Living next to San Diego State University for 28 years I’ve learned a lot about my neighbor. I’ve learned SDSU is not required to conform to local land use regulations, that it doesn’t pay local property tax and that it doesn’t care to engage with the community.
Essentially, SDSU can do whatever it wants with the land it controls.
SDSU’s current unneighborly move is its “Evolve” student housing proposal.
Evolve would be located at the northern end of 55th Street on a peninsula surrounded by canyons in a severe fire hazard zone. SDSU wants to tear down five, two-story apartment complexes that house 702 students and replace them with five 13-story and one nine-story towers for 4,500 students. Another nine-story tower is planned for the parking lot next to the University Tower dorms at Montezuma Road and 55th Street to house 750 students.
In touting the Evolve proposal, SDSU highlights providing “affordable” student housing on campus and its academic benefits. SDSU even claims there is no opposition to the project, which is not true. Evolve will help SDSU achieve its goal of having all freshmen and sophomores live on campus in university-owned housing. With the most inexpensive meal plan, a shared room runs $22,450 per student for nine months.
SDSU says Evolve will bring its on-campus housing total to 13,000 students, creating a revenue stream of nearly $300 million each academic year, with Evolve accounting for nearly 40% of that amount.
As a neighbor, I want SDSU to provide more housing on campus, but there’s a lot not to like about Evolve’s location and density.
Severe fire zone
Evolve is located in a severe fire zone and will add 4,500 students to a two-block area with one way in and out on a two-lane residential street. When addressing evacuation in case of a wildfire, SDSU’s Environmental Impact Report doesn’t mention two existing dorms up the street and a privately built apartment complex next door that add another 2,000 students to the area. The report also doesn’t list the College View Estates neighborhood that has seen a proliferation of ADU’s and has another 1,200 people.
So there are roughly 8,000 people who would have to evacuate via 55th street during an emergency or wildfire. During the Montezuma Fire in October, things quickly got so out of control, with San Diego Fire-Rescue issuing evacuation notices and SDSU texting students that the campus was open for classes. This caused hours-long traffic delays. So SDSU now wants to add 4,500 more people to an area surrounded by canyons?
Bad deal for taxpayers
SDSU plans to take possession of the north end of 55th street. Once it does, it will no longer fall under city of San Diego zoning, the current height limit of 60 feet will disappear, and the land will fall off the property tax rolls. The university will be able to build 13-story structures without having to pay property tax, developer impact fees, or get city approval.
There will be no money for intersection and sidewalk improvements or funds to cover the cost of fire and rescue services the city is required to provide. SDSU would generate $300 million in annual revenue while dumping infrastructure costs on taxpayers, which would further exacerbate the city’s budget shortfall.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Evolve will cost upwards of a billion dollars. The College Area Community Plan is currently being updated by the city. That plan describes SDSU as the “heart of the community,” and envisions “a college town with vibrant mixed-use corridors, villages and nodes that connect to neighborhoods and SDSU.” However, SDSU has its own master plan and its Evolve proposal does nothing to help create a mixed-use urban village around SDSU’s trolley station, even though it controls numerous parcels, some that are just asphalt parking lots.
When you consider SDSU possesses the Mission Valley site, which it told voters it needed for housing and university expansion, it’s not unreasonable to expect SDSU would either build student housing there or help the city redevelop the area around the SDSU trolley station.
Taxpayers and local and state elected officials should demand SDSU dial back its Evolve project in a severe fire zone and work with the city to leverage a portion of those billion dollars to create student housing and a mixed-use urban village at the SDSU trolley station or in Mission Valley. SDSU needs to invest back into the community as well as its bottom-line.
Rene Kaprielian is an SDSU journalism graduate from the Class of 1987 and has lived in the College area for the past 28 years.
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