Here's a video walkthrough of a project like One Paseo:

This development is called La Jolla Crossroads, and it's down in the UTC area of San Diego. Is this the village life you'd imagined in Carmel Valley?

Shouldn't Kilroy be building a smaller Carmel Valley Main Street? We all know that Del Mar Heights Road gets totally jammed at certain times of the day, imagine it with One Paseo completed, where there will be far more cars on the road! On top of that, imagine more development at the Town Center, because they have more approved development, and the new Pacific Highlands Ranch shopping center out by CCA could add even more!

One Paseo's Main Street has very high density, similar to what you'd find in New York City. Do we want 5, 6 and 10 story buildings lining our Main Street? This is exactly what Kilroy has proposed for One Paseo! Does this sound like a suburban San Diego street to you, or something more like an inappropriate downtown or in UTC?

I would love to see something with a village atmosphere, a more small-town approach to development. The final project can still have all the same uses, just at a lower scale.

In the Carmel Valley News this week, Travel Writer Cynthia Dial recycles her old One Paseo article from the Carmel Valley Life website. The letter was wrong when it was first written, and re-writing it didn't make it any better.

There are four problems with the letter: we won't get a "village center", there is no "iconic structure", traffic issues haven't been addressed, and there won't be that many new good jobs. For the village center, Dial notes that Carmel Valley is missing it's "heart", and I agree. However, she likely doesn't realize how massive this development is, and how the mainstreet will be more like a downtown center than a village. That is, this project would be appropriate downtown or in UTC, but not in our suburban neighborhood. It just doesn't fit here. Opponents are not against the idea of a center, but we want something scaled to the area, a proper village main street.

The second issue is the idea that, even though we hate it now, this project could become an iconic development, loved by all. Given that Kilroy hasn't released architectural details, this is a stretch. What we have seen has been uninspired: rectangular office towers, dense blocks of residential units, etc. The current proposal could never be considered iconic, and I don't see any effort from the developer to make things better.

The third issue is traffic, and how the developer has "heard our concerns and addressed all the problems." Oh, please! You're going to just trust the developer here? I suppose you think they know what's good for us and that somehow they'll make everything better? Not going to happen. The developer will try to maximize their development and profit, and hope we don't notice until it's too late. DO NOT trust the developer when there's big money at stake, they're not "members of the community", they're out to make a buck.

The final issue is jobs. Everyone always brings up how many jobs this project will create! Jobs, jobs, jobs. So many jobs! Well, the reality is very different from the marketing story. Remember, if this project does NOT get built, Kilroy will still build all the same office buildings -- One Paseo is really about the additional retail, hotel and residential buildings. That is, the office buildings will create a couple of thousand jobs, and these will happen with or without the One Paseo mainstreet project. The only permanent jobs that are created by the One Paseo project are about 400 retail and hotel jobs. So, those "good jobs" you're talking about are really minimum wage retail jobs, waiters, hotel maids, and the like. Sure, there will be a few restaurant and hotel managers, but the majority of the jobs created will not be the jobs you're thinking of.

The supporters of One Paseo keep trying to sell the project through marketing, deception and beautiful imagery that fades under scrutiny. We need to keep pushing the developer to show us the real development, to show us the real traffic impacts, to show us the truth. After all, if this is such a great project, why are they hiding it?

These articles are my opinion. If there are factual errors, let me know and I'll correct them!

It's funny how Kilroy almost seems sad that we don't like it's huge One Paseo project in Carmel Valley, almost like we've hurt their feelings. I mean, they've worked so hard to make a "perfect project", a "wonderful, mixed-use development" that's "concerned about the environment" and "sustainable".

The problem is that their perspective is different from ours, they're thinking about how to make an active street that's always full of people, like Downtown Disney. When you think like this, you worry about what's going on inside the project: Are there enough shops and restaurants? Is the movie theater well located? Can the people from the office buildings easily get to lunch? And, they've solved all of these problems! There will be tons of people, and the interior of the project will be constantly busy with residents, shoppers and moviegoers, office workers and hotel guests. The many restaurants and shops will attract people from the local community and residents from miles around. This will be the "it" place in North County, and a very successful project.

And, on the environmental and sustainability side, well, they're not impacting any wildlife or building in wetlands, so it's much better than building out in the open space! I mean, look at how much work they did to add parks and recreation areas to their project, and to create a connected community where offices, retail and residential were all adjacent to each other! How could you be more sustainable than that?

Ugh.

The thing is, Kilroy didn't do anything to create the balanced community or the location that's so well connected, that's all part of the original Carmel Valley Community Plan. Someone long ago thought this all out and tried to create a balanced community with office, retail and residential all working together. There are no new parks in the development, other than a small central square that's about the size of the central square at UTC. That's it, just a small chunk of concrete that will be likely contain a few trees, a fountain and a small patch of grass.

There are no recreational opportunities in this development, unless you count the sidewalk around the outside, which could make a nice jogging track. The 1200 to 1500 residents will have to use the neighborhood parks and facilities, and drive to remote schools. Did you know that our parks are already overloaded, and the local Carmel Valley Recreation Council has to limit turn away sports groups because there are no available fields? Did you know that the Carmel Valley Middle School is so overloaded that they're thinking of adding class times before or after school? Did you know the Del Mar Elementary Schools are so crowded that kids can't go to their neighborhood school, and have to instead drive to an alternate location?

Back to my point about different perspectives. Kilroy is looking at the inside of One Paseo to find what is good. They've created a great environment inside the walls for the residents, for the office workers and for the shoppers. They're worried about their project, they want to make sure it's a good one. On the inside. Carmel Valley Residents, on the other hand, are concerned about the community environment: How does the development look from the outside? How does it fit with existing buildings? How does the traffic flow? How are community facilities impacted?

When you look at the project from the outside, you see only problems. Massive blocks of buildings creating a canyon down Del Mar Heights Road. Significant height differences between existing buildings and the new development, with 4, 5, 6 and 10 story buildings across the street from existing 2 and 3 story structures. Traffic that appears to have no hopes of working, even with timed signals. Parks and schools already overloaded, asked to handle additional load.

I can understand that some people in the community are excited about One Paseo, it sounds great in the marketing brochures! Heck, even I was all for this project just 6 months ago! However, I have since realized how big it is, and I'm willing to show others what's being proposed. In that regard, if anyone ever wants to see a similar development to the One Paseo proposal for Carmel Valley, I'm willing to take you on a field trip down to La Jolla where they have an apartment complex of a very similar scale. It's just a 10 minute drive from Carmel Valley, down in the UTC area of San Diego. If you're interested, send me an email at ken@cvsd.com, I'll make the time to show you.

These articles are my opinion. If there are factual errors, let me know and I'll correct them!