OB Rag

OB’s Historical District Needs to Be Protected

As it stands now, on Tuesday, the 24th of February in the afternoon, the San Diego City Council will get to decide on a good deal of the future of Ocean Beach.

There is an animal out there ready to devour our sedate coastal village and it’s called “Preservation and Progress Package A.” It’s a set of policy proposals affecting how the city preserves and designates historical properties — or neighborhoods. These “reforms” specifically call out the historic district that Ocean Beach enjoys, called the “Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District”.

Why? What’s going on?

OBceans aware of the neighborhood know there’s many small cottages scattered throughout the blocks that make up Ocean Beach, but may not be aware that these old cottages add besides the obvious an historic character to the community — plus add certain protections.

The original application for an Ocean Beach historical district designation was filed with the state Department of Parks and Recreation on June 2, 1999, by the now-late OB Planning Board member Priscilla McCoy.

The district is termed “emerging” because there never has been a complete survey of all the buildings that potentially qualify to be historic. Usually a full historic district designation protects surrounding buildings, even ones not considered historic, in order to preserve community character.

And lately, the city has been arguing that OB’s historical designation applies only to the 72 cottages, built between 1887 and 1931. And nothing else. Yet, several local OB historians estimate the total number of potentially historic cottages at more than 300.

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa / Feb. 18, 2026

Three former Republican elected city leaders now head up three of the area’s top civic groups, even as Democrats hold every elected position in the City of San Diego.

This week, former San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey was announced as the new CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers’ Association, while former Councilman Chris Cate leads the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and former San Diego City Councilman and Mayor Kevin Faulconer leads the San Diego Lincoln Club business league.

The three men served in office concurrently from 2014 to 2020.

Kersey, who served two terms on the City Council from 2012 to 2020, took over the local taxpayer advocacy group after its former leader, Haney Hong, resigned last March. The organization monitors government agencies and awards its annual Golden Fleece Award for the worst use of taxpayer dollars, as well as its Media Watchdog Award for news coverage of local agencies.

By South OB Girl

It is unfortunate for San Diegans that many wise words have fallen on deaf ears during the proceedings of the city’s “Preservation and Progress Package A,” which proposes amendments to existing policies for historic properties, historic communities, historic designation, de novo appeal, and San Diego’s historical resources.  As Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) described in their January 9, 2026 OB Rag article:

This fast-tracked proposal would weaken San Diego’s historic preservation program by allowing the City Council to override expert historic designations, thereby stripping protections from historic districts… while prioritizing new construction over true preservation.

Package A specifically targets Ocean Beach for the construction of high-density Complete Communities Housing Solutions and specifies Ocean Beach for the removal of historic protections.  This would pave the way for high-density housing developments with greatly reduced setback requirements and little to no on-site parking.  Such construction is currently not allowed in OB.

Package A paves the way to annihilate the small beach town as we know it while flooding our community with big box apartment buildings that could be mixed in with single family homes and historic beach cottages. Such development would have a myriad of repercussions including oversaturation of on street parking due to limited on-site parking and a strain on public utilities such as water, sewer, and power.

By David Garrick / Union-Tribune / Feb. 19, 2026

San Diego City Council members said Wednesday, Feb. 18, they’ve found a way to comply with a new state law on public hearings that won’t require them to limit public input.

The city will create a new type of testimony called a formal group presentation to comply with the law, Senate Bill 707.

Officials are choosing that option to avoid the unpopular move of barring meeting participants from donating their allotted speaking time to another speaker.

City officials and community leaders say allowing people to donate speaking time to someone with similar views on an issue is a good thing.

They say it allows the leader of a large group to make a longer, more detailed presentation summarizing the group’s views.

“One person speaking for 15 minutes is much more efficient than 15 people speaking for one minute,” Council President Joe LaCava said. “It’s also more robust.”

Please join the Ocean Beach Historical Society on Thursday, February 19, 2026, 7pm, at Water’s Edge Community, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Local author Jill Hall discusses her recent novel “On a Sundown Sea”

OB Rag Staff

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Wednesday, February 18: Rules Committee, 9:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Item 2: Amendments to Council Policy 000-21 related to the submission of ballot proposals by the Mayor, the Council, City Hall departments and public agencies.

Why it matters: This proposal by Councilmember Raul Campillo would place new requirements on City-initiated ballot measures

By Kate Callen

In rejecting proposals for deeper fiscal analysis of city-driven fee ballot measures, three San Diego City Councilmembers decided February 18 that preserving a broken status quo is more important than restoring public faith in city governance.

Councilmember Raul Campillo’s efforts to keep voters better informed through cost-of-service studies were brusquely dismissed by his colleagues on the Rules Committee. Joe La Cava and Vivian Moreno took umbrage that Campillo would even suggest such a thing. Kent Lee worried that greater transparency about a ballot initiative would create “a multitude of hurdles” for raising existing fees or creating new ones.

A fourth committee member, Sean Elo-Rivera, participated remotely and did not speak.

Campillo’s proposals were driven by public outrage over the notorious 2022 “bait and switch” trash fee Measure B. Voters approved the initiative after the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) estimated that monthly fees would run $23 to $29. When the measure passed, the city announced that — oops! — the actual monthly fees would approach $50.

