News

Dec 25, 2023

Housing plans intensify College Area library parking fight

Twenty-five parking spaces are at the center of a simmering conflict in the

Twenty-five parking spaces are at the center of a simmering conflict in the College Area that some residents worry could jeopardize a neighborhood resource amid a broader debate over housing density, infrastructure and equity.

The conflict goes back years. But for community groups, a developer's proposal to add more than 50 homes to a planned hotel next door to the College-Rolando Library has given it new urgency, threatening access to parking the library badly needs.

This story is for subscribers

We offer subscribers exclusive access to our best journalism.Thank you for your support.

Land use in the area is already a hot-button topic. An ongoing community plan update intends to increase housing density, breaking into the predominantly single-family neighborhoods many opponents want to protect.

"What the community's concerned with is continuing to add substantial residential density and doing nothing to provide services," said Julie Hamilton, a local land use attorney and College Area resident. "We’re not getting any parks. We’re not getting any libraries. We’re not getting anything to accommodate all the residential density that's going into the College Area."

Local

City planners and residents debate how best to update the plan that will shape the community for the coming decades

As one of the only public meeting spaces in the College Area and Rolando neighborhoods, the library often hosts community group meetings, including ones where residents debate plans for the future of the neighborhood. Between that role and plans to expand its hours under a new program, the library is poised to become a more valuable resource to a growing community.

"Our library offers more than books; it is our community hub," said Jan Hintzman, a longtime Rolando resident and president of the Friends of the College-Rolando Library.

But she and other library advocates worry changes next door will hinder access, as they have before.

Since the library opened in 2005, those 25 parking spots and an access driveway have been shared by the library and the adjacent property, then the longtime site of College Lutheran Church. Parking became a point of contention in 2016, when the church went up for sale and the shared driveway on Montezuma Road was chained off, blocking library patrons’ access to most spots.

Today, the church is gone, the chain is gone and a parking agreement with the new owner of the property next door ensures access to those 25 parking spots.

Marcela Escobar-Eck, president and CEO of Atlantis Group — the land use and strategic planning consulting firm representing the property owner — said the developer is committed to honoring that agreement. "The 25 spaces will be made available to the library as per the agreement, and there's absolutely no plans to change that agreement," she said.

Library advocates, wary from what they say were the city's past botched access agreements, aren't so sure. They want the city to secure a new joint-use agreement for the library before it approves any building permit next door, and they’re pushing for it whenever possible — including by packing a community council meeting last month to bring their concerns to Council President Sean Elo-Rivera.

"Six years later, we’re about the same place as when we started, and we’ve been fighting so much," Hintzman said. "But the window of opportunity to fix our problem is closing."

Local

Neighborhood density dispute persists after online community planning meeting suffered ‘technical issues’

The College-Rolando Library serves a community of more than 50,000 people, among them San Diego State University students, seniors and families with young children. It's one of the city's busiest branches, serving an area with a median household income below the San Diego average, library officials said.

"This library is important," Hintzman said, "and what happens there is critically important to the future of our community."

The current library opened in 2005, replacing an older branch one third the size — part of a citywide program to improve and expand dozens of libraries. But its parking woes predate even that.

In 1998, the city had bought the land to build the library from the church next door for $485,000. Located at the corner of Montezuma Road and Reservoir Drive, the library would be nestled tightly between the church, homes and the busy thoroughfare.

Even then, the site's configuration left limited room for parking. So in 2002, the city agreed to spend $156,000 to build parking on church property so it could share its access driveway and some of the spaces.

In total, the city built 131 parking spaces, including pavement, lighting and landscaping. Of those spots, 28 are on city property, and another 31 were agreed to be shared by the church and library for a total of 59 spots available to library patrons. The other 72 spots were built for the church, but while the church was active, library patrons were free to use them as well.

The agreement also gave the city first rights to buy the property, in order "to provide a public benefit," if it were ever sold.

Hintzman said city officials said at the time that if they bought the property, they’d create a park, in an area the city acknowledges has far too few.

For years, churchgoers and library patrons shared all 131 spots. But when the church closed and its property was put on the market in 2016, the city didn't buy it.

In June of that year, the church told the city it was ending their parking agreement early. In December, a chain appeared across the library driveway on Montezuma Road along with a sign that read "Private property — No public parking," blocking off more than half of the parking lot.

