Council OKs Teen Center Site to Avoid Losing Grant

Trying to salvage a $2.1-million federal grant for a center for homeless teen-agers, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday decided to allow the facility to permanently locate in the Marina District but warned that difficulties with the site could force a move.

By a 5-1 vote that could prove to be only a respite in a yearlong debate, the council granted a permanent permit to St. Vincent de Paul to operate a program designed to house, educate and provide job training to 30 homeless teen-agers at a vacant, privately owned warehouse at 633 State St.

However, even as they granted the permanent permit, Mayor Maureen O’Connor and several council members expressed doubts that the State Street site would serve as the center’s long-term home. The council’s vote, moreover, does not mandate that the facility be located there, but merely allows the Catholic charitable organization to try to negotiate a lease with the site’s owner.

Tuesday’s action was motivated primarily, council members noted, by a desire to protect the $2.1-million federal grant that would have been jeopardized had St. Vincent de Paul not secured a site this month so that the program can begin operating in January.

“Father Joe gets to keep his grant money, but I think he’s going to be using it to look for another site,” O’Connor said of Father Joe Carroll, head of St. Vincent de Paul.

The property owner, Lawrence Cushman, pointedly told the council in a letter last week that he is willing to use part of his site to permanently house the center only in return for development concessions that could enhance the value of the rest of the site.

“Those exceptions . . . just aren’t going to happen,” O’Connor said. “So, the reality of (the 30-bed center) being permanent, I think, are slim to none.”

Tuesday’s meeting was a synopsis of the protracted debate over the so-called Teen Quest project, which has drawn widespread praise for its aims but generated strong opposition from downtown redevelopment officials and nearby residents.

Last April, the council granted a three-year permit for the State Street site, but directed officials of the Centre City Development Corp. to continue searching for a permanent location.

That led to a proposal to place the center in the historic Eagles Hall on 8th Avenue, a plan that immediately drew protests from the neighboring arts community in Center City East, representatives of which complained that their neighborhood is already saturated with social service agencies.

Facing the grant deadline, both St. Vincent de Paul and city officials refocused their attention on the State Street site, setting the stage for Tuesday’s hearing.

The center, opponents charged, could lower property values and hamper efforts to expand residential development in the Marina District, which covers about 30 southeastern downtown blocks. Proponents, though, dismissed those complaints as archetypal not-in-my-back-yard laments.

City Councilman Ron Roberts, whose district includes downtown, cast the lone vote against the permanent permit, expressing concerns that Cushman might try to use the council’s action as a negotiating “wedge” to increase permitted densities or height limits on the rest of his property.

“There will be no concessions,” O’Connor responded. “That may cause problems later, but this at least protects the $2 million.”