By Nico Calavita / Op-Ed SD Union-Tribune / February 17, 2026 

When I was a professor at SDSU in the Graduate Program in City Planning, I taught my students that one of the most important goals for planners is to ensure that growth is accompanied by public facilities and infrastructure; otherwise, a city’s quality of life will suffer.

The recently approved College Area Community Plan, when measured against such a principle, fails in catastrophic ways. It significantly increases residential densities in an area with practically no public facilities and without adequate financing mechanisms for future infrastructure. The only, single-minded goal appears to be to increase residential building capacity; lack of infrastructure be damned.

This approach is a reversal of a long tradition of planning in San Diego based on accommodating growth where public facilities were available or would become available as growth occurred; with a notable, tragic omission. Let me explain.

What would Irving Gill Say to City Hall Today?

By Alana Coons and James B. Guthrie, AIA

In the early years of the 20th century, San Diego was young and full of hope. In 1893, among the dust and ambition, walked Irving J. Gill, an architect by profession but a visionary to his core. He said: San Diego “has an opportunity unparalleled in the history of the world, for it is the newest white page turned for registration.”

As a master architect, he recognized what was special about San Diego and designed buildings that responded to those special characteristics. In the process he constructed a unique “sense of place” for his clients and, through his designs’ beauty and durability, for us and those that will follow.

San Diego has long respected Gill’s contribution to our community, not as relics of past times, but as an ongoing legacy and a part of who we still are.

By Geoff Hueter

The City of San Diego is changing Council Rules to comply with a new state law that requires “equal treatment” for in-person public comment and residents who attend meetings virtually and phone in their comments.

Among the options beings considered by our city is the elimination of group presentations and time ceding. This change would limit citizens to a one to three minute comment, depending on the number of people who wish to speak on an issue.

The loss of group presentations and time ceding would severely limit the ability of Neighbors For A Better San Diego and other organizations to present a comprehensive, factual analysis of new regulations being considered by the City Council.

by Dave Schwab  / Times of San Diego / Feb. 17, 2026

Near Valentine’s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle, were killed by a lone sniper as they stood behind the Ocean Bean seawall watching the sunset.

This random double murder was never solved.

Nor were the homicides of four more young couples killed at isolated California locations near water, at dusk, and with the same .22-caliber bullets.

Those killings were attributed to the infamous Zodiac Killer, who taunted police, was never apprehended, and who went silent six years later. Some criminologists became convinced that the Ocean Beach Valentine’s Day murders were an early trial experiment of this serial killer.

31,000 Kaiser nurses and other professionals vow to strike until fair contract agreement is reached.

By City News Service / NBC7  / February 16, 2026

Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers in the San Diego area will remain on picket lines Monday as their open-ended strike alleging unfair labor practices amid prolonged contract talks enters it’s fourth week.

The roughly 31,000 members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals vowed to stay on strike until a fair contract agreement is reached. UNAC/UHCP members include registered nurses, pharmacists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, rehab therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians and other specialty health care professionals.

Picketing resumes at 9 a.m. Monday at San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.

By many indications, it appears that California will be one of the targets of the next “ICE surge.” Even though there won’t be any surge during this current government shutdown, ICE still is currently expanding its physical presence across the country. Its parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is carrying out a hush-hush campaign to open up 250 facilities and offices in nearly every state, and the Golden State — long a demises for Trump — is at the top of the list.

Check out the following coming down in California:

• Irvine: New offices at 2020 Main Street, located directly adjacent to a childcare agency.
• Los Angeles: General expansion of existing federal office spaces.
• Sacramento: Security upgrades and expansion at the John E. Moss building, which houses a DOJ immigration court.
• San Diego: Growth at the Edward J. Schwartz Courthouse and federal building.
• Santa Ana: Expansion at the Santa Ana federal building, situated blocks from a church and a major high school football stadium.
• Van Nuys (Los Angeles): Expansion at the James C. Corman federal building.

This secret federal government campaign to purchase warehouses for the massive expansion of ICE is now known due to documents posted online late last week by  Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte. Also, a federal official said that California — and New York are among the “next” for a surge similar to the campaign in Minneapolis. These plans include embedding hundreds of new ICE offices in Sacramento, Irvine, Santa Ana and Van Nuys, according to an explosive report by WIRED magazine.

By Donna Frye

The Community Coalition Bulletin for this week included helpful and important information about the February 18, Rules Committee meeting regarding the public’s right to know and some important state Brown Act amendments.

Items 2 and 3

As discussed in the Bulletin, Items 2 and 3 are being proposed by Councilmember Campillo. The changes are a result of the fees San Diego residents were led to believe they would be paying when they voted to support a trash tax. As everyone knows, voters were told in the ballot materials that the fees would be much lower than the amount approved by council. It’s why Campillo voted against the increased fees.

His proposal includes an option for the council to require that ballot measures have a cost-of-service study done before, not after, voters cast their ballot to avoid another trash fee debacle. “It would only apply to ballot proposals put forward by Councilmembers, the Mayor, mayoral departments, independent department directors, or a public agency” but “would not apply to proposals submitted by members of the public.”