This post has been updated.
The San Diego City Council won’t vote on the controversial One Paseo project at the end of this month after all.
The Council was set to vote Jan. 27 on Kilroy Realty’s $650 million project to build office spaces, shops, restaurants and condos on 23 acres in the middle of suburban Carmel Valley.
But that’s not going to happen. The vote has been delayed and the new hearing date has not yet been set.
City project manager Renee Mezo said Council President Sherri Lightner did not send out a required public meeting notice Wednesday – notices must go out two weeks before a scheduled meeting date, according to the city’s municipal code.
Kilroy spokesperson Rachel Laing said the delay is unnecessary.
“We were ready to go on the 27th, there was absolutely no reason we couldn’t go,” Laing said. “It’s entirely the Council president’s doing.”
Lightner’s office said the hearing will likely be moved to the first week of February.
It’s still up in the air where the final vote will be held. Most likely, though, City Council won’t vote on One Paseo at Council chambers.
Lightner’s staff has been looking for weeks at possible locations in Carmel Valley for the hearing. But they still didn’t manage to secure a location in time for the vote this month.
Lightner’s communications director, Jennifer Kearns, said the point of the move wasn’t to delay the vote. The Council received many requests from community members to host the meeting in Carmel Valley, she said.
“The reason is so the community can attend and not have to bear the burden of having to attend a meeting downtown,” Kearns said.
That explanation doesn’t satisfy Kilroy. Laing said the company has hosted dozens of outreach and engagement opportunities since 2009 to include North County residents in the plan for One Paseo.
“Why (is it) this affluent suburban community that gets this privilege?” Laing said.
Hosting the hearing away from the City Council also comes with a cost – paying for rental facilities, security and all the requirements to host a Council meeting in the community comes out of the city’s general fund.
Laing said Kilroy is required to pay for city staff time and may incur additional costs.
Correction: An earlier version of this post said the city requires developers to pay for the costs associated with hosting a Council hearing in the community. The city pays for many of the expenses through its general fund; developers must pay for city staff time and may incur other costs.