Poway Road: The Development Experiment We Need to Get Right Or The Poway Road Debacle Part 2
Poway Road was supposed to become the heart of our community. Instead, many residents are asking whether we are creating the Town Center we were promised—or simply adding housing and traffic to an already busy corridor.
I am not opposed to development. In fact, I embrace it.
The Poway Road Corridor Specific Plan was designed to encourage redevelopment. The City adopted it in 2017 after an extensive planning process intended to transform Poway Road into a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly center of our community.
The question isn't whether we should develop Poway Road.
The question is whether we are developing it the way Poway planned.
What the Specific Plan promised
The City's vision for the Town Center was ambitious.
The Specific Plan describes the area between Carriage Road and Community Road as a vibrant, family-oriented, pedestrian-friendly "Main Street" with a mix of commercial and residential uses.
It specifically envisioned:
Restaurants and outdoor dining
Unique shopping and entertainment
Small-scale retail
Civic and community gathering spaces
Active storefronts
Comfortable sidewalks
Pedestrian connections
Housing integrated with commercial uses
The Plan states that the Town Center should have a "distinct and exciting 'Main Street' character" and that buildings should support active storefronts, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, small offices, civic uses and residential uses.
Most importantly, the Plan specifically calls for pedestrian-oriented uses such as retail and restaurants at the ground level of new development fronting Poway Road.
That distinction matters.
The Plan wasn't simply a housing plan.
It was an economic-development and community-design plan that envisioned housing supporting a thriving commercial Town Center.
What we are getting
Consider the proposed development at 13044 and 13056 Poway Road.
The current proposal calls for 47 three-story townhomes and approximately 1,407 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The City describes the property as being within the Town Center district.
Forty-seven homes versus approximately 1,407 square feet of commercial space raises an obvious question:
Is this really the Town Center envisioned by the Specific Plan?
I do not think so. The answer deserves public discussion.
The project may comply with individual zoning provisions, but compliance with a zoning regulation isn't necessarily the same thing as fulfilling the purpose and vision of an adopted Specific Plan.
That distinction is particularly important when the Plan calls for active commercial frontage along Poway Road.
And this isn't an isolated project
Poway Commons brought 141 residential units to Poway Road with approximately 584 square feet of commercial space, according to the City's own description. The project also included a public plaza near the library.
The Trading Post project added 54 apartments along with restaurants and a gym.
The City has also identified other significant projects affecting the corridor and surrounding transportation network.
The result is that the Poway Road corridor is becoming substantially more residential.
That isn't necessarily bad.
But it creates a legitimate policy question:
Are we creating the balanced commercial-and-residential corridor envisioned by the Specific Plan, or are we gradually converting Poway Road into a residential corridor with small amounts of commercial space attached?
What about traffic?
This is where the numbers become important.
The Poway Road Corridor Study used traffic counts from February 2015. At that time, Poway Road was already carrying significant traffic and was classified as a four-lane Major Arterial connecting Interstate 15 and State Route 67.
The Specific Plan acknowledged a particular problem:
A substantial amount of Poway Road traffic is pass-through traffic.
The Plan identified especially high peak-hour directional traffic in areas including:
Oak Knoll Road to Pomerado Road
Silver Lake Road to Carriage Road
Community Road to Gate Drive
The Plan specifically stated that pass-through traffic provides relatively little benefit to Poway while contributing to congestion and delays.
That was the starting point.
And the solution proposed by the Specific Plan wasn't simply to add more lanes.
Instead, it envisioned a more connected Town Center where people could walk, shop, dine and conduct business locally—potentially reducing some automobile trips within the corridor.
The traffic forecast for new development
The current 13044/13056 project provides a useful example.
The developer's traffic memorandum estimates that the 47 residential units and 1,407 square feet of commercial space will generate approximately 339 daily trips before credits.
Let’s talk about credits, as related to traffic studies. In a traffic study, "credits" generally mean trips that a new project does not have to count as new traffic because the property already has—or is expected to have—traffic associated with an existing or prior use.
This is important in the Poway Road discussion because a project's gross traffic generation can look considerably larger than its reported "net" traffic increase.
Simple example
Suppose a proposed development has:
47 homes
The homes are estimated to generate 300 daily vehicle trips
But the property currently contains businesses that generate 100 daily trips.
The traffic analysis may give the new project a 100-trip credit:
300 new trips − 100 existing trips = 200 net new trips
The developer isn't necessarily saying the 300 trips won't occur. Rather, the analysis is saying that 100 of those trips are replacing traffic that already exists or would otherwise be generated by the existing use.
For the current 13044/13056 project, after applying credits for existing uses, transit accessibility and mixed-use development, the calculated net increase is approximately 248 daily trips. Except there is not anything currently built on that lot space.
