Carmel Valley planning board approves Village parking garage

A “peace accord” was reached between two neighboring Pacific Highlands Ranch developers and the Carmel Valley Community Planning Board approved a new parking garage at the Village on Nov. 16. Coast Income Properties had disagreed over the placement of a 10-to-15-foot-high wall separating the Village from the Finley family’s Corallina mixed-use housing and retail project next door and the Finleys opposed the parking garage placement. The planning board sent them back to the drawing board at its Oct. 27 meeting and demanded the two developers find a resolution.

“We came back together and I think everybody’s happy,” said Dan Curran, vice president of Coast Income Properties.

The new single-deck parking garage will be built on the temporary parking lot in front of Crunch Fitness with an entrance on Village Way. Coast Income has agreed to get rid of a 5-foot setback which would have created an alleyway and deed that 5 feet to the Finleys. The Finleys will be able to add landscape to buffer between their townhomes and the parking garage. Curran said they have also agreed to give Corallina residents access to the parking garage with 14 spaces.

“It works for us and it works for Coast and I think it’s a benefit for the Village,” said Mike Finley, who is developing Corallina with his son Mike.

The Village has been approved for 195,000 square feet of retail and to date 150,000 square feet of retail has been built. Coast Income plans to build two new retail buildings, an already approved 25,000 square feet, in the temporary parking lot space that will mirror those across Pacific Highlands Ranch Parkway. One will look similar to the current Wells Fargo; the other like the one that houses Dolce.

Coast Income will seek a permit amendment from the city to add the single deck parking garage. The structure will bring 140 parking spaces, at grade with Carmel Valley Road and heavily screened with landscaping.

Corallina will feature vertical mixed-use with residential flats above retail. Corallina will include 109 residential units and 30,000 square feet of retail — residential units will be a mix of three-story townhomes with two-car garages and 21 affordable housing above the Village Way retail.

Where the parking garage will front Village Way, Curran said they will add enhancements, such as decorative lighting, and possible kiosks, such as a flower shop or dry cleaning drop-off to connect the retail element of Corallina with the Village.

A parking garage is also under construction behind Crunch Fitness, as well as some of the Village’s 252 market-rate apartments. Construction of the Village’s 79 affordable housing units cannot begin until the parking garage is complete. The affordable units will be split between two parts of the Village – four stories with an underground garage across from Panera Bread and the second set to the east of Crunch and next to Laterra, a 69-unit townhome product on Village Center Loop Road.

Village Center Loop Road currently deadends and is intended to make a connection back to Carmel Valley Road. Carmel Valley Planning Board Chair Frisco White said he has contacted the mayor regarding expediting the completion of a critical part of the traffic circulation in the area, which includes future civic uses such as the neighborhood park and library, as well as schools and residences.

The remaining 700-foot segment of road falls within the 21 acres of private property owned by the Lin family. In the spring, the planning board discussed how the city could possibly enter negotiations with the property owners to determine fair market value, pull funds from the Facilities Benefit Assessments and pay the owners now to move forward with the road. If and when the Lins move forward and develop their property, they would then return the funds to the city.

If the city cannot negotiate, they do have the option of entering a condemnation process. White has said he is not interested in condemnation and hopes an agreement can be made.

According to Jeff Howard, a representive for Jeff Lin, the Lins have not yet been approached by the city on this item. Howard said Lin is open to discussing it if or when contacted by the city.