CARLSBAD— The Planning Commission approved a two-story office building on the corner of Arbuckle Place and Jefferson Street in northern Carlsbad.
The 4,000 square feet building, located at 2753 Jefferson St. will be built in a Spanish architectural style. There will be six office suites and a 20-foot-wide driveway off of Jefferson Street. The property will have five parking spaces. Since there aren’t enough parking spaces, the developers, Raymond Mendez and William and Rosa Daly, paid the city $47,212 as part of the Parking-in-Lieu Fee Program.
The program allows approved developers to pay the city $11,803 per parking space in lieu of building the parking spaces on the development. The funds go into a city account, which earns interest. Those funds can be used to purchase existing parking in the Village or towards maintenance of current parking spaces.
Commissioner Marty Montgomery told the commission that the Parking-in-Lieu program should be watched carefully for future developments.
“I’m just a little bit concerned that if we’re not careful, a good experiment that’s happening right now with us granting some of these waivers could be, in a way, a detriment,” Montgomery said.
He is worried that too many developments using the Parking-in-Lieu Program could leave the city scrambling to accommodate parking.
He thinks the city should be more proactive in providing more parking as development increases.
The Planning Commission also approved a four-unit apartment building at 385 Juniper Avenue.
The apartments will be built in a U-shape with a driveway in the middle for the multi-family apartment building. Currently there is a single-family home with an attached garage, which will be torn down.
Tyler Van Stright, of CP Juniper LLC, is the developer of the apartment building.
