Petitioners learned Friday they gathered enough signatures to send the One Paseo Project proposal back to the San Diego City Council.
The County Registrar of Voters told the city clerk that opponents of the development turned in the 34,000 signatures required.
The city council, which approved One Paseo 7-2 in late February, must now decide whether to overturn their initial decision or take the issue to the voters as a ballot item.
"Our hope is the city council members will change their vote and deny the project if they rescind their vote," said Jeff Powers with Protect San Diego's Neighborhoods, a group against the project. "If they decide to keep their vote the way it is and send it back to the ballot, we're confident we will win that as well."
The next city council hearing on One Paseo is set for May 18.
The $750 million, 1.4 million square-foot One Paseo Project includes the construction of stores and eateries, the expansion of a movie theater and the addition of more than 600 family apartments and a parking structure in Carmel Valley. Sixty of those apartment units will be affordable housing, the city council mandated.
According to opponents, the council disregarded the voice of community planning groups and thousands of locals who don't want the project to move forward.
They believe it is too big for the Carmel Valley area and will create a traffic nightmare.
But supporters, including the developer Kilroy Realty, say it will bring 1,600 new jobs, 600 new homes and $630 million to the local economy.
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Kilroy released the following statement about Friday's developments:
"Kilroy worked constructively with Carmel Valley community members for nearly seven years to refine One Paseo, ultimately earning the support of a bipartisan supermajority of the City Council. We're disappointed the project now faces further delay resulting from a campaign of misinformation paid for by an Orange County-based corporation bent on smothering competition. We'll work hard over the next year to educate voters on the merits of what will be San Diego's most environmentally sustainable project and the many economic and community benefits One Paseo offers."
Multiple groups banded together to file two separate lawsuits against the project, hoping to block its development in the courts.
