Clairemont community development plan stirs mixed feelings among San Diego residents

A plan to add nearly 20,0000 new homes to Clairemont over the course of three decades has moved one step further.

A city council planning group approved a new growth blueprint that could boost the neighborhood’s population by nearly 40,000 people.

The plan still has to go before a vote but if approved it would also add new parks and new transit. Still, not everyone is happy about it. As San Diego’s population grows, city leaders are trying to keep up.

“There is a very great need to build more homes in San Diego. I think I’ve stressed this on several occasions,” said San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno.

“This is a document that has not been updated since 1989 and as we know, much has changed in these neighborhoods in the last 36 years,” said San Diego Councilmember Kent Lee during a council meeting.

If approved, the new plan would add 20,000 homes to Clairemont over the next 30 years. Many of those would go in mixed-use villages where shopping centers already exist, as well as enhancing corridors and districts.

The new Tecolote Gateway Village would not only add homes, but restaurants and shops right next to the Tecolote Road transit station.

The plan also includes 14 new parks, a new fire station, new recreation centers and a new trolley station.

Deborah Crossing, a Clairemont resident, is supportive of some of the new additions.

“[Clairemont] is a fairly middle-class income and I think that that’s great because too many places are going higher income as far as living and rentals. I think we have enough little community shopping areas. I think the park idea, the parks would be really great because when I grew up we could play in the streets. And kids need a place to go and play now, which they don’t have much of,” Crossing said.

The new plan would also add bike networks, which isn’t much consolation for JR Taylor. He’s concerned about congestion.

“They got some building over here going up on the corner, and they’re going to put a lot of units there. And there’s no parking there at all. They’re going to have to park in the shopping center parking lots, and that’s ridiculous,” Taylor told NBC 7.

While all acknowledged the need for more housing, most residents NBC 7 talked to on and off camera weren’t thrilled with the idea of that many new homes.

“It congests everything and it makes it harder for the people who are the residents who are already living here. And as those older residents, we’ve invested our life into living here, and don’t make it crowded,” Crossing pleaded.

The plan also reduces building height limits in some areas. The City Planning Department started working on this in 2016. They had at least 32 public meetings and workshops to get input from the community. That plan will go before the community and the entire city council next month.