SAN DIEGO –
A cluster of hotels in western Carmel Valley will soon be connected to each other and nearby amenities by a pedestrian and bicycle promenade that received city approval on Thursday as part of a new mixed-use project.
The eight-foot-wide promenade will be part of a project called Costa Azul, which will include a seven-story hotel with 128 rooms, a five-story office building, and a 4,800-square-foot restaurant.
The boardwalk will connect the hotels, offices and restaurants to other nearby hotels, Old El Camino Real, Carmel Valley Road, Los Peñasquitos Lagoon and the ocean.
The area, a combination of offices and hotels at the intersection of Interstate 5 and State Route 56, has lost its full-service dining option since a popular Tio Leo’s closed.
The new office building would be attached to an eight-story office building nearby. The new hotel would join the 284-room San Diego Marriott Del Mar, a 129-room Hampton Inn, and a 118-room Residence Inn.
Another five-story hotel is planned on the vacant Tio Leo site. And just east of the hotel and office complex, across from El Camino Real, is a DoubleTree Hilton with 224 rooms.
The San Diego Planning Commission unanimously approved Costa Azul on Thursday.
“This is a great project,” said Commissioner Doug Austin. “The residents want it and the planning group wants it. I don’t see any problems in that. “
Austin was referring to the unanimous approval of the project by the Carmel Valley Planning Group in 2018.
Costa Azul would violate the maximum height limit of 60 feet in the area as the hotel is proposed at 76 feet and the office building is proposed at 68 feet.
City planners said it makes sense to allow exceptions to the height limit in this case, as the buildings blend well with those nearby, including the 12-story Marriott.
Costa Azul was designed to allow Caltrans to build a long awaited connecting ramp between SR-56 West and I-5 North through the property. But city officials said there was no schedule for this connection to be built.
Commissioner Dennis Otsuji said he has no concerns that the freeway junction will be combined with the buildings to create visual clutter in the area. He said similar projects in Mission Valley went well.
Hunter Oliver, developer of Costa Azul, said Thursday he was optimistic about the project.
“We are going to build a project and a promenade that everyone can be proud of,” Oliver told the Commission.
Costa Azul, which would be built on 3.2 hectares, would include an underground car park with 383 spaces and 71 surface parking spaces.
The project would also include a new set of traffic lights on Carmel Valley Road.
City officials said they were optimistic that mixed use of the completed project would reduce traffic in the long run. Workers in the office buildings can eat in the new restaurant and some hotel guests are business travelers with meetings in the offices.
