SAN DIEGO — A new 224-unit apartment complex is approved for a site behind the Clairemont Village Shopping Center on Cowley Way.
The plan was adopted by the San Diego City Council in a unanimous vote.
The plan wants to redevelop 2.67 acres of an already existing 12.9-acre shopping center into a 224 unit residential apartment complex.
That puts the apartment building right behind the Clairemont Village Shopping Center on Cowley Way.
10 percent of the property, or about 23 units, will be affordable housing.
One of the concerns neighbors have previously told CBS 8 is how tall the building would be.
Original plans called for a 7-story building. Now, city documents say the building will only be 5 stories.
The plan also calls for the demolition of 3770 feet of a commercial space to make room for the new apartment building and it's 2-story parking garage.
The developer, Bruce Kleege says he grew up in the area and bought the entire property, including the shopping center 10 years ago. Kleege adds, developing a residential space was always a part of his long-term plan when he originally purchased the site.
Kleege says neighbors’ criticism of the proposal’s height are invalid because there's a 14-story senior living facility right across the street. His building would now be less than half that size.
We reached out to the organizer against the proposal who says today’s meeting took her by surprise but she's still against the proposal. She says it doesn't fit the area and will make an already difficult parking situation worse.
“It’s unimaginable to think of putting 224 units into this area in this large parking lot. It just doesn’t fit the community,” Rosalie Clayton told CBS 8 in a previous interview. She rallied a couple dozen of her neighbors to gather at the project site Sunday morning to voice their opposition against the project in 2022.
“We have too much traffic on this street. There is no parking available anywhere,” Clayton said earlier.
“It’s not a single-family neighborhood,” Kleege shared earlier in an interview. “It’s apartments and condominiums right there, and it’s going behind a grocery store that’s there right now, so I think it fits in really, really well,” said Kleege.
“The senior complex is twice the height of ours, which is right across the street from us,” he adds in an earlier interview.
“The rest of these apartments are going to be high-end cost apartments that are not going to go and have any benefit to our community, but to the pockets of these developers,” said Clayton.
"I understand their concerns because I have a lot of projects in the area,” Kleege said after he addressed the San Diego City Council. My mom still lives in the same house we grew up in around the corner. My brother and a lot of family are still there. I don't think there's any problem whatsoever with the height. We're on a Mesa. We don't obstruct anyone's view."
Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell says she welcomes the development on the site.
"There was a huge space there that was like a parking lot but nobody ever parked in it so it was just empty blacktop of several acres. So the owner of the shopping center who owns the land decided to build an apartment building because we need housing in our city," Campbell shared.
Kleege says he expects the apartment to open for rent in about 2 years.