Proposed Parkside housing development wins concessions

The proposed Parkside Estates housing development on open space near Warner Avenue and Graham Street scored some victories at the Coastal Commission’s meeting in San Diego Wednesday. Developer Shea Properties’ representatives went into the meeting complaining a staff report was too liberal about assigning the status of wetlands, and commissioners listened to them.

Despite the disapproval of environmentalist groups like the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and Orange County League of Conservation Voters, commissioners listened to experts hired by developer Shea Properties over their own staff in a couple of cases. They voted 9-3 to shrink a 100 meter buffer zone for bird habitat down to a variable distance averaging about 150 feet, and they struck an area of disputed wetlands from the map on a 7-5 vote.

The city, which has already approved the development, did make one concession to the commission; it agreed to allow a proposed park in the development to be a passive park—lacking sports fields or lights that might spook birds nearby.

Commission staff still have to go back and draw up the exact map of what can be built where, based on the votes Wednesday. But it was clear already that the size of land that could be built on—recommended by staff to be the eastern third of the 50-acre parcel—had increased.