SOLANA BEACH – Despite years of planning and once-high hopes, the parking lots at the Solana Beach train station won't be replaced with apartments, shops and underground garages anytime soon.
Cedros Crossing, a $72 million project to transform the parking lots into the city's largest mixed-use development, has been in the works since 2001. But after a series of delays, it seems to have missed the development boom that injected billions of dollars into new construction across the country.
In June, the “smart growth” transit-oriented project forfeited a $6 million grant from the state Department of Transportation – a key piece of the financing for a parking garage – because it didn't have city permits.
City officials and developer Shea Properties had reached a stalemate over the permits that remains today.
Property owner North County Transit District has lost the three employees who had long worked on Cedros Crossing, two of them to layoffs.
So don't expect to see shovels and bulldozers for years.
Transit board Chairman Ed Gallo recently referred to it as “the project that used to be,” citing the poor economy, the lost grant, fewer staff members and a lack of political will among Solana Beach elected officials to get it done.
“Will it come back? I have no idea,” Gallo said. “I don't see anything happening for years.”
Gallo also said the state's financial woes mean fewer transportation grants in the future.
Shea Properties Vice President Greg Shannon said last week that he is reluctant change the project despite a council request in April. Shannon has complained repeatedly that the city refused to provide him with specifics about what would pass muster, such as how many homes he could build.
“The reality is, if they wanted something, we could have done something,” he said.
Yet Shannon is not ready to pull out of his exclusive deal with the North County Transit District.
Michael Cowett, attorney for the transit district, said the agreement with Shea Properties would end “if this project is not approved by Solana Beach” or if Shannon decided to walk away from it.
If that happened, the transit district likely would seek another developer and pursue a project at the train station, Cowett said, but that would take years.
Cowett noted that when the City Council requested a redesign in April, it didn't set a deadline. The lack of a clear timeline placed the status of the project in limbo.
“Our discussions with Shea include the topic of whether the project will be redesigned,” Cowett said Friday.
Councilman Joe Kellejian, the project's main proponent on the council, also lacks optimism, though he isn't giving up.
“My hope is that we get moving and start to work with the developer – if the developer is still interested – to get this project started,” Kellejian said.
The council's request for changes came in a unanimous vote April 28. Council members said the project needed more transit parking and a higher ratio of commercial space to residential space. Officials also said the two-story facade needed altering to make it compatible with the eclectic Cedros Design District, a collection of small shops and restaurants a block south.
City Manager David Ott said he stands ready to work with Shannon but “the city is not here to design his project for him.”
City Councilwoman Lesa Heebner said Shannon wasn't willing to work toward a compromise that would be acceptable to the community. For example, Heebner and Councilman Mike Nichols suggested approving portions of the project in phases, an option Shannon didn't take.
The 5.7-acre development would be on the west side of North Cedros Avenue between Lomas Santa Fe Drive and Cliff Street. Shannon wants to build the parking garages, restaurants, shops, offices and 141 apartments.
The city's position is that the project doesn't meet zoning standards and lacked adequate transit parking, Heebner said.
One concern was that hundreds of train riders would end up hogging spaces needed by the shops and restaurants in the design district.
“The potential adverse impact is surplus parking in the surrounding community,” Heebner said, adding that 70 merchants last year signed a petition opposing the project.
The train station has about 400 parking spaces now. Cedros Crossing would add 117. Heebner pointed to a traffic consultant's study that called for adding 300 to 500 spaces by 2030.
Heebner said the proposed project also doesn't include enough tax-generating commercial development, required by zoning. As proposed, 27 percent of it is commercial space and the rest is homes.
Cedros Crossing's troubles are compounded by turmoil at the transit agency.
Executive Director Karen King left in June to accept another job after 10 years with the agency. Budget shortfalls forced the district in May to lay off Deputy Executive Director Rick Howard and the real estate department head, Lance Schulte.
Shannon has complained about a “lack of institutional memory” in Solana Beach City Hall because of political change and turnover in planning staff. The transit district originally drafted the plan for the site in 1991. City officials praised the scale and plan's concept when it was dusted off in 2001 and didn't want changes, he said.
Gallo agreed, saying city leaders “accepted the project with open arms.” He said officials began finding fault with it when Heebner and David Roberts were elected to the council in 2004.
“That's when things started to change,” Gallo said.
He said politics is one of the risks in undertaking multiyear development projects.
Heebner said the environmental impact studies, which began in 2005, uncovered many issues that needed to be addressed.
Roberts said he hopes Shannon will take another look at the project.
“I think the five of us on the council really want a project on the site, but it has to be one that fits with our community,” Roberts said.
Meanwhile, Shannon is thinking about his future options. The transit district is pursuing three other mixed-use projects similar in scale to Cedros Crossing: transit centers in Escondido, Oceanside and Carlsbad. The transit district board hasn't yet requested proposals from developers.
Shannon said he would be interested in competing for one of those deals.
Tanya Mannes: (619) 498-6639; tanya.mannes@uniontrib.com
