Mt. Etna Drive Redevelopment

About This Project

In order to address the affordable housing crisis, the County of San Diego and Chelsea Investment Corporation pursued a Community Plan Amendment (CPA) and rezone, which required an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), for the development of a multi-family affordable home community at 5255 Mt. Etna Drive, the former County Crime Lab. K&A designed and facilitated a comprehensive communications and outreach program to engage the community in planning and design of the residential development. Both the CPA and EIR processes required community input and discretionary action by the City’s elected representatives.

Chelsea Investment Corporation engaged K&A to develop a Communications and Engagement Plan that established the roadmap for community engagement opportunities, outlining when the public could provide input to help shape the planning and design of the development across three parallel planning processes, the CPA, EIR, and site design. Over the course of the planning process K&A conducted 19 stakeholder group interviews and meetings. K&A planned and facilitated a community workshop that garnered 120+ comments. A bus tour of four of Chelsea’s existing affordable home communities was attended by more than 20 members of the community. Additionally, a community meeting was held to inform the community about the CPA and EIR. Feedback collected through all these engagements informed the development of the CPA, EIR, and site design, contributing to a more successful planning process and ultimately a development that will bring great value to the community.

On March 10, 2020, San Diego City Council members approved the CPA and rezone for multi-family use. In turn, the County of San Diego was able to provide Chelsea with the 100-year ground lease to build and operate an affordable home community on the site.

K&A’s in-house creative team developed project branding, collateral and a website for the project.