That number should not be dismissed.
But it also shouldn't be viewed in isolation.
A single project producing 248 additional daily trips may not overwhelm Poway Road.
The concern is cumulative development.
One project adds traffic.
Another adds traffic.
Another adds traffic.
Eventually, the cumulative effect becomes the issue.
What does the future look like?
The City's original environmental analysis anticipated substantial development under the Specific Plan.
At full buildout, the Plan contemplated approximately 1,399 residential units and 260,000 additional square feet of commercial development throughout the Specific Plan area.
Within the Town Center specifically, the plan contemplated approximately 737 dwelling units at buildout.
This is important because the traffic question shouldn't be:
"Will this one project cause a traffic problem?"
It should be:
"What will Poway Road look like when all of the development contemplated—or subsequently permitted—has been built?"
That's the forecast residents need to understand.
The City says the road can handle it. But what does "handle it" mean?
The Specific Plan's 2017 environmental analysis projected that, at buildout, several major Poway Road intersections would operate at LOS D during one or both peak periods.
For example:
Intersection AM LOS PM LOS
Poway Road / Oak Knoll D D
Poway Road / Pomerado D D
Poway Road / Carriage C D
Poway Road / Community D D
Poway Road / Garden D D
What Does "LOS D" Really Mean?
You may have seen the term LOS D in traffic studies for Poway Road. LOS stands for Level of Service, a traditional traffic-engineering system used to describe how an intersection or roadway operates during peak traffic periods.
The scale generally runs from LOS A through LOS F:
LOS A – Free-flowing traffic with little or no delay.
LOS B – Stable traffic with minor delays.
LOS C – Generally stable traffic, but delays are becoming noticeable.
LOS D – Traffic is approaching capacity. Delays are noticeable and vehicles have less freedom to maneuver.
LOS E – The roadway or intersection is operating at or very near capacity. Small increases in traffic can produce substantial increases in delay.
LOS F – Failure or breakdown. Demand exceeds the available capacity.
So when a traffic study says that an intersection will operate at LOS D, that does not mean traffic is "good."
It means the intersection is still considered acceptable under the City's traditional standard, but motorists are experiencing a relatively high level of congestion and delay.
This distinction is important.
For example, the Poway Road Specific Plan's environmental analysis projected several major intersections—including Poway Road at Oak Knoll, Pomerado, Community and Garden—to operate at LOS D during at least one peak period at buildout.
That means the City's own long-range planning anticipated that several critical intersections would be operating toward the congested end of the acceptable range.
And there is another reason residents should pay attention.
California has changed the way transportation impacts are evaluated under SB 743. For purposes of California Environment Quality Act (CEQA), Level of Service is no longer the primary measure of a project's transportation impact. Instead, California generally uses Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT).
That change is important—but it doesn't make congestion disappear.
A project can have a determination that its transportation impact is acceptable under the current CEQA methodology while residents still experience longer queues, more turning traffic and increased delays on Poway Road.
That's why I believe Poway should continue to monitor actual intersection performance and traffic congestion, even when a project technically meets the City's regulatory requirements.
Passing a traffic standard is not necessarily the same thing as providing good traffic flow.
The question we should be asking is not simply, "Does the project meet the minimum standard?"
It should be:
"What will Poway Road feel like for the people who drive it every day after all of this development is built?"
These are not failures under the traditional traffic-engineering system—the City generally considered LOS A through D acceptable. But they do indicate that several important intersections were already expected to operate near the less desirable end of the acceptable range at buildout.
And there is another important complication.
California's SB 743 changed the way transportation impacts are evaluated under CEQA. Vehicle delay and Level of Service are no longer the primary CEQA transportation-impact metric.
That doesn't mean congestion disappeared.
It means a project can have a less-than-significant CEQA transportation impact while residents still experience more cars, more turning movements and longer waits. The current Intracorp traffic analysis explicitly notes this change.
The numbers we should be watching
A 2022 traffic count cited in a recent City project document put Poway Road at approximately 13,760 vehicles per day at the relevant location.
The important question isn't whether 248 additional daily trips from one project will destroy Poway Road.
They won't.
The important question is what happens when hundreds or thousands of additional residents are added along the corridor over time.
And that is where I believe Poway needs a more comprehensive approach.
Where development may be diverging from the Plan
This is not about claiming that every new project violates the Specific Plan.
It is about examining whether development is achieving the purpose of the Plan.
The Specific Plan calls for:
1. Active commercial frontage
The Plan specifically calls for pedestrian-oriented uses such as retail and restaurants at ground level along Poway Road.
A project dominated by residential units with only a small amount of commercial space may technically contain a commercial component while falling short of the broader Town Center vision.
