A new mixed-use apartment project in La Mesa has cleared its final approval, but many worry the area doesn’t have enough parking already.
LA MESA, Calif. — A new apartment project in the heart of La Mesa is one step closer to becoming reality, but not everyone is convinced the surrounding area is ready for it.
The CityMark Palm development, planned for the corner of Palm Avenue and Allison Avenue, would replace part of the current U.S. Bank parking lot with a five-story mixed-use building featuring about 114 apartments, ground-floor retail space and 72 parking spaces. Five units would be very low-income units.
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The project sits directly across the street from another apartment complex already under construction, The Jewel La Mesa, which will add 64 units and 29 parking spaces. Because both developments are located near public transit and have low-income units, they qualify for reduced parking requirements under state law.
Last week, the La Mesa City Council unanimously ratified the project.
Councilmember Laura Lothian said the vote did not reflect whether council members supported the development, but rather that the city’s legal opportunity to challenge it had already passed.
“For us to now to vote against it would have been showboating; it would have had absolutely no legal basis,” Lothian said.
Lothian said the city had just 30 days to challenge the project after the application was filed several years ago. She said she would have opposed it had the issue come before the council earlier.
“All of the movement should have been done in the very beginning stages, but the beginning stages were not made clear to the public, not even clear to the city council,” she said.
Some visitors to La Mesa Village say parking is already difficult to find.
“I just don’t think this is the spot really, I think it’s already too congested,” visitors Bronson and Raylee said. “Unless they’re building like parking garages, I don’t think it’s very feasible to have even more people living here.”
In response to those concerns, Lothian said she is working on proposals to create additional parking using existing space. Her ideas include studying whether some red and white curbs could be converted into parking, adding new stall markings and repurposing some painted areas for motorcycle and golf cart parking.
“I just think because a parking structure is years away and millions, millions, millions of dollars, [we’ve] got to work with what we got. So my plan, my policies, my proposals had nothing to do with new infrastructure; it was using what we’ve already got,” Lothian said.
She is also pushing to make development applications more visible on the city’s website so residents are aware of projects earlier in the process.
“What you need is the public to know about it, reach out to their council, council gets together with the city attorney, places a package together to challenge it. That’s what I would have done two or three years ago when this started,” Lothian said.
Lothian said the ratification vote was the final step in the approval process, meaning construction on the CityMark Palm project could begin at any time.