City Council Must Face Dilemma of Sears Site

The San Diego City Council will soon face a dilemma of its own making as it takes up the issue of what to do with the 12-acre site of a former Sears store in Hillcrest that it bought last year.

The property was purchased as a potential location for a new library soon after Sears announced in January, 1986, that it would close its 34-year-old store. But the building itself was not found to be structurally safe to hold the weight of the books, and the council decided the new library should be downtown anyway.

The money for the $9.3-million purchase was taken in part from the city’s capital improvement budget, and now that money is needed for its intended purposes. So the city needs to sell the property by the middle of next year. After giving up on the property as a potential location for the library, the city decided it should be developed with a mixture of commercial and residential ventures. Among the goals were to allow enough retail space to enhance the neighborhood without damaging the business of the existing stores and to include some rental housing for senior citizens. A community center also was envisioned.

But consultants recently reported that a mixture like that will not recoup the city’s investment in the property, prompting an advisory task force to ask for new plans that eliminate the senior-citizen housing and boost the amount of commercial space beyond the point that is expected to affect local businesses.

The problem for the City Council when it gets the issue later this year will be to find a compromise that will be beneficial to the surrounding community but will not end up losing the city money on the deal.

Amid these competing interests, the council should first of all meet its responsibility to the neighborhood. After all, the council chose to buy the property there.

Putting the neighborhood first may mean taking less money than might otherwise be desirable.