The $2 billion Mid-Coast Trolley extension under construction by the the San Diego Association of Governments will have 11 miles of track connecting University City with the Santa Fe Depot downtown, nine new stations — and some expensive parking places.

SANDAG has spent $11.6 million acquiring two pieces of property, one in Clairemont and another in University Town Center, which will be used for parking for 410 vehicles. That comes out to $28,293 per parking space.

The agency said the two land deals are needed to provide the parking called for in federally-approved plans for the transit project. It also said that the two purchases are good deals that avoided legal and other costs of eminent domain.

The two transactions are among two dozen property transactions SANDAG has made in assembling property for construction of the rail line, records provided by the agency show. They include acquisition as well as easement and right-of-way agreements.


The most expensive deal so far was for the San Diego Data Processing Corp. at 5665 and 5675 Santa Fe Street. SANDAG purchased the building and land for $11.7 million, officials said.

The land deals are one element of the project, which has been part of the overall transit plan for the region for close to two decades. Project work began in the fall of 2016, and service is planned to begin in 2021.

In one deal SANDAG is paying $8.6 million for an easement and parking structure on 3.5-acre piece of land on Morena Boulevard and Ingulf Street. The deal includes an agreement from the land owner, Protea Development, to allow SANDAG to use the property for three years initially as a storage site for construction materials and equipment for the project, records show.

It’s also paying Protea for 150 parking spaces for trolley riders in a parking structure the developer will build on the site for riders using the new station, which will be located across Clairemont Drive from the property.


SANDAG had initiated eminent domain litigation to acquire the land from a former landowner, who then sold the property to Protea for about $11 million, SANDAG spokesman David Hicks wrote in an email response to questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Protea said it would fight the eminent domain effort but also offered to provide SANDAG everything it needed — parking and the storage — as long as it could retain and develop the rest of the property. Court records as part of a lawsuit Protea filed against SANDAG said it would cost the agency $7.9 million

Eventually both sides reached a settlement under which SANDAG paid $8.6 million for the 150 parking spots, a small piece of land for a power substation and the temporary storage. That is far less than what the agency may have had to pay via eminent domain, under which it would have had to pay the $11 million Protea paid, plus another estimated $2 million to build a surface parking lot, Hicks said.

Meanwhile at the northern end of the line SANDAG also put down $3 million for an easement to construct 260 parking spaces at the Westfield UTC mall. That deal resolved a dispute in which the mall owners contended that under a condition approved for the original development of the property, they only had to provide land for the project needed to widen Genesee Avenue. SANDAG argued the condition required them to provide any land needed for the project, including parking.


The settlement avoided another eminent domain battle, Hicks said.

“Had SANDAG needed to use eminent domain to acquire the same property rights, it might have cost anywhere between $9 million and $20 million,” he wrote.

In total the agency has spent $83.2 million so far on land acquisition, close to the $86.7 million budgeted for land acquisition. The agency still has ongoing negotiations for about a dozen projects.


Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com