Despite a banner on Montezuma Road that told patrons to enter via Mohawk Street, the library looked closed to most anyone driving by, Hintzman said. But it was still open, along with its 28 city-owned parking spots — that is, if people could find them.

Accessing them required circling a Ralphs shopping center, driving through a residential neighborhood and finding — off of block-long Mohawk Street — the small lot tucked behind the library. "When you did get back there, it’d be all full," Hintzman added. "You get into that situation once or twice and you say, ‘I’m done.’"

With its computer lab, meeting room, seminar room and large children's area, the library had typically served more than 15,000 patrons each month, according to the Friends of the San Diego Public Library.

The abrupt driveway and parking closure led to an immediate drop in use, the group's then-president told the city's Planning Commission in a February 2021 letter.

The Friends of the San Diego Public Library's February 2021 letter to the city Planning Commission in opposition to the Montezuma CPA initiation

Within seven months, library circulation had dropped by two thirds, patron visits had fallen by nearly a third and children's programs were nearly halved, with only a third as many attendees, per the letter.

Current city officials aren't sure why the city didn't buy the church property in 2016. The decision, they note, was made by the previous administration.

At a meeting this past November, planning commissioner Matthew Boomhower said he thought the site would have been a great spot for a park in a neighborhood that needs them.

"The city missed a golden opportunity to acquire the property next to the College-Rolando Library space to use as park space — but that ship sailed, and the city didn't exercise their option," he said.

Instead, the 1.8-acre parcel was sold in July 2017 for $3.2 million to a developer with plans for a four-story, 125-room Hampton Inn hotel.

That November, the Planning Commission signed off on initiating a community plan amendment that would pave the way for a zoning change for the site, to allow a mix of large-scale, visitor-serving and residential uses. Planning commissioners agreed that in exchange, the developer should provide a public benefit, such as a parking agreement, and left that for city staff to carry out.

Meanwhile, the city agreed to a temporary access and parking license, and talks toward an official joint-use agreement began. The next month, as talks continued, the chain was removed from the library's driveway and the shuttered parking lot restored.

It wasn't until June 2019 that the city officially approved the property's rezoning and created an overlay zone to further restrict use and allow only for visitor accommodations of no more than 125 hotel rooms and 125 parking spaces.

Six months later, the city reached a deal with the developer on parking, agreeing to pay $12,000 per year for 20 years to use the access driveway and 25 of the parking spaces it had built, with the option to extend for up to a decade.

San Diego

125-room hotel planned for vacant land near San Diego State, College-Rolando library branch

City officials said a shared-parking pact made sense: The hotel's heaviest use of the spaces would be at night, while the library's would be during the day.

The deal allows "non-exclusive rights" to the shared parking spots during the library's "normal" operating days and hours — meaning the library cannot put up signs saying "library parking only," and available parking is not guaranteed. It also allows closure during construction.

The 2019 joint-use agreement between the new property owner and College-Rolando Library.

Community leaders say the agreement is shaky at best and altogether inadequate. Hintzman worries it could be easily revoked. "The city has no real power," she said. "That is evident in the agreement."

She points to the library branch's new program to stay open late, unstaffed, for library cardholders starting next month. The program will begin at the College-Rolando branch as a pilot during evening hours. She worries this could unravel the hours-based tradeoff the parking pact hinges on.

Local

Many patrons will soon have access to the College-Rolando branch later on weekday evenings, officials say. But that access will require a library card.

Jim Jennings, president of both the College Area community council and planning board, often sees the parking lot full during both groups’ meetings there.

He once had hopes for the library to become a larger resource center for the community. "But now, it's bupkis," he said. "I hope it's not lost."

Library advocates now worry the parking may face a threat greater than a shaky deal.

The developer of the project next door has updated its plans for a hotel, adding another story and a 57-unit apartment complex to the building. No retail component is planned.

The added residential component is something library advocates say would surely bring far more traffic and a greater need for parking for non-library purposes.

Local

The neighborhood is bracing for a growth in population; the city and residents are trying to find middle ground on how to deal with it

In March 2021, the Planning Commission voted to initiate another community plan amendment to remove the overlay zone and allow residential, while commissioners again called on the city to ensure the parking agreement would protect library access.

Library advocates say they got no updates since — until last month, when they learned the developer had recently applied for a building permit for a five-story development to include not just the hotel but also housing, with 57 apartments.

Six to nine of those homes will be for residents with very low incomes, no more than $45,550 for a one-person household. The others will be market-rate.

