IN BRIEF

Happy ending

At the end of each episode of the '80s TV series The A Team, team leader Hannibal would roll a cigar between his teeth, grin and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

The folks whose creative planning saved Sharon Johnson's job from being cut last week are no doubt thinking the same thing.

City Councilmember Toni Atkins remembers calling Johnson, San Diego's homeless services coordinator, about a family living in their car in Golden Hill. “They were able to get into the Cortez Hill Family Shelter, thanks to Sharon,” Atkins said.

And so it was Atkins and her policy advisor, Jeff Gattas, who talked to San Diego Housing Commission CEO Betsy Morris about whether the Housing Commission could come up with the money to pay for at least a portion of Johnson's salary. The commission's budget is tight, but Morris said she could kick in $60,000-a little more than half the money needed. Atkins figured she'd ask the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC)-the city's redevelopment arm-whether it could cover the rest. Little did Atkins know, the money had already been secured.

While Atkins was talking to Morris, Don Mullen, policy advisor for City Councilmember Michael Zucchet, was talking Frank Alessi, CCDC's chief financial officer. CCDC already shares the cost of several city government positions whose work impacts the downtown redevelopment area. Mullen wondered whether they could do that with Johnson's position, too. “Homeless live in nooks and crannies downtown and as we develop, we're moving the homeless population around,” Mullen said. It's in CCDC's best interest that there be someone on hand to watch out for that population, he added. Mullen knew Atkins had talked to Morris; Atkins didn't know Mullen had talked with Alessi.

Johnson, meanwhile, didn't know about any of this. She'd taken her granddaughter to England to celebrate her college graduation and admission to graduate school, returning a day before the budget hearing. She didn't attend the meeting during which her job was on the table; she watched budget talks on TV on June 14, to hear Atkins mention the Housing Commission money, ask whether CCDC could come up with the rest and find out it had already been taken care of.

-Kelly Davis

Too tall?

On Thursday, June 23, the San Diego Planning Commission will vote on whether or not to approve a new condo project in University Heights that opponents fear will dwarf the historic Lafayette Hotel and ruin the character of the neighborhood.

If approved, the project will include a 17-story tower with 271 residential units behind the Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon Boulevard between Mississippi and Louisiana streets. The hotel, built in 1946 and designated as a historic site in 1993, will be renovated.

According to the University Heights Urban Development Review Council, a community organization opposed to the project, the height of the tower would ruin the skyline along the street since, besides Grace Tower housing complex on the corner of University Avenue and Park Boulevard, there is nothing in the area taller than four stories.

“We really are for thoughtful development going along El Cajon Boulevard and welcome some revitalization, but we can't accept something so grossly out of character,” said Mary Wendorf, who chairs the review council.

Project developers Hampstead Partners argue that the height is necessary in order to build enough units to make the project economically feasible without tearing down the hotel.

Chris Foster, president of Hampstead Partners, said plenty of parking would be available to accommodate the influx of residents in the new tower. Plans include a three-story parking garage beneath the building, and existing driveways will be turned into curbs, increasing the amount of street parking.

The project will go before the Planning Commission Thursday at 9 a.m. at City Hall, 202 C Street, downtown.