific genes work may some day lead to health care applications, but none of the organizations plan direct clinical studies, Armstrong said.

Acknowledging the value of the research, Wolfsheimer and Hartley nevertheless fought another major development atop Torrey Pines Mesa, which Hartley called a “natural resource for the whole area.”

“The choice is very clear,” Wolfsheimer said. “It’s between doing something for our nation in terms of scientific research and doing something for our city. And I think charity begins at home.”

According to the environmental impact report, employees at the research campus will add 6,653 more auto trips each day to university traffic circulation, causing further congestion that would also result in more air pollution.

“Urban pollutants,” such as oil, rubber, metals, pathogens, trash and other solid wastes will wash into Los Penasquitos Lagoon, further harming water quality there, according to the report. Some steep hillsides that form the natural topography would be graded, the report shows.

But Roberts and McCarty said the city cannot zone the area for scientific research and then reject developments that seek to take advantage of that designation.

“This is a scientific research area,” McCarty said. “This is what we planned. Now to suddenly say, because of traffic and drainage problems, that we are going to abandon our entire plan leaves a lot of people incredulous.”