In addition to the 25 parking spots shared with the library, the project includes plans for another 170. During construction, the existing shared lot may close temporarily, Escobar-Eck said.

City officials confirmed the project is currently under review by the Development Services Department staff.

The property is not zoned for residential, but the city's density bonus program can allow developers to get around that by including housing the city deems affordable. By adding the rent-restricted apartments, a developer can often increase the size and scope of projects.

In this case, the applicant is proposing the low-income units in exchange for the city waiving the current zone overlay's restriction barring a residential component, city staff confirmed.

When any permit might be issued depends on when the plans meet all applicable regulations. There is no set time frame yet to complete the process, city officials said.

But Hintzman says she and other community group leaders are already scrambling to get the city or developer to present the plans to the community. "It's happening fast, and we don't have information," she said. "We’re feeling a bit abandoned."

City staff say they will work with the developer to protect the library's parking. "We have had discussions with the developer, and they have stated they are open to any and all suggestions to make sure the shared parking is available for library patrons," said library director Misty Jones.

Library advocates have suggestions of their own. They are calling on the city to secure a new joint-use agreement prior to approving a building permit, and they want it to include parking access during construction, new enforcement measures and — most importantly — permanent, irrevocable access to parking, such as through an easement or deed restriction.

"(The property owners are) asking for more than the city should be giving them, so in theory, the city has some leverage," said Danna Givot, who lives in El Cerrito and is vice chair of Neighbors For a Better San Diego, an advocacy group for single-family homeowners.

She was one of about 75 people who packed into a gathering last month of the Rolando Community Council — about twice its usual size, president Doug Lister said — with Elo-Rivera, the area's council member, in attendance. They expressed a mix of frustration at the city's past decisions regarding the library, fears of what the future might hold for it and determination to ensure their neighborhood wasn't forgotten.

"This is in a community that's been often forgotten and ignored," Elo-Rivera told residents, adding that the library is "high on our radar." After the meeting, he told the Union-Tribune the high attendance showcased how much the community cares. "That advocacy is born from love."

"We love this neighborhood, we love the people here — but I’m really concerned about losing the resources in this neighborhood," said Rolando resident Elena Mulvaney, who had her two young daughters in tow. "We matter."

"Will it become a drive-through library, like Starbucks?" asked Alicia Wolf, who lives in College View Estates west of SDSU. "I’m so furious."

"We’re going to end up with a library on an island," said Sharlene Thompson, whose 94-year-old mother has been a library volunteer since 1998, then at the old College Heights Library.

"We should have done a better job of negotiating (the agreement), because I think we’re up against it now," Lister added.

Elo-Rivera said his office would work with the property owner to ensure the parking agreement is upheld. "I don't blame you for being skeptical of that. I am, too," he said. "The best we can do is advocate hard and say that we have high expectations."

He said his office is also looking into creating time-limited parking regulations on nearby streets and stepping up enforcement. "When you look at the street now, you may not see a lot of opportunities for parking — I get that — but (what) we’re going to do is push for creating space … and increasing enforcement."

Library advocates say that won't be enough, as street parking on Reservoir Drive is monopolized by residents’ cars and Montezuma Road has no street parking at all.

"I don't think he's in touch with the reality of the neighborhood," said Jennings, who often reports parking violations in his College Area neighborhood to no avail.

At the library, that reality was on display one recent Monday evening.

The parking lot was nearly filled just after 5 p.m., with all but five of the 59 available spots occupied, while a fence surrounded the remaining 72 spaces, which sat unused. Inside, the library was bustling. Kids and parents picked out new books to read in the children's section. Patrons ranging in age from teens to seniors sat at nearly all of the stations in the computer lab, and more at desks with their laptops.

Yolanda Ruiz-Punner was there with her two sons, whom she brings to the library weekly — sometimes before school, sometimes after soccer practice — for new books. "They always want to participate in the library's reading challenges, so we’re here often to grab new books," she explained. "The boys get so into it and want to win the prizes."

At least once a month, she's unable to find parking. "I have to find time to come back later that week, since there's really no other place to park nearby."

Down the hall working in the computer lab is 67-year-old Don Wultz. With no computer at home, he comes to the library to check his email and read the news.

"There's times even the handicapped spaces are all full," Wultz said. "Then you look across the parking lot and see all those empty spots sitting behind the chain-linked fence and wonder why."