OCEANSIDE — The final two city blocks in a nearly 26-year-old, nine-block downtown master plan will be developed with 373 housing units split between two midrise buildings.
The blocks are currently occupied by Lot 24, a paid parking lot serving downtown and the nearby Oceanside Pier along North Myers Street between Mission Avenue and Civic Center Drive. The parking lot is split by the pedestrian underpass along Pier View Way.
Following narrow approval from the Oceanside City Council on Jan. 14, the project will construct a 193-unit, eight-story building on one side and a 180-unit, seven-story building on the other.
The larger building will include 190 flats and three live-work units, while the other will include 177 flats and three live-work units. Units will range from 528 to 1,402 square feet and include approximately 130 studios, 148 one-bedrooms, 89 two-bedrooms and six townhouses.
Ten percent of the units would be reserved as affordable housing, including 14 studios, 14 one-bedrooms and 10 two-bedrooms for low-income households.
The project qualifies as a density bonus project and has requested waivers for: reduced setbacks; per-unit open-space requirements; private open-space requirements; parking dimensions; drive-aisle width; aisle-length buffer; minimum landscaping; minimum courtyard dimensions; on-site commercial loading space standards; live-work unit residential floor area standards; and the 1:1 or 45-degree daylight plane requirement.
The project did not request any incentives or concessions under the state Density Bonus law.
Parking will be provided in a three-level structure with one subterranean level and two above-ground, totaling 560 stalls — 80 more than required under the density bonus law.
The project will also pay $395,000 to offset the loss of downtown parking.
Additionally, the project would include 17,406 square feet of commercial space.
The two buildings complete the final phase of the Nine Block Master Plan approved in 2000 to redevelop nine blocks in the center of downtown. The plan envisioned 240 hotel rooms and nearly 82,000 square feet of visitor-serving space bounded by Cleveland Street to the east, Pacific Street to the west, Civic Center Drive to the north and Seagaze Drive to the south.
In 2008, a Five Block Mixed-Use Plan was approved for Blocks 5, 18, 19, 20 and 21, which included 231 residential condominium units, a 124-unit hotel and 48,000 square feet of ground-floor visitor commercial uses.
The existing SpringHill Suites hotel occupies Block 21, while Pierside North and South apartments are located on Blocks 18 and 19. The project approved Jan. 14 will take over the remaining Blocks 5 and 20, located behind the Mission Pacific Hotel and Club Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort.
San Diego-based Ryan Companies is the developer behind the new project, as well as SpringHill Suites and Pierside North and South.
According to Daniel Bertao, vice president of real estate development at Ryan Companies, the project will make the Pier View Way walkway safer and activate the plaza with planned restaurants, outdoor seating and other amenities.
“This plaza could be a great addition to the placemaking efforts the city is undertaking, and could improve access both to the beach but also from the beach into downtown,” Bertao said.
Bertao added that the buildings are “intentionally sited to respect the Pier View right-of-way and put more eyes on the street to make the walkway safer.”
Residents expressed mixed views on the project.
Several spoke in favor, including David Shepherd, a 16-year Oceanside resident who initially worried about losing the parking lot he frequently uses to go surfing. After meeting with the applicant and learning that the project exceeded the required parking, he said he became optimistic.
“This is an opportunity to meet the housing needs of current and future residents, frankly like my children, who are soon going to be out on their own,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they’re going to be able to live either in Oceanside or very near, and this is an opportunity to bring forward more affordable, attainable housing for people like that and families like ours that want to stay locally.”
Shepherd is also the director of entitlements for Lennar Homes, another regional developer, though unrelated to the Ryan Companies project.
Other supporters noted how downtown Oceanside has changed over the past few decades and said projects like this will continue that momentum.
Paul Dooley, a Pacific Street resident, said he was pleased to see the two blocks developed. He recalled that the area once served as railroad switching yards when he moved to Oceanside in 1986.
“A lot of people forget the unsavory businesses that were all around downtown which are no longer here,” he said. “In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the nine blocks were created, and it was always the vision — I always felt like the nine blocks were where the jewel needed to go.”
Diane Nygaard, representing Preserve Calavera, said the developer “made a good faith effort” to address several concerns raised by the environmental advocacy group, but still fell short on “big picture issues,” including resident open space, park funding and the 10% affordable housing requirement.
Ron Derington, who lives in the adjacent Sea Village condominiums, said he was concerned about the project’s height.
“At eight stories, it seems too tall,” he said.
Mark Schroeder, a Mission Avenue resident, said he is worried about losing his ocean view.
“It’s going to kill my view,” he said. “There are a lot of other people who will be just as disappointed.”
The City Council ultimately approved the project on a 3-2 vote, adding a condition requiring a building-to-building distance at all residential levels equivalent to the distance between the Mission Pacific and Wyndham at Pier View Way. Balconies may extend up to 5 feet into the setback.
Mayor Esther Sanchez and Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce voted against the project, favoring a delay to better address pedestrian ocean views and ensure compliance with the city’s Local Coastal Program.
Councilmember Peter Weiss, who initially opposed the project due to view corridor impacts that would have reduced one corridor from 120 to 90 feet, said he was satisfied with the added condition and voted in favor.
