Scaling Down Design

It's common knowledge that the housing market is in the dumps. In last month's Standard and Poor's/Case-Schiller home price index, prices for the first quarter of 2008 plummeted 20.5 percent compared to first quarter numbers of 2007.

The affect on property owners is clear, but now even the developers are showing signs of distress.

At the North Park Planners Committee Meeting, on June 17th at the North Park Christian Fellowship Church, representatives from America Property Enterprises returned to the North Park Planners for a second time since first getting approval in 2005 on their mixed-use project, The Boulevard at North Park.

For three long years the developer has waited, and waited, for some sign of a rebound in the current housing trend, nothing. So they've decided to make some changes to their original design to reduce costs on their 180-condominium building slated for El Cajon Boulevard, from Florida to Alabama Streets.

Among the changes proposed, eliminate one entire floor, change the layout to include more one-bedroom units, reduce the number of units from 180 to 175, as well as a pledge to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards.

A few things remain unclear, according to Stephen Quinn, one of the representatives for the development firm, if the units will be apartments or, for-sale condominiums, and exactly when construction will begin. "We'll just have to wait and see how the housing market goes."

The North Park Planners approved the changes made 11-0-0. Go see more detailed information at www.northparkplanning.org.