2. A true mix of uses
The Plan envisioned shopping, restaurants, entertainment, civic uses and housing working together.
If housing dramatically outpaces the commercial development needed to support that vision, we should ask whether the balance is being maintained.
3. A pedestrian-oriented Main Street
The Plan calls for comfortable sidewalks, active storefronts, outdoor dining and public gathering spaces.
Three-story residential buildings facing Poway Road with limited commercial activity do not automatically create that environment.
4. Community benefits
The Specific Plan established incentives for additional density and height tied to benefits such as public open space, pedestrian connections, public-right-of-way improvements, restaurant opportunities, public art and transportation demand management.
When developers seek the benefits of increased density or height, Poway should demand meaningful benefits in return.
Development has helped Poway
We should acknowledge the good.
Construction creates jobs.
New housing provides opportunities for residents.
Redevelopment replaces aging properties.
New projects can improve sidewalks, landscaping, utilities and streetscape.
Additional property-tax and other revenues can benefit the City.
And a successful Town Center could ultimately become an economic asset for Poway.
The City itself has pointed to the potential for new housing, businesses and investment along the corridor.
So this isn't an argument against development.
But construction has also imposed costs
Anyone who drives Poway Road knows that construction doesn't happen without consequences.
There are lane restrictions, construction vehicles, delays, dust, noise, reduced access to businesses and disruption for residents.
And the longer-term issue is more important:
Who pays for the infrastructure necessary to support the additional development?
If the answer is primarily the existing taxpayers and ratepayers of Poway, then we need to ask whether we negotiated the best possible deal.
Developers should pay their fair share of infrastructure impacts.
And the City should be transparent about exactly what that share is.
We need a better deal for Poway
I believe Poway should stop thinking about development as an all-or-nothing proposition.
We should not say:
"No development."
And we should not say:
"Approve whatever Sacramento requires."
We should say:
"If you're going to build in Poway, show us how Poway benefits."
That means:
Follow the Poway Road Specific Plan.
Require meaningful commercial activity where the Plan calls for it.
Demand pedestrian improvements that actually connect people to businesses.
Require developers to pay their fair share of infrastructure.
Evaluate cumulative traffic, not just individual projects.
Publish traffic forecasts in a way ordinary residents can understand.
Monitor actual traffic after projects are completed.
Protect existing businesses during construction.
Negotiate meaningful community benefits when additional density or height is requested.
Preserve the character of Poway while meeting our legitimate housing obligations.
The future of Poway Road is still ours to shape
The Poway Road Specific Plan was intended to create a vision for the future.
We should not abandon that vision simply because development is difficult.
Nor should we use state housing mandates as an excuse to stop asking hard questions.
The City has more tools than simply saying yes or no.
We can negotiate.
We can require infrastructure improvements.
We can insist on better design.
We can demand commercial investment.
We can monitor traffic.
And most importantly, we can hold our elected officials accountable for making sure that the Poway Road of tomorrow is better—not merely denser—than the Poway Road of today.
**Development isn't the problem.
Unplanned, unbalanced development is.**
Poway deserves a Town Center that actually functions as a town center—and a Poway Road that works for the people who live here.
That should be the standard we use for every project that comes before the City Council.
The Bottom Line: Is This Really the City Center We Were Promised?
Poway residents need to take a hard look at what is happening along Poway Road.
The original vision was not simply to build more housing. The Poway Road Specific Plan envisioned a vibrant Town Center—a place where residents could shop, dine, gather, walk, conduct business and enjoy a true community center.
That vision required a balance between residential and commercial development.
Instead, we are increasingly seeing housing projects that add substantial numbers of residents while providing relatively limited commercial activity. At the same time, Poway Road is already carrying significant traffic, and additional development will inevitably add more vehicles to the corridor.
We need to be honest about what this means.
We may be getting the housing density—but we may not be getting the City Center that was supposed to come with it.
And once these buildings are constructed, we will live with the consequences for decades.
We can't simply build our way out of congestion after the fact. We can't widen every road indefinitely. We can't create additional land for another lane. And we can't undo three-story buildings once they are occupied.
The decisions being made today are permanent.
If the result is a Poway Road lined with increasingly dense residential development, more traffic, and insufficient commercial activity to create the vibrant Town Center envisioned by the Specific Plan, then we have to ask whether we are achieving the right outcome.
I believe Poway deserves better.
I am not opposed to development. I am opposed to development that fails to deliver the community benefits promised by our planning vision.
We should be building a City Center—not simply a collection of housing projects along a congested road.
We should be creating a place where people want to go, not just a place where more people live.
And before we approve the next project, we should ask a simple question:
We should not be forced to live with the consequences of decisions made without us.
That is the choice before us. Use your vote so we can stop what is and has happened.