(Update) Stuck in Traffic: Long-Delayed Park Station Project Awaits Fifth Study

Updated at 11:45 a.m. Jan. 10, 2012

Park Station is in park. But the proposed downtown mixed-use project that seeks an 18-story high-rise could shift into high gear after June—four years after its developer first approached City Hall.

Having held a series of meetings with more than 1,000 people, promoters of Park Station at the Crossroads of La Mesa went quiet in the last half of 2011.

The holdup is a traffic study—part of the draft environmental impact report needed for the 6-acre project to go forward.

Chris Jacobs, a senior planner for the city of La Mesa, said last week that Park Station is in its fifth revision of a traffic study, since “assumptions behind the studies remain an outstanding issue.”

Technical studies of traffic flows have to be accepted by the city before a draft EIR can be created by Encinitas-based consulting firm Dudek, Jacobs said.

On Monday, Park Station spokeswoman Elaine Camuso said: “The traffic study is still being finalized. The Park Station team continues to work with the City of La Mesa to resolve any outstanding questions about this study and move forward in the process.”

Park Station last updated the news section of its website in mid-May 2011, saying: “We are happy to report that Park Station is currently moving forward through the city’s environmental review process. Our next milestone is the release of the draft Environmental Impact Report, or DEIR, which is scheduled for public release this summer.”

Tuesday morning, Camuso added: “It’s our perspective as the applicant to this process that the draft EIR will not be out for public review any sooner than June 2012.”

Last week, city planner Jacobs said the draft EIR would not proceed until the traffic element and all “technical studies” are accepted by the city. But traffic is the key issue, he said.

When Dudek’s Carey Fernandes issues a draft EIR, Jacobs said, the public will have 45 days to inspect and comment on the document. Fernandes is a senior project manager specializing in CEQA/NEPA, says the company’s website.

The developer pays for the EIR, while the city oversees it.

The 6.5-acre site—bordered by El Cajon Boulevard, University Avenue, Baltimore Drive and Spring Street—could someday hold retail, restaurant, residential, office and hotel space, surface and underground parking and a 190-foot-high building—about 10 stories higher than any other in La Mesa.

Owner of the land is the Kitzman family under the name South Baltimore LLC (see attached PDF).

The developer is working with San Diego-based Urban Housing Partners Inc., which features Park Station on its website. Urban Housing says its role in Park Station is “project management, land entitlement processing and community outreach.”

Its past projects include Village Walk on India Street, Union Square at 14th and Broadway downtown and Park Boulevard East and West.

President of Urban Housing Partners is Sherman Harmer Jr., depicted as “a 40-year veteran of the homebuilding industry [who] has built and marketed more than 16,000 homes throughout Utah and California.”

Last spring, the developer told La Mesa Patch: “Park Station would provide the local economy with a boost by generating significant annual revenue for important city services such as police, fire and street maintenance. Our projections estimate annual tax revenue of $1 million to $1.6 million, depending on the final uses on the project.”

In early 2011, Bill Chopyk, La Mesa’s director of community development, said the draft EIR could be ready that summer.

An unscientific poll last October found that an 18-story high-rise was opposed  73 percent to 28 percent, with 125 votes cast as of Monday afternoon.