The Chula Vista City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to approve financing for a 1,200-unit self-storage facility in Eastlake, but only after the developer agreed to scrap a proposed access road that would have connected the project to a quiet residential cul-de-sac. Councilmember Jose Preciado was absent from the vote. The decision caps weeks of neighborhood pushback over traffic and safety concerns tied to the project near South Bay Expressway and Eastlake Drive.
UTEX Storage Partners submitted revised plans on August 4 that eliminated the Saint Germain Road connection entirely, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The road had only ever been approved for emergency use and was never intended as a full entrance, but that distinction didn't stop residents from raising an alarm. Six residents spoke during public comment when the council first considered the project's financing on July 14, prompting the council to continue the item rather than vote immediately.
Fire Marshal Determination Ends the Standoff
The dispute centered on whether the facility needed a second access point at all. Per the Union-Tribune, the fire marshal ultimately determined that secondary access at Saint Germain Road was not required, a finding reported by Rebecca Bridgeford. That determination gave the city and UTEX Storage Partners the cover to drop the connection without compromising emergency response to the site, which sits on 9.35 acres near major Eastlake subdivisions, according to project specifications released by JLL in October 2025.
Saint Germain Road already has an existing gated SDG&E easement, and that arrangement will not change under the revised plans, per the Union-Tribune's reporting. Eastlake resident Joanne Jenkins welcomed the elimination of the Saint Germain Road access, while resident David Sullivan requested written assurances that a planned fence separating the facility from the neighborhood would remain in place. The storage project, as it now stands, has no public or emergency vehicle access through the cul-de-sac.
A Project Years in the Making
The 9.35-acre site wasn't always slated for commercial use. It was designated open space until the Chula Vista City Council voted to rezone the land for commercial development in 2020 — six years after rejecting a residential housing proposal on the same parcel in 2014, according to reporting by inewsource. The council did not reconsider that 2020 approval as part of this month's vote; the financing item concerned only the project's tax district annexation, not its underlying land use.
UTEX Storage Partners purchased the property in 2025, according to Scott Wyckoff, after original developer Floit Properties spent years securing the environmental permits needed to move the project forward, per inewsource's reporting. Wyckoff also noted that UTEX was not involved in the original entitlements and that self-storage generates less traffic than the multifamily housing previously considered for the site. Although the Saint Germain Road access point was removed, UTEX's site plan still calls for a dedicated turn lane along Eastlake Boulevard, per inewsource, a change aimed at easing traffic on the main arterial road rather than the residential street.
Financing Ties the Project to a Decades-Old Preserve District
Tuesday's vote also formally added the storage project to Community Facilities District No. 97-2, placing it within the district's existing Improvement Area C and creating a new Improvement Area D to fund long-term maintenance of wetland mitigation land. The district was originally established in 1998 as the Otay Ranch Preserve Maintenance District under California's Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, according to City of Chula Vista public records, to fund perpetual operation of environmental preserve and wetland mitigation lands. The special tax tied to that district applies only to the property owner and does not apply to the public.
The financing package itself traces back to a $23.44 million non-recourse construction loan that JLL arranged in October 2025 through a life insurance company for UTEX Storage Partners. Project specifications from JLL show the facility will span 123,582 square feet across two three-story buildings, offering climate-controlled units alongside boat and RV storage. JLL's demographic research found no new self-storage facilities had opened in the Eastlake trade area since 2018, despite a three-mile population exceeding 125,000 residents with an average household income above $168,000 — numbers that helped justify the developer's bet on the site.
Security and Operations Once the Facility Opens
UTEX Storage Partners worked with the city after resident concerns arose, ultimately agreeing to eliminate the Saint Germain Road connection while keeping the rest of the project intact. The facility is expected to rely on fencing, access control and surveillance cameras for security once it opens. Per Wyckoff, UTEX also plans to revoke the leases of any customers found staying overnight at the site.
Corporate portfolio listings from UTEX Storage Partners project that construction will wrap up and the facility will open in summer 2027, operated under a third-party real estate investment trust management platform. For now, the immediate neighborhood fight is resolved, even as the broader project — years in the making since its 2020 rezoning — moves toward groundbreaking.
