By Lynne Miller
As San Diego City officials continue to sneak quietly behind their constituents and groom our communities for financiers and builders, there is a grassroots movement gaining traction.
I went to a Pacific Beach protest last night, joining about 200 people. The group ‘leader’ found out 5 days ago about the 23 story building planned for Pacific Beach. He did not read it in the San Diego UT, hear it on the radio, or get a flier from the City. Kudos to the OB RAG for posting the article that exposed the city’s intentions.
In April of 2024 a friend stopped by and asked me if I knew what was being planned on the corner of Point Loma Ave and Ebers Street I didn’t know. My friend reads the OB RAG daily and that morning she read the article about the 20 unit building planned and approved. Once again the OB RAG sounded the alarm that led to an appeal and victory at City Hall.
The speakers last night are embarking on that steep learning curve that I started in April. They will learn that the zoning laws, environmental and coastal zone regulations, and climate action plans are all waived, exempt, erased. All attempts to reason with high density affordable housing mandates are bordering on futile. The blueprint is still wet – dripping with greed and power, and framed with NIMBY guilt.
In order to stop the irresponsible over building that has already reversed years of laws designed to protect our environment and neighborhood we, the people, must quickly and effectively join forces to stop San Diego’s Development Services Department and the mayor. Last night in PB I saw several leaders who seem to have the passion and vision to take our city back.
I encourage all readers who love San Diego to take action. Get on mailing lists, attend meetings, join local groups, and VOTE. Careful who and what you vote for. Many folks voted for Mayor Gloria who seems to think he is free to change the landscape of our city, neighborhood by neighborhood, quickly and without local input.
Groups have emerged as the building frenzy blows through like a category 5 storm. United we have a chance to take back our city, maybe even our state. OB RAG seems to be the lead source of discovery and sharing.
The crowd tonight spontaneously shouted “Larry Turner”–the November election is one prong of this battle. Early voting has already started, we need to get the word out NOW.
Who has a good handle on the November election as it relates to the issues we are facing? Who knows how to get all these groups together, and set priorities?
What we are attempting requires a lot of research and work and coordination. The most necessary has already started, powerful leadership. Leaders, you have a bunch of people scattered around the city who want to work together to reestablish our voice in our community.
OB RAG – thanks for being on top of this.
Thx much, Lynne, for keeping the momentum going on this effort to derail this project. I was there, and was very impressed with the size of the crowd and their commitment to restoring some modicum of local control over zoning and development.
Lynne, right on, The Rag definitely is the place to go to get real information. If you look at the archives, there are many, many stories that could only be found in The Rag. Frank Gormlie’s dedication to this kind of reporting makes the mainstream media look sick.
Not to detract from The Rag at all, I would also give kudos to La Prensa for doing much of the same thing.
It would be a shame for The French Gourmet and several other adjacent businesses to be replaced by a 22-story high “pencil high-rise.” David Alvarez is the author of AB 1287, the bill these developers are invoking to evade San Diego/Pacific Beach building regulations. Would he be willing to amend the bill to fix the loophole making this possible?
The narrow Turquoise St. thoroughfare is packed with small businesses that give the street a certain charm; not much charm from high-rises poking into low-height neighborhoods. ”C’est la vie” is apparently the developer’s attitude (and Circulate San Diego’s, too). I guess money-hungry developers aren’t satisfied with being able to convert all of Hillcrest into a complex of high-rises.
During my 24-year career with the County of San Diego in the Civil Service classification environmental management specialist, there were several times when I was tasked with writing Zoning Amendments that went through a gauntlet of legal reviews. I distinctly recall County Counsel strongly advising me to thoroughly think out how some miscreant developer to abuse the new regulation to their financial benefit. The idea that general plan categories are “20-year plans” is nonsense to building developers who will draft the maximum development taking advantage of loopholes in any poorly thought out regulation. This is PRECISELY what happened with the AB 1287 sham and now all over the City of San Diego we are going to see “Pencil High Rise/High Density” everywhere.
Mayor Todd Gloria and his developer pals have conned the City Council and City Attorney in the totally bogus idea that high rise/high density will provide housing for working class and middle income people. But Mayor and his cronies have known from the beginning that developers and property owners will ALWAYS demand the highest rent they can legally charge, so they built-in a clause that after 3-years the cheapest rentals can be cast aside and the rent rates maximized. This is not about housing the homeless, this is about Zone Busting and tearing down our General Plan land use categories. Time to throw out the bums and seek new leadership. I voted for Larry Turner, have you?
I too first learned from the OB Rag about this illegal high-rise planned for height-limited and narrow Turquoise Street — thank you, Editordude! — so I went to the Wednesday evening meeting at the PB Library. It was dusk and a large crowd of people turned out. Names and email addresses were gathered helter-skelter as folks drifted away at meeting’s end.
CBS Channel 8 was also there at 6 p.m. The reporter mentioned on air that area City Councilman Joe La Cava was not present. (La Cava’s constituent email newsletter mentioned the meeting the following day)
If you were there, but didn’t get a chance to sign up, or if you are interested in joining the fight to prevent a 23-story high-rise from going up at the north corner of Turquoise and Cass Streets and to sustain the 30-foot coastal San Diego height limit passed in 1972 by popular initiative, contact :
SDforResponsiblePlanning.org or Scott@chipman.info
Or call Scott with questions at 619 990-7480.
I want to be apprised of what is happening with this situation and get involved to the best of my ability.