By Paul Krueger
A passionate revolt against the Mayor and City Council’s “Bonus ADU” program is gaining momentum in the Encanto area of Council District 4 as well as in the Chollas and Emerald Hills communities, and basically throughout the district. The revolt is being led by Neighbors for Encanto.
The area is being targeted by developers who are buying up large single family lots and building — or planning to build up to 42 ADUs on a single parcel, with no parking, no added infrastructure, and — equally important — no approval, input, or feedback from neighbors and residents.
Organizers have identified 11 of these projects in the area and in response have crafted their own website — bonusadubadforsd.com and placing pallet-sized signs throughout the neighborhood. Some of those signs have been repeatedly defaced which I witnessed myself on Monday.
There’s two important political angles to this revolt.
One, organizers are very angry with District 4 Councilmember Henry Foster, who they say has ignored and disrespected their request that he or his staff attend at least one of their meetings. They will continue to call him out, and they don’t mince words. My prediction is, Foster will realize he can’t — and should not — ignore this powerful, very motivated grass-roots effort.
And two, this group — Neighbors For Encanto — can force the Mayor and Council to amend or gut the “Bonus ADU” program in ways that other groups, such as Neighbors for a Better San Diego can’t.
The council and mayor can and have dismissed NFABSD as a bunch of “rich, white, old, privileged, (and even racist) homeowners”. The mayor and council cannot make those baseless but sometimes effective attacks on the Encanto group, because they are a racially balanced group who live in a “low-resource” neighborhood, and who base their opposition to the Bonus ADUs in part on “equity” concerns, i.e. their neighborhood lacks sufficient parks and other infrastructure — including even sidewalks in some areas — is prone to flooding, and has been ignored by city hall for generations.
At the same time, the Encanto area organizers have reached out to NFABSD for tactical advice, and we have gladly helped them every step of the way.
This is just one more example of how neighborhoods throughout the city, from University City to Clairemont, College Area to Normal Heights, Point Loma to Pacific Beach, are joining forces to overturn the Mayor’s misguided and harmful high-density policies that put corporate and investor interests above residents.
Hopefully the Rag can follow up on this development in Encanto.
Excellent Paul K.
It is LONG PAST TIME to take our neighborhoods back. Our zoning laws are being violated daily and too many of our green spaces are now cheap, ugly concrete high rises.
Seeing this story gives me some hope!
The density that is being creating is insane. It is VERY CLEAR San Diego City government is no longer representing taxpayers or the communities we live in.
We’ve lived in North Park for 15 years, ugly, cheap apartments are flying up all around us. Horrid constant construction noise, grime and all day highjacked parking spots for construction workers.
University Street is down to ONE LANE heading east/west in some places. The traffic lights are creating choke points every few blocks. No master plan whatsoever. We don’t need to continue to build 1 bedroom $3000 a month apartments and ADU’s.
Stephen Whitburn our City Council representative recently sent out a flyer BOASTING he had pretty much solved our homeless problem. Maybe he hadn’t been down here for a while? The streets are filthy along University, gross.
STOP THE MADNESS! Why was this self serving regime at city hall voted in for a SECOND go at ruining our city?
MOSD – ONe of the reasons is that Todd Gloria and members of the Council have such a lock on the local Democratic Party that no one with substance ran against any of them. People did run against them but were relatively unknowns with not much money. It’s a sad commentary on what has happened to the city. Democratic leaders now act like Republicans.
Liked it and reposted it as a “reader rant.”
While growing up in San Diego, democrats were the minority party comprised of a diverse coalition of whites, minorities and other marginalized groups. They were for limited smart growth, improved mass transit and greater investment in poorer parts of the city. This was counter to what developers and other pro-growth supporters wanted, and they funded republican candidates who won elections and championed their cause.
Over time, San Diego became less conservative and democrats took over elected offices. Developers and other corporate interests realized they had to pivot to this new group of leaders. To do this they decided to us race (minorities against whites) as a wedge issue to divide the new democratic majority. It can be seen on a variety of fronts. For example, residential solar panels have come under attack by the big utilities using “equity” as the reason for dialing back solar incentives, another is the City’s Bonus ADU policy, where the narrative goes, if you are against ADU apartment complexes you are trying to keep people of color out of your majority white neighborhoods.
The truth is most people, whether they are black, white, Hispanic, Asian…, don’t want a large apartment complex to go in next to them, radically changing the character of their neighborhood without having a say in the matter. While the developer warriors at city hall got reelected, the backlash is coming and it will be from a diverse coalition of people that care about San Diego and the neighborhood where they live.
DiegoK – This is great — thanks so much. I liked it so much that we reposted it as a “reader rant.”
Great story, Frank. As someone who was raised in Encanto, and was mentored by you and the OB OG’s, it’s inspiring to read about the resistance to the developers. Reminds me of 4878 Pescadero Avenue battle.
-Ralph Waxman