Oceanside

Worried that the city might not be getting its money’s worth, the Oceanside City Council put off a decision Tuesday on a $3.5-million office project proposed for a key downtown block that has been vacant four years.

The council, sitting as the redevelopment commission, voted unanimously to give the city staff until July 22 to hammer out a more palatable development agreement for the project.

Council members said their chief concern is that the developer, a partnership made up of several local business leaders, was failing to take a big enough financial stake in the project.

Under the proposed agreement, the developer plans to buy the 1.5-acre parcel for $255,200. The city spent $1.3-million to acquire the downtown land.

Several residents opposed to the project argued during a three-hour hearing that the 38,000-square-foot office project is not ambitious enough and urged the council to seek a larger development on the site, in the heart of the business district.

Buildings on the block, at Mission and Hill streets, were bulldozed along with those on an adjacent parcel in 1982 to make way for twin 11-story office towers. That project, however, fell through, and the land has remained vacant.