A ‘missed opportunity’? San Diego OKs sweeping neighborhood plan for College Area, more modest vision for Clairemont

San Diego approved new growth blueprints Tuesday for Clairemont and the College Area that could bring tens of thousands of new residents to both neighborhoods by allowing mid-rise and high-rise housing in more places.

While city officials envision the changes taking place slowly over the next 30 years, the new blueprints are still considered major milestones for both neighborhoods that will be key to guiding future development. Officials say updating them with new zoning is one of the fastest ways to get developers to build much-needed new housing.

The City Council approved both new blueprints — formally called community plan updates — in 7-1 votes. Both replace plans approved in 1989, two of San Diego’s most outdated community plans.

The changes to the College Area — which could roughly triple the population there to close to 77,000 — are more aggressive than those in Clairemont, where the population would rise more modestly, by just under 50%, to 119,000.

Council President Joe LaCava, who voted for the College Area plan but against the Clairemont plan, questioned why the difference was so stark.

“What a contrast between those two plans,” said LaCava, criticizing city officials for rejecting a Planning Commission request to allow taller high-rises in parts of Clairemont. “I continue to think that there is a missed opportunity. We could have done better.”

He stressed that Clairemont has three new trolley stops, is close to multiple...