By Scott Case
There has been significant publicity concerning community push-back against developers who are seeking to take advantage of local and state building policy changes to erect high-rise apartments and destroy our neighborhood character.
The opposition is not rooted in NIMBY perspectives as most San Diegans appreciate the need for additional residential units in their neighborhoods.
Our resistance is against high-rise buildings that override the base zoning laws, ruin the character of existing neighborhoods, and incubate new neighborhood tensions. I would expect this resistance from every San Diego neighborhood where development corporations are seeking to maximize investor profits to the detriment of all who live in the community.
There is a strong sense of injustice, and growing frustration with our political leaders and municipal directors who are enabling this behavior. The volume of public outcry will only get louder and demand accountability.
I would like to call your attention to additional high-rise developments in the planning stages with the City’s Developmental Services Department. Specifically, the 3600 block of Columbia St behind India Street’s “restaurant row”. A developer is advocating to erect a 8-10 story apartment building on two lots, in the midst of this hillside community.
In fact, we hear that developers are eying multiple high-rise apartments to be built on this hillside. The existing hillside is densely populated with older homes (80-100+ year old), some of which are multi-unit rentals. The existing homes and apartments provide affordable housing, while adhering to the 40-foot height limit zoning restrictions. It’s a unique neighborhood. They are not stately mansions, but well-kept smaller homes, populated with many long-term renters and owners. We love our neighborhood.
Unfortunately, the City’s Complete Communities initiative has encouraged this irresponsible developer behavior. The initiative’s housing overlay identifies this Middletown/Mission Hills hillside from India St up to Puterbaugh St as mostly Floor Area Ratio (FAR) Tier 2, encouraging high-rise apartments.
I encourage the City to immediately pause these multi-story developments that seek to bypass the base zoning laws. Please revisit the local policies and make changes that encourage responsible development. The recent Oct 10th San Diego Union front-page article about lower-profile townhomes (and apartments) is a somewhat encouraging alternative. Our City leadership has enabled the current irresponsible behavior, and needs to take immediate steps to reverse this bad trajectory.
I encourage all residents to email their City councilperson and State representatives. I encourage all residents to get involved in your local community planning groups that advise the City Council. Please make your voice heard. Love your city.
Sincerely,
Scott Case”
Yes, I want to be notified – thanks!
Another great article! Thanks. This is sad it’s happening in your neighborhood but it’s the case in almost all neighborhoods. Almost no one I know who lives in neighborhoods thinks the city is doing a good job of controlling development. It’s hard to imagine why our leaders are going to be re-elected (I hope they aren’t) because they obviously care so little about the people who live here. I guess money talks and the developers have the money. Worst of all the new high-rise development is bad for the environment and climate so those who follow us will bear the brunt of that. We need to insist on restoring older buildings and building truly affordable housing not market rate. We need to control the developers and if they don’t cooperate then we need to find more and possibly just make use of smaller developers and contractors and keep them busy.
I have to disagree with you that it’s going on in all San Diego residential neighborhoods. If you drive around La Jolla, Scripps Ranch, Carmel Valley, to name a few, you won’t see this type of careless development among the homes. And sadly, these are people who think our current city government is just fine. I know people in all the neighborhoods I’ve mentioned and many have no idea what’s going on down here.
Start focusing all adu/TPA development in Rancho Santa Fe & Fairbanks Ranch… a perfect area for a major transit center.
High rises in older neighborhoods don’t belong. They take away the character of the area. To me, Mission Valley is chaos with all these new apartments going in. There are no bus stops, grocery stores or any sidewalks near some of them. Downtown is another high-rise mess. Once the out-of-towners rent an apartment they soon move-out due to the homeless at their door-step.
Thank you very much Scott for expressing what so many of us are struggling with. Most people that hear us pushback think that we are not supportive of growing the city, but that is not true. We want modernization, we support it, however we want it to be graceful and not destroy everything around it. Mission Valley is a disaster. please do not destroy Middletown. These buildings are being given the OK without any parking nor modernization of the infrastructure. Things are already so difficult here where the neighborhoods were never designed to support this much capacity.
Along with removing the height limit, the city has simply said loudly and clearly “we do not care”. Removing the height limit all the way to Laurel Street received zero pushback from the city council all of them 100% of them agreed without any reservation nor questions no showing concern. That is absolutely unacceptable, there are many many places in the city where we can grow, including our own neighborhood, without putting high rises and turning us into Miami.
We work very hard and pay our taxes just like everybody else, we deserve a better city Council to serve all of us.
Mr. Case,
I agree with your assessment of the situation. You want to stop greed-based development.
Writing emails and calling elected officials is a rookie approach to a systemic problem.
You and everyone who agrees with you need to vote.
You need to vote against incumbents who are owned by the developers.
You should donate and work for grass roots candidates who support your position.
in this upcoming election, for the first time in over a century you can vote for a mayor who shares your concerns about growth. Vote, donate, and volunteer in Larry Turner’s quest to stop the runaway development that Todd Gloria supports. Follow the money, Gloria gets his money from developers, Turner gets his money from the people.
You want change vote for change.
You are the textbook definition of nimby, and it’s not an exaggeration that California’s housing crisis is entirely caused by people like you.
Many housing laws passed by Governor Newsom have not gone into effect, not because neighbors want responsibly planned development instead of ADU apartment complexes behind houses (12 units, 17 units: Clairemont, 43 units: Encanto), but due to opposition by building trades; steelworkers, painters, concrete, etc. Men want a fair wage and training. 2/27/25
If you do a little research, you’ll find many articles about this. Here’s one:
https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/8/21/23831121/housing-yimbys-affordable-rent-unions-california