SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The new community plan for Kearny Mesa, given final approval by the City Council earlier this week, takes effect Friday. Several properties are being rezoned with 27,000 new housing units planned for those parcels.
“My vision is that within five years, you’ll be able to live on Convoy, enjoy the restaurants and the shops that are on Convoy, and work in a job in Kearny Mesa, all in one community," City Councilmember Chris Cate, who represents the area, told ABC 10News ahead of the final vote.
Cate says the city is trying to encourage a"live-work" village concept for many San Diego neighborhoods, especially those that are major job centers, such as Kearny Mesa. The idea is that by creating housing and recreational possibilities in the same communities where people work, they will have to commute less.
That has numerous benefits across the city, including less traffic and car pollution.
It is anticipated that many of the new projects will replace aging strip malls whose parking lots remain vacant much of the time. Cate hopes the areas around Convoy St., Clairemont Mesa Blvd., and Aero Dr. will become similar to the feel of Little Italy.
Because parameters have already been set for how many homes will go onto each affected parcel, as well as other necessities such as pathways, street improvements, and parks, there will not be the same drawn-out approval process that has been seen with other recent attempts at development.
Cate says that means developers who acquire the land will be able to move quickly, as long as their design stays within the parameters of the community plan.
“They already have an understanding of what these projects will look like, what’s required of them, where different pathways or parks will go. All these things are already agreed to on the front end," Cate said.
Cate says he anticipates that the first projects could break ground in 2021.
