SAN DIEGO -- A proposal to establish a permanent homeless center in downtown San Diego's financial district was advanced by a City Council committee Wednesday over the objection of local businesses that oppose the location.

The Land Use and Housing Committee voted 3-1 to endorse the project and forward it to the full City Council for consideration.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer, who represents downtown, cast the dissenting vote. He sought conditions on the center before approval and wanted to move it on without a recommendation.

"I don't want to support a project ... that could become a magnet for the region," he said.

The facility, touted as a one-stop homeless service center, would be located at the World Trade Center, a 12-story, city-owned building at 1250 Sixth Ave. It would include an on-site medical clinic, mental health screening, drug and alcohol treatment, counseling and living space for up to 225 people.

The plan calls for spending $31 million to $34 million to renovate the upper floors of the building to create living quarters for both long-term supportive housing and emergency shelter beds.

Backers hope to have the center open by December 2012.

Opponents mostly supported the concept, but argued the city had ignored other possible locations.

"The city needs to seriously explore viable downtown alternatives, not by going through the motions, but by seriously doing apples-to-apples comparisons," California Strategies' Ben Haddad told the committee. He was hired by a coalition of nearby business interests to oppose the site.

Caryl Iseman, president of the East Village Community Action Network, said the center was a good start toward addressing the growing problem of homelessness in downtown San Diego.

"This is not the panacea," Iseman testified. "We know that. This is the first step that we have to take. We all know the only way we can really stop homelessness is to break the cycle. This is the best chance we have."

The center would be established in partnership with People Assisting the Homeless, or PATH, which operates a similar facility in Los Angeles that offers a "mall" approach with a variety of services under one roof.

Kerry Morrison, who manages two business improvement districts in Hollywood, said her community has endorsed PATH's work in the Los Angeles area. She said the business community in Hollywood has started to acknowledge that supportive housing is the best solution to addressing the needs of the homeless.

"PATH is the best possible partner you can have in this endeavor," she told the committee.

A number of speakers called on the city to link approval of the homeless shelter to the restoration of illegal lodging enforcement in downtown San Diego.

To settle a lawsuit in 2007, San Diego agreed not to issue tickets to the homeless for sleeping on city streets during certain nighttime and early morning hours.

"Since that time, there has been a visible deterioration in the downtown public right-of-way with people sleeping unconstrained on the sidewalks between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. and beyond," Will Berry, a spokesman for the Downtown San Diego Partnership's Clean and Safe Program, testified.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego federal court in 2004 by several attorneys on behalf of homeless people who were ticketed, sought an end to the issuance of illegal lodging tickets by police.

Faulconer unsuccessfully tried to make settlement of the illegal lodging issue a provision of approval of the homeless center.

"We have to be able to enforce illegal lodging in downtown," he said.

It wasn't immediately known when the full City Council would consider the homeless center project.