Ugly Buildings in Golden Hill: Don’t Wake a Sleeping Tiger
Golden Hill has long been a community with abundant charm – Wikipedia describes it as “one of San Diego’s most historic and architecturally eclectic zones” – where peaceful people live on quiet streets.
Not anymore.
The saturation density that has engulfed San Diego is hitting Golden Hill especially hard. It’s bad enough that massive ugly projects are disfiguring its picturesque neighborhoods. But developers are deliberately building eyesores at sites most beloved by the community.
That has made the normally peaceful community deeply angry.
Turnout at the May 20 Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee meeting was so large that it had to be moved to a bigger room at the Golden Hill Rec Center. Even then, the crowd filled every seat and spilled out into the hallway.
They came to protest two informational agenda items. The first project will put five homes on canyonland near the popular Grape Street Dog Park. The second will build an 8-story,180-unit tower near Albert Einstein Academy Charter Elementary School.
Furious public comments included, “You’re looking to cannibalize what made this a wonderful neighborhood,” “You are monsters and leeches,” and the ultimate grievance, “We’re starting to look like North Park.”
Too Close to the Dog Park
Paul Benton of Alcorn & Benton Architects presented the first project, a 5-unit complex on an empty site of “dedicated ‘paper’ streets 28th and Fir” with “no formal address, as the streets have not been developed.”
When the audience started booing early in his remarks, Benton remained composed. He doesn’t need the community’s approval – in San Diego, developers can build what they want where they want. Still, he wanted to make a show of good faith.
But his nice guy façade slipped when he hinted in ominous terms that his project could be worse. “I’m offering you a trade-off,” Benton said. “We’re not going to fill the entire canyon. We’re just building on half of it.” He added, “I’m not talking about using the ADU [program] as an excuse to expand to the other side.”
The audience was not mollified. Neighbors were anxious about construction noise and dirt. Hikers wanted to know if popular trails would close. A dog park regular warned that infill tumult “is going to affect our dogs – they will get stressed out.”
Too Close to the School
In boxing terms, Benton was the undercard. The main event was the 8-story bunker that Chicago-based developer CEDARst is going to build at 2935 A Street. It’s the former site of three historic homes that were recently and abruptly destroyed.
CEDARst specializes in colossal box buildings that blight urban landscapes. Their website portfolio, a hall of architectural shame, doesn’t yet include the atrocious Golden Hill project. But it does feature the equally appalling FLATS Hillcrest (pictured at right).
The CEDARst team had a rough night in Golden Hill. The presentation in their laptop didn’t connect with the overhead screen, so they had to hold the laptop up in the air to display project images.