After decades of starts and stops, the Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley is now set for its second act as a potential model for suburban living, where the trolley drops off thousands of San Diegans at the doorstep of jobs, shops, parks, and homes.

City Council members voted unanimously to take all the actions necessary to approve the Riverwalk project, a 195-acre, mixed-use development from Houston-based real estate investment group Hines and the Levi-Cushman family. With the vote, the project, which includes the addition of a light-rail station on San Diego’s existing green trolley line, is now on track to break ground in the second quarter of 2021 at an estimated cost of $3 billion.

“This project, in one iteration or another, has been coming through this office since I got here back in 2012. It’s been a long time coming,” said Councilman Scott Sherman, who represents the Mission Valley region. “To me, this is an example of the smart-growth philosophy that we’ve been preaching about for quite some time.”

At build-out in 2035, Riverwalk will introduce up to 4,300 apartments and condos, 152,000 square feet of retail shops, and 1 million square feet of office space, with uses split between four districts and bisected by the trolley line and a downtown-style main street.

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