Turquoise Tower developer speaking at Wednesday meeting

YIMBY Democrats of San Diego to discuss Coastal Zone development
Protest Planned By:

San Diegans for Responsible Planning, Neighbors for a Better California, Neighbors for a Better San Diego

Many of you have asked us what you can do to help. This is it! Come to the protest and make your voice heard.

The developer of perhaps the most controversial project in recent San Diego history is scheduled to speak to the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego on Wednesday.

Despite an attempt by meeting organizers to deny access to the public, the meeting, which lists San Diego housing officials and a City Council policy maker as speakers, is sure to attract a crowd. It is scheduled for Wednesday, November 20, at 7 p.m. at Original 40 Brewing, 3117 University Avenue. We want our protest to start at 6:30PM

 

One of the items on the meeting's agenda is 970 Turquoise: Developing in the Coastal Zone - Kalonymous.

Kalonymous is the company that has submitted a proposal for a 23-story high-rise on Turquoise Street in North Pacific Beach. Known as the Turquoise Tower, the Vela project has ignited a firestorm of protests from outraged citizens, community planning groups, and elected officials.

It has generated front page coverage in the San Diego Union-Tribune and other media outlets, resulted in more than 40,000 overwhelmingly negative responses on the Nextdoor Kate Sessions forum, and been the subject of numerous reports on local television newscasts.

One of those television reports, a segment by KUSI-TV's Dan Plant, announced the meeting plans.

"The station and he subsequently received notice from the organizers that this was a private meeting and that he should issue a retraction," said Scott Chipman of the Pacific Beach Planning Group and Neighbors for a Better California. "A private meeting? With members of the Housing Authority and a developer with a very controversial project?"

Also scheduled to appear at the meeting are Dante Golden of the San Diego Housing Federation, Ryan Clumpner of the San Diego Housing Commission, and Madison Coleman, San Diego City Council Policy Director for District 6 Councilmember Kent Lee.

Chipman sarcastically said KUSI should air a retraction.

"The retraction should say: “We erroneously announced an upcoming meeting about the most controversial development project in San Diego, which potentially will set the direction of development in San Diego far into the future as public. We announced it incorrectly. It is private. The public need not come, and no information will be provided to the general citizenry.”

State Senator Catherine Blakespear posted a response on X to Plant's report shortly after it aired. (Here is the link to the post and Plant's report on X: x.com)

"Thanks to @fox5sandiego for coverage of this planned high-rise in Pacific Beach. This project is really an inappropriate use of the state's housing laws," Blakespear wrote in her post.

Blakespear, Senate leader Toni Atkins, and Assembly member Tasha Boerner have each written highly critical letters of protest to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, from which San Diego is requesting "technical guidance" before approving or rejecting Kalonymous' application.

Atkins, who has announced she is running to be governor of California in 2026, wrote in her letter that the Kalonymous project "represents an extreme misuse of the State Density Bonus Law."

"This project is inconsistent with the State's housing goals, the intent of the State's Bonus Density Law, and the character of the Pacific Beach community," the letter adds.

In his report, KUSI’s Plant said: “Lawmakers (in Sacramento) are starting to realize that whatever the housing law is that lawmakers approved that allows developers to go way up in the air as long as they put aside a few of these affordable housing units … well the developers are taking advantage of this and this isn’t what we intended.”

The Turquoise Tower is the giant poster child of those unintended consequences. The proposed project has nine floors of hotel units, and floor after floor of luxury condos that could bring prices of more than $10 million. Meanwhile, it offers only five low-priced affordable housing units.