Corona Moves Forward With North Mall Redevelopment Project

The Corona City Council Wednesday took another step forward in the redevelopment of the North Mall as a mixed-use project, approving a $1.48 million amended contract with SVA Architects for architectural services, starting the entitlement process and directing staff to pursue an exemption to the Surplus Land Act.

“The North Mall redevelopment project is envisioned to be a thriving, vibrant, mixed-use development with retail, residential and commercial components,” Assistant City Manager Justin Tucker said at the January 7 meeting. “Most recently, the council gave staff direction to pursue an entitlement on the property to control the design, the look and feel, and what that experience would be like in the downtown.”

However, Tucker said that seeking an entitlement without also pursuing a Surplus Land Act (SLA) exemption from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) could result in wasting taxpayer money.

“That’s because if we entitle a project with a specific design and look and feel, that project would be one option, but the city could not require that a developer build that project, and we could not force a specific developer to win that bid because they were doing our project that way,” he said.  “Additionally, a project with more housing units or a higher offer or at market price could out compete the entitled project.”

Other options presented to the council included starting the entitlement and SLA process, which was not recommended, or going through the SLA process without an entitled project. Tucker said if the council chose to go through the SLA process without an entitled project, the city would risk losing control over what was ultimately built.

“That’s a very high risk,” he said. “The SLA process is governed by statute, and you have a risk of losing control of the site.”

The project, as presented at the meeting, included approximately 100,000 square-feet of retail and entertainment space, a hotel, a pedestrian promenade with places for people to gather and at least 300 housing units — of which at least 25% would be affordable.

Those who spoke at the meeting shared concerns about the scale of the project, the ability of existing infrastructure to handle the increased traffic and the housing element.

“Additional housing scored less than 10% on the list of priorities for new development in the area by Corona residents [on the community survey],” Corona resident Rory Connell said, showing a slide with the survey results. “What’s the opposite of 10%? Ninety percent of people want all those fun things, but they don’t want housing.”

Others questioned why the council was pushing for a multi-use commercial and housing project instead of something that they felt would better benefit the community like a community center.

“If you did something really cool down there, it wouldn’t be bad if you had a little bit of housing on it,” Corona resident Joe Morgan said. “It wouldn’t be a big deal if you actually had something to attract people to downtown, but you sort of want to do this dog and pony show where the housing sort of supports the retail, you know, and that’s the wrong way to do it.”

For Corona resident Don Fuller, the project as presented simply did not fit with the city’s existing infrastructure in that area.

“[The elevation drawings] look to me to be massively out of scale for what that corner is and for what this town is, and it’s on a street that has one lane each way on Sixth Street and two lanes each way around some really awful curves on Main Street,” he said. “Like I said, I’m not an architectural expert, but it just seems to be way, way out of scale to me.”

In response to some of the concerns about the project as presented, Tucker said there would be traffic studies done as part of the entitlement process and that there was parking built into the plan to accommodate for both residents of the new housing units and excess for the retail and entertainment elements.

As for the project, none of the council members were overly enthusiastic about the housing element including at least 300 units, but were very happy with the idea of retaining local control over the development through the SLA exemption and entitlement processes.

“I think it’s very special and important that the city sets the standards through entitlement,” Councilmember Tom Richins said. “That’s why we get historical architecture elements, that’s why we get murals, that’s why we get landscape features that complement rather than a developer-driven project.”

The council, expressing that this was the best path forward for the redevelopment of the property, ultimately voted unanimously to direct staff to begin both the entitlement and SLA exemption processes and contract with SVA for the architectural work.

“I want the best we can possibly get for our community,” Mayor Jacque Casillas said. “I want a development that we can be proud of, and I also want one that we have the most control over, and what that means is we’ve got to make a few concessions and be as strategic as possible along the way.”