Satire by Tom Mullaney
I read that the City of San Diego has purchased 25 acres of open space land to add to Mission Trails Park. That’s good news!
The next piece of good news that I am anticipating —
Mayor Todd Gloria will make this announcement:
1. He realizes that the various developer incentives, including zoning waivers, have not been beneficial.
2. He’ll acknowledges that housing prices in the City of San Diego and the region are a function of market forces. Housing prices have risen throughout the nation. Prices in San Diego are higher than many regions in the U.S. because many Americans’ want to live here and invest here, and have the money to do it.
3. The “housing shortage” was a mirage. Developers are building as many units as they think they can sell or rent within their target time period.
4. The City is responsible for zoning, but not the number of units built. Any contrary directives from the state were a mistake, and should be rescinded.
5. He understands that the existing sites for 170,000 housing sites, as reported in the Housing Element, are more than enough to allow developers opportunities to build.
6. He apologizes for the unnecessarily lax ADU regulations, like zero setbacks, and will bring the regulations closer to what the state requires.
7. He will support an increase in Inclusionary Housing to 15%, which would provide a tangible and verifiable increase in affordable housing, in every community with new residential and mixed-use projects.
8. He will discontinue other programs such as Complete Communities, which have been altering neighborhoods with mega-projects, unnecessarily, with no benefit.
9. He will order that TPA maps be revised to show 1/2 mile walking distance. That will mean that San Diegans won’t be expected to climb fences or walk across canyons to get to transit stops.
10. He will put all Community Plan updates on hold, while forecasts and RHNA figures are corrected. There will be no more attempts to force upzoning on communities, based upon exaggerated claims of huge demand.
11. Lastly, the mayor will apologize for the lack of knowledge about housing realities, for himself and his advisors, and for his departments creating reports which are designed for a predetermined outcome.
He will promise that future initiatives will be objectively analyzed before being recommended to City Council.
Be sure to clip the news article when you see it. The mayor’s announcement will be an historic event in San Diego history!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Actually you’ll be pleased to know, the overreach on ADUs led to pushback from community advocates, and with partial support from Elo-Rivera, led to tightening the ADU laws regarding setbacks. Now only 1-story ADUs, or those using an existing encroaching garage can have less than a 4ft setback. This new version will be going to the coastal commission soon.
We had an adu project come to us that was a 33’ tall stucco wall on the property line. (30ft plus a foundation retaining wall). That’s been allowed since a 2019 change but will be going away.
Certainly many of the ADU laws are being pushed down from the state legislature, but we can at least do a better job about being deliberate and transparent about where we exceed those state mandates.