Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Not good, Chabad

Scripps Ranch apartment marketing vexes planning group

The pin marks Chabad’s Campus of Life, south of Pomerado Road
The pin marks Chabad’s Campus of Life, south of Pomerado Road

If you rent one of the 84 apartments at the Scripps Ranch Chabad’s Campus of Life, now offered on a variety of apartment rental sites, your enrollment in a class is part of the rent. But not to worry, rental reps say, attendance isn’t mandatory.

An ad on Rent.com (since updated) offered a one-bedroom apartment for $2016 a month.

That’s because when the city signed off on the 280 apartments south of Pomerado Road in 2008, there were a few conditions attached, among them: the apartments were only for faculty, students, and their families. The students in the apartments had to carry a minimum of eight credits. Chabad had made a private agreement with the planning group, but the city noted it had no ability to enforce it.

By making that promise, the Chabad project was able to get about $2.5 million in development impact fees waived — along with other standard development requirements like inclusionary housing. Those fees, in theory, are used to pay for community infrastructure, including fire-department upgrades and parks.

Sponsored
Sponsored

With the first wave of apartments (84, according to the rental sites) coming to market, the Scripps Ranch Planning Group and its civic association are sounding the alarm.

“The community wants to have them rezoned and we want them to pay the impact fees that were waived,” says Bob Ilko, chairman of the planning group. “They carved out $2.5 million in savings by calling them dorms and that’s what they’re supposed to be. If they want apartments, they should do the project as apartments and stop calling them dorms.”

Messages left with three people at the Campus of Life (two rabbis and the accounting office) were not returned.

The project, approved in 2008, included the restriction that the housing was only for use by students, faculty, and their families. The city-council recommendation from the planning commission includes a requirement that only students and staff can live there.

The project didn’t need a new permit since it was following the basic structure that had been approved for the previous owner in 1972 and amended in 1995.

The campus has been built in phases: a cafeteria building; the preschool and grade school; the community center; and, finally, the apartment buildings. Pre-construction grading began in 2012.

The Scripps Ranch Planning Group was the first to propose the restriction on the project, and its members have been angered to find the rentals offered to anyone in the county. But a quick call to the apartment leasing office cleared up the confusion: by including automatic enrollment in classes that include pilates, yoga, and wellness and nutrition, anyone who can afford luxury-apartment rent can live there.

One-bedroom apartments will rent for $2016 or more, and two bedrooms go for $2385, according to the listings on Zillow, HotPads, and Apartments.com. The first wave of apartments become available on April 16, according to the listings.

“Our community was created for people who are passionate about life and our Ascent at Campus of Life offers an extraordinary array of learning and growth opportunities,” the rental ads say.

Ilko, who lives near the project, says he believes that if there is enforcement, it will have to come from the city attorney’s office.

In December, Chabad settled a complaint filed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which found that the development company had constructed an underground tunnel to redirect an unnamed stream that feeds into Carroll Canyon Creek. At the point where it emerges from the ground, investigators found it contained construction fill that could be carried to the creek.

Chabad’s representatives argued that they didn’t need permits for the work because the land use was grandfathered back to 1967 in permits obtained by the now-defunct United States International University, before the state Clean Water Act was passed. The argument failed because a specific section forbids such grandfathering.

Water-board staff said the underground tunnel directed water away from a building site and that it was a fairly routine kind of construction, except for the lack of a permit.

The settlement in December includes a requirement that the developer mitigate and restore ten times the one-twentieth of an acre affected by the rerouting; they will also pay $11,579 for the cost of the investigation.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Next Article

Mary Catherine Swanson wants every San Diego student going to college

Where busing from Southeast San Diego to University City has led
The pin marks Chabad’s Campus of Life, south of Pomerado Road
The pin marks Chabad’s Campus of Life, south of Pomerado Road

If you rent one of the 84 apartments at the Scripps Ranch Chabad’s Campus of Life, now offered on a variety of apartment rental sites, your enrollment in a class is part of the rent. But not to worry, rental reps say, attendance isn’t mandatory.

An ad on Rent.com (since updated) offered a one-bedroom apartment for $2016 a month.

That’s because when the city signed off on the 280 apartments south of Pomerado Road in 2008, there were a few conditions attached, among them: the apartments were only for faculty, students, and their families. The students in the apartments had to carry a minimum of eight credits. Chabad had made a private agreement with the planning group, but the city noted it had no ability to enforce it.

By making that promise, the Chabad project was able to get about $2.5 million in development impact fees waived — along with other standard development requirements like inclusionary housing. Those fees, in theory, are used to pay for community infrastructure, including fire-department upgrades and parks.

Sponsored
Sponsored

With the first wave of apartments (84, according to the rental sites) coming to market, the Scripps Ranch Planning Group and its civic association are sounding the alarm.

“The community wants to have them rezoned and we want them to pay the impact fees that were waived,” says Bob Ilko, chairman of the planning group. “They carved out $2.5 million in savings by calling them dorms and that’s what they’re supposed to be. If they want apartments, they should do the project as apartments and stop calling them dorms.”

Messages left with three people at the Campus of Life (two rabbis and the accounting office) were not returned.

The project, approved in 2008, included the restriction that the housing was only for use by students, faculty, and their families. The city-council recommendation from the planning commission includes a requirement that only students and staff can live there.

The project didn’t need a new permit since it was following the basic structure that had been approved for the previous owner in 1972 and amended in 1995.

The campus has been built in phases: a cafeteria building; the preschool and grade school; the community center; and, finally, the apartment buildings. Pre-construction grading began in 2012.

The Scripps Ranch Planning Group was the first to propose the restriction on the project, and its members have been angered to find the rentals offered to anyone in the county. But a quick call to the apartment leasing office cleared up the confusion: by including automatic enrollment in classes that include pilates, yoga, and wellness and nutrition, anyone who can afford luxury-apartment rent can live there.

One-bedroom apartments will rent for $2016 or more, and two bedrooms go for $2385, according to the listings on Zillow, HotPads, and Apartments.com. The first wave of apartments become available on April 16, according to the listings.

“Our community was created for people who are passionate about life and our Ascent at Campus of Life offers an extraordinary array of learning and growth opportunities,” the rental ads say.

Ilko, who lives near the project, says he believes that if there is enforcement, it will have to come from the city attorney’s office.

In December, Chabad settled a complaint filed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which found that the development company had constructed an underground tunnel to redirect an unnamed stream that feeds into Carroll Canyon Creek. At the point where it emerges from the ground, investigators found it contained construction fill that could be carried to the creek.

Chabad’s representatives argued that they didn’t need permits for the work because the land use was grandfathered back to 1967 in permits obtained by the now-defunct United States International University, before the state Clean Water Act was passed. The argument failed because a specific section forbids such grandfathering.

Water-board staff said the underground tunnel directed water away from a building site and that it was a fairly routine kind of construction, except for the lack of a permit.

The settlement in December includes a requirement that the developer mitigate and restore ten times the one-twentieth of an acre affected by the rerouting; they will also pay $11,579 for the cost of the investigation.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Next Article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader