The City Council vote on a proposed 12-story, mixed-use condominium complex to be built on University Avenue has been delayed to Sept. 12 after a continuance was requested by La Jolla Pacific Development.

The City Council received a memo from the City Attorney’s Office on July 14 saying the environmental report submitted by the developer was insufficient.

La Jolla Pacific Development’s branch Up, Inc., a developer of urban condos in Hillcrest, plans to construct the complex with 96 one- to three-bedroom condominiums at 301 University Ave.

Lynne Heidel, legal counsel for La Jolla Pacific Development, said at the July 18 City Council meeting that the memo was delivered to the City Council offices late last Friday.

“This memo had been delivered from the city attorney to the City Council offices and it was only by the graces of Ms. Frye’s office that we were notified of this memo,” she said. “We never did receive one from the city attorney…. We tried to contact the city attorney to engage in a discussion to work out these issues, but it wasn’t until Friday that we got this memo and understand what these issues are. So we are requesting a continuance so that we can come back with a response to this issue.”

Assistant City Attorney Karen Heumann said there were numerous meetings with development services to reconcile the environmental issues.

“Unfortunately, a number of environmental documents reached our office on Wednesday. We in turn had to spend every moment we had available in order to get that memo completed by Friday,” she said, adding “it is a very thick document and it took all of our office resources to accomplish that. It was not something we anticipated writing or doing. We had thought we had reconciled most, if not all of the environmental issues prior to Wednesday.”

District 3 Councilmember Toni Atkins, whose district includes Hillcrest, said she did not understand why the memo was delivered so late on Friday when all sides knew the issue was going to be brought before the City Council on July 18.

“We have known this item was coming for some time. The public has known it. They have been actively engaged, whether they support the project or oppose the project,” she said. “They have been actively engaged in the democratic process to get this to us so a decision and a determination could be made. I do have to say that something coming out on Friday – that late, that thick – I spent the entire weekend reading it…. I think that it’s a disservice to the public who worked very hard to get their individual sides, regardless of which sides, down here to be part of this process.”

Atkins said had she known sooner, she would have probably sent out an e-mail to the hundreds of people who have contacted her office about the project.

The San Diego Planning Commission unanimously approved plans on April 13 for the building, despite community advisory group Uptown Planners voting against it.

On Sept. 6, the Uptown Planners board voted 6-4 against 301 University. On April 4, the board voted 8-2 to restate their motion.

Uptown Planners board chair Leo Wilson said the board is primarily concerned with 301 University’s proposed height of 148 feet.

Approximately 10,250 square feet of retail spaces would be located on the ground level. The $65 million project would also contain a 1,300 square-foot gym, a public terrace, three levels of aboveground residential parking and 121 underground public parking spaces on two levels.

Carol Schultz, executive director of Uptown Partnership, Inc., a nonprofit that manages San Diego’s Community Parking District Program in the Uptown neighborhood, said her board supports 301 University primarily because it adds a significant amount of parking.

La Jolla Pacific Development president Bruce Leidenberger said the original proposal called for a 14-story, 51-unit mixed-use condominium project, but was scaled down due to concerns about its exterior design and height. Most of the buildings in the area range from one to three stories, but the height limit in Hillcrest is 200 feet.

Hillcrest resident George Wedemeyer said he is opposed to the 301 University project due to its height and scale, and has collected signatures for a petition he and others plan to present to the City Council.

The City Council will be voting on Sept. 12 to approve the site development permit, which would approve the design of the building, the tentative map and the vacation of the alleyway between Third and Fourth avenues, which would instead become a pedestrian passageway.