Chula Vista to study feasibility of developing University and Innovation District in phases

Chula Vista wants to carve out 20 acres of the nearly 400-acre undeveloped land it has long envisioned turning into South County’s nexus for education and business.

The massive piece of real estate east of the Cota Vera development is now vacant, rugged and in need of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of roads, sewers and power lines. But officials hope that those 20 acres will offer potential tenants a look into what the parcel can turn into: the home to a binational, multi-institutional university that attracts students from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, job-rich tech companies the city does not have, and more housing — all located near an Olympic athlete training center, retail, and a future state-of-the-art public library.

To get started, the City Council approved Tuesday spending $200,000 to find a consultant to produce a feasibility study for “phase one” of its University and Innovation District.

The study is expected to include a preliminary phasing plan, a site plan, conceptual building layouts, artistic renderings and estimated infrastructure costs for the 20 acres.

“This is really an opportunity to … go out and seek, through an (Request For Proposal) process, a consultant that can help us envision what 20 acres of university project can look like on this site,” said City Manager Maria Kachadoorian.

Chula Vista wants its 383-acre land, located near the Otay Ranch Town Center and state Route 125, to include 10 million square feet of mixed-use development, 4.4 million square feet of academic space, 2 million square feet of commercial space for businesses, and nearly 4 million square feet for market-rate, student and faculty housing.

The top goal is to attract at least one full-service university, a dream the city has had for decades.

Efforts seemed promising when the city announced in 2022 that it would negotiate with San Diego State University to house its television, film and new media program on city land located just 1 mile away from the University and Innovation District. Officials saw SDSU’s expansion to Chula Vista as the beginning of a migration of four-year institutions to South County.

The city spent about $4 million developing plans to build a state-of-the-art complex that would house a massive new public library, office space and production studios for the university. In September, Chula Vista broke ground on the 168,000-square-foot building but it will not include the production studios.

SDSU said the building’s design could not accommodate the studios, which are central to expanding its program. The city and university negotiated until the end of last year to figure out if an adjacent building could be built for the studios but to no avail.

Both parties are now eyeing the University and Innovation District as a potential site for SDSU programming, which could include film production.

The 20 acres or a portion of it may be negotiated with SDSU. But the city will not be able to formally negotiate the land with the university or any other potential tenant until it completes the Surplus Land Act exemption process, said Kachadoorian.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation, brokered by Assemblymember David Alvarez and state Sen. Steve Padilla, that exempts the city from the Surplus Land Act, which requires local governments to offer excess land for sale or lease to affordable housing developers first before allowing other uses.

Kachadoorian did not say how long it would take for the city to complete the exemption process.