Fort Stockton Drive and Goldfinch Development
I’ve been eager to see what new development is headed for the corner of Fort Stockton Drive and Goldfinch Street here in Mission Hills. The site was cleared two years ago — turning it from a single family house that had been various businesses over the years to a vacant lot. But it looks like we’re about to get some new residents and hopefully a new business or two.
While we still have to wait for initial renderings, there are some details on the new building. The residential structure will be 12 stories tall, and feature ground floor commercial space (I can’t wait to see a potential new restaurant coming to the neighborhood). There will be a total of 120 housing units.
Assuming the design is decent, this should be a great addition to the neighborhood, adding new businesses, vibrancy, and responsible development situated in a location with good transit access and walkability (two grocery stores within walking distance, numerous restaurants, and who knows how many coffee shops).
As with any new reasonable development, there is always push back, a few of the concerns that have been expressed:
Affordability
One person, quoted in the MSN/CBS8 article commented, that: “only two of them [units] are going to be affordable, which is ridiculous – doesn’t help families, doesn’t help affordability.”
This statement is, of course, incorrect. While I would love to see more affordable units (assuming that there are only going to be two affordable units, which may or may not be accurate), the addition of more housing will help overall housing prices. It’s honestly just basic economics — more housing supply reduces the cost of housing in general since there is more supply. I’m never quite sure if statements like this are maliciously misleading, as in they know how economics works, but they’ll say whatever they need to push their agenda, or if it’s honest economic ignorance (we really need to ensure basic principles like this make it into education).
Scale
Scale is usually brought up in these discussions — it really shouldn’t be an issue in this case: within a two block radius, there are two eight story buildings and a 13 story building. Directly across the street is a nice five story building.
Parking
The best arguments against this new development relate to parking, or the absence of it. I definitely understand the reaction against this new style of development where parking isn’t required. But at the same time, I agree with the counter-argument, that parking adds additional cost to a project, which makes it harder for developers to make these types of projects work (which is an issue since we need more housing).
Personally, I feel as though there is also a an aesthetic/neighborhood livability argument to be made for not having parking as part of the structure — most parking garages are generally pretty ugly (you can of course through garages under ground, but now we’re adding significant cost to the project). Ideally, as our cities become more walkable and survivable without the having to own a car, this problem should hopefully subside a little. For now, it’s just something that we just have to deal with, and developments like this, that are close to transit and amenities, help to get us closer to that point.
It’s always difficult to understand the motives of those who oppose these types of projects. Those who live right next door may have a more solid footing for being against these, but when taken on the larger scale, of what’s best for the neighborhood, city, and the vast majority of San Diego citizens, these projects shouldn’t really be all that controversial.