The development proposal includes 105-foot tall residential buildings and a 165-foot tall entertainment center, although the specific plan is written to allow for buildings as tall as 250 feet on 10% of the site.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-MIDWAYRISING-ARENASQUARE-01.jpg\")
A rendering of Midway Rising\u2019s entertainment center, an outdoor public park and plaza referred to as \u201cThe Square,\u201d and mixed-use residential and commercial buildings, as seen looking northwest from Sports Arena Boulevard.(Midway Rising\/Safdie Rabines Architects)<\/p>\n
The development is anticipated to be built in two phases over a 10-year period, starting with the eastern portion of the site, according to the environmental analysis. The initial phase includes a new, 380,550-square-foot entertainment center, 90,888 square feet of retail, and the nearly 3-acre The Square park. The first phase also includes 875 residential units in buildings east of a new street called Frontier Drive.<\/p>\n
Building heights were a topic of discussion Thursday. Several comments submitted by the public in advance of the meeting framed the 250-foot-tall allowance as a bait-and-switch move by the developer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Midway Rising project is destined to be the latest in a long line of San Diego real estate fiascos that enrich special interests, drain civic resources, and cheat the public,\u201d Aileen Teague wrote in her comment letter. \u201cWe were promised that all buildings would be lower than 100 feet. Now one building will be 250 feet high and all of it luxury housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diego Velasco, a consultant on the specific plan, told the commission that the developers do not expect to erect any residential buildings taller than 105 feet, but that the plan\u2019s height provision is meant to allow for flexibility going forward.<\/p>\n
Traffic concerns received the most attention.<\/p>\n
Planning commissioners agreed that the prospect of thousands of residential units far outweigh, in significance, the project\u2019s downsides, but they sympathized with people critical of Midway Rising\u2019s transportation plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize and understand the concerns of the community, especially those in neighboring communities who will see this every day, drive past it every day,\u201d Commission Member Daniel Reeves said. \u201cI also recognize the state of the community, the drastic need to do something different here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Midway Rising plan calls for two new, public streets \u2014 Frontier Drive and Kemper Street \u2014 to allow traffic to cross the current, land-locked sports arena site between Kurtz Street to the north and Sports Arena Boulevard to the south.<\/p>\n
The transportation plan includes changes to off-site roads and intersections, and the addition of a bus stop on Sports Arena Boulevard. Sports Arena Boulevard will also be reconfigured with four lanes for cars \u2014 compared to six lanes currently \u2014 and two bus-only lanes. The reconfiguration includes a wide promenade with a multi-use path fronting the project site. However, the dedicated-transit-lane reconfiguration is identified as a phase-two project in the environmental impact report.<\/p>\n
Planning Commission members viewed the phase-two implementation plan as problematic. They anticipate the lanes will be needed immediately to accommodate bus and shuttle connections from the Old Town Transit Center to the new arena, especially given the limited supply of parking.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that the entertainment center is happening in phase one, I think it\u2019s going to be pertinent to have that rapid shuttle or bus connection to the trolley station, if you\u2019re talking about 2,100 parking spaces for the venue out of the (7,040 total spaces) and this is a 16,000-seat venue,\u201d Commission Member Jeana Renger said. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a huge delta, and so ridership of the trolley and transit is going to be totally necessary, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
For just the arena, the projected vehicle miles traveled in the region is expected to grow by 839,145 miles per year, according to the project\u2019s environmental impact report.<\/p>\n
In total, the project will result in 22,514 additional daily car trips at build-out for all use types \u2014 entertainment, commercial and residential \u2014 during a typical sports event or concert, a local mobility analysis prepared by engineering consulting firm Kimley Horn found.<\/p>\n
Car trips and vehicle miles traveled are distinct measurements. A car trip is a single journey taken by a driver and contributes to the overall vehicle miles traveled, which is the sum of the distances traveled by all vehicles in a given area. Vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, is the standard for measuring environmental impacts under California\u2019s Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n
Only the vehicle miles traveled associated with the project\u2019s 40,000 square feet of regionally serving restaurant space is considered a significant and unavoidable traffic impact in the environmental analysis. To mitigate the impact, the Midway Rising development team is required to provide shuttle service between Frontier Drive and the Old Town Transit Center daily, between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m., as soon as the first eatery opens.<\/p>\n
The Planning Commission\u2019s recommendation to push the dedicated bus lanes to the first phase of development seems unlikely to appease those most concerned about future traffic congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen for the last five years the abject failure of any plan that involves public transit or bicycling,\u201d Paul Krueger said during the public comment portion of the meeting. \u201cWhen you talk about a walkable and rollable community, you\u2019re talking about the area in which these people will live. You are ignoring, if you refuse to discuss and acknowledge the transportation problems, tens of thousands of San Diegans who need to transit through this.\u201d<\/p>\n