"Master Planning Is Over In San Diego"

Lack of Land, Traffic Congestion Forcing More Mixed-Use, Infill Projects

Era Over for Large-Scale, Mixed-Use, Master-Planned Suburban Communities

By MICHELLE MOWAD

San Diego Business Journal Staff

Several of the retail shops in the Marketplace at Liberty Station celebrated grand openings this month.

The age of large-scale, mixed-use, master-planned communities in suburban areas of the county may be over.

Tony Pauker, regional president of the Olson Co. and chairman of the Urban Land Institute of San Diego/Tijuana, said future development will shift from master-planned communities to smaller infill mixed-use projects.

“With the exception of a couple large parcels, master-planning is over in San Diego,” said Pauker.

While we are at the end of that era, Pauker said future projects may be as small as a few acres on the waterfront downtown to a few hundred acres in and around Otay Mesa and in North County.

Craig Clark, president of La Jolla-based commercial real estate developer C.W. Clark Inc., said a number of factors played into the growing use of mixed-use, redevelopment projects in San Diego and elsewhere in the past few years.

Clark said the lack of land, congestion and demand for shorter commutes are the leading causes for these adaptive uses.

Shortening The Commute

He stressed the importance of having work and home closer together.

“When you can find a community where a lot of these things are intermingled in a general geographic area, it is much better,” said Clark, citing areas in the city such as Mission Valley.

With the benefits of having a self-contained, self-sufficient community come drawbacks.

“The negative is cost, cost, cost. It is expensive to operate. It is expensive to build,” said Clark.

Nonetheless, Clark said he and other developers would continue pursuing mixed-use development.

“We don’t have a choice,” said Clark.

[Source: http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=22141724.4341242.1438632.410194.7617086.305&aID2=110655]