The San Diego City Council voted 7-2 last week to approve One Paseo, but opponents of the project have now launched a petition drive to overturn that decision.
Ken Farinsky, an opposition spokesman, said the council vote ignored testimony from thousands of local residents who fear the development will clog their neighborhoods with traffic.
“And we couldn’t stop it,” he said. “I don’t see how other communities are going to be able to, either. If this stands, it’s going to be a huge change in the character and nature of what San Diego is."
The One Paseo opposition group, ”What Price Main Street,” is asking San Diego city residents to support their cause — to prevent this type of development from becoming a precedent, Farinsky said.
The campaign is funded by a neighboring shopping center, the Del Mar Highlands Town Center, which is threatened by the 250,000 square feet of retail space in the mixed-use One Paseo development. The owner, Donahue Schreiber Realty Group, has already spent more than $1 million in an effort to stop the new development.
But Farinsky said it is still a community effort.
“They’re here to get it started,“ he said. “We’re going to jump in and start collecting money and getting more people involved and making this a full community effort to gather signatures — to get this on the ballot and get the vote against this kind of development in San Diego.”
The campaign has 30 days to collect 34,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, One Paseo developer, Kilroy Realty, is also collecting signatures in north and east San Diego County for a petition about the future of the Chargers in the region. Kilroy’s seemingly unrelated petition drive effectively ties up most available signature gatherers in North County, hampering the ability of One Paseo’s opponents to gather enough signatures from their referendum.
The North County cities of Del Mar and Solana Beach have taken positions in opposition to One Paseo. Lesa Heebner, mayor of Solana Beach, said she will work for the referendum to overturn the council’s vote. However, even if the issue were to make it to the ballot, only residents of the city of San Diego can vote on it.
If the signature gathering drive is successful, the San Diego City Council could either repeal their decision, put it on the June ballot or call a special election.
