Join the Fight to Amend Chula Vista's Urban Core Speciific Plan, Thursday, April 26

Maybe you're interested in preserving the small-town look and feel of northwest Chula Vista, California. Maybe you couldn't care less. If you ever while away a frustrated hour on the congested freeways of San Diego's South County, you'll realize its development has already outgrown its infrastructure. But those elected to public office in the locality don't seem to want the party to end.

The City of Chula Vista’s proposed Urban Core Specific Plan allows 7,100 new condos and apartments, 1 million additional square feet of retail space, 1.3 million square feet of new office space, and 1.3 million new square feet of hotels and motels, all to be built in northwest Chula Vista.

Whether or not that happens depends on the outcome of a meeting at Chula Vista City Council Chambers on Fourth and F streets, Chula Vista, on Thursday, April 26, 2007, 6 p.m. At this meeting the City Council will make a decision on the Urban Core Specific Plan.

The UCSP rezones large parts of northwest Chula Vista (including historic downtown Third Avenue) to much higher densities than anything in Chula Vista now.

If you can attend the meeting at Chula Vista City Council Chambers on Fourth and F streets, Chula Vista, California, tell the Council to adopt the ten changes to the UCSP recommended by the activists of the local grassroots organization Crossroads II.

Crossroads II’s Requested Modifications to Urban Core Specific Plan (Sept. 2006 Draft)

Land Use and Development Regulations

1. Redraw boundaries of subdistrict V-2 so as to encompass the entire frontage of Third Avenue from E St. to G St.

2. Do not incorporate Development Exception Provisions newly recommended by staff for inclusion in UCSP.

3. Eliminate ability to increase building height by 5 feet.

4. In order to be consistent with the Cummings Initiative, remove all R-1 and R-2 zoned areas from the UCSP.

5. Lower maximum allowable height in subdistrict C-1 from 60 ft. (5 stories) to 45 feet (3 stories), in order to be compatible with adjacent 1- and 2-story single family homes.

6. Revise parking requirements to make them the same as required by the CV Muni Code, which is one and one-half space for each studio or one-bedroom unit; 2 spaces for each two- or three-bedroom unit.

Public Realm

7. Revise streetscape Fig. 8-22 and all text in the UCSP for H St. between Third Ave. and Broadway to require a 15 ft. front yard setback.

Administration

8. Require all new projects and exterior renovations fronting on Third Avenue between E and G Streets, regardless of size, to go to the RAC and CVRC for discretionary design review approval, with the right to appeal to the Redevelopment Agency.

9. Require the Executive Director of the CVRC when he/she makes an administrative decision to approve a project or to amend the Specific Plan without a public hearing, to notify property owners within 1000 feet and all persons who have requested such notices. The required notice shall explain where the recipient can obtain information about the project and shall explain the appeal procedures. No fees shall be charged to appeal an Administrative decision made without a public hearing.

10. Require that RAC members be notified in a timely fashion of all applications for an Urban Core Development Permit, regardless of size.

As always, if you have any questions contact Crossroads II at www.crossroads2.org