Former Mayor Tod Ridgeway looks at the stretch of Mariner’s Mile at PCH and Dover and doesn’t see the chain link fence screening – unsuccessfully – abandoned and decaying buildings.
He sees Mariner’s Pointe, a high-end center anchored by a jewelry store and featuring restaurants, a spa and other shops.
At least, that is the development plan that Ridgeway and his partners have presented to the city,
Mariner’s Pointe is a 0.76-acre project, spanning six lots at Dover and PCH that were part of the never-realized Bel Mare project. (Russ Fluter’s The Cove boutique retail development covers the rest of the former Bel Mare project area.)
Mariner’s Pointe would be a 23,000-square-foot development, with two-story retail buildings and a parking structure.
The project will require that the city’s General Plan be amended to allow more floor space on the site, as well as special permits for such things as valet parking, rooftop parking and an architectural feature that exceeds the 40-foot height limit in the area.
It has been making its way through the city planning and review process for about a year, and now is on the Planning Commission’s June 6 agenda for review and approval.
In preparation for the Planning Commission meeting, the city this week issued for public review a Mitigated Negative Declaration on the project , which says the project will not have any significant environmental impacts requiring further study.
If the Planning Commission OKs it, the Mariner’s Pointe plan could go before the City Council in July for the final go-ahead.
At that point, Ridgeway and his partners would be free to begin the project, and they have said they could get under way as early as August.
