By Kate Callen
Mark your calendars: Mayor Todd Gloria will be the lead-off speaker at an “exclusive event” for accessory dwelling unit (ADU) developers this Thursday, March 27, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The event is titled “The Future of San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program: How Will It Reshape San Diego’s Housing Market?” The flyer, which was sent to the Rag by an anonymous source, doesn’t include a location, a registration link, or contact information.
The host appears to be JLM Real Estate, a self-described “commercial real estate team focusing on the sale of multifamily investment properties.” JLM’s San Diego office is in Mission Valley at 3945 Camino Del Rio South.
The invitation reads: “Join San Diego’s top multifamily investors and industry leaders for an exclusive event on the future of housing. Hear from expert panelists as they unpack the potential repeal of the ADU Bonus Program— set for a vote soon — and what it means for your investments, housing supply, and development opportunities.”
Speakers include infill developer Rammy Cortez, a mayoral appointee to the Historical Resources Board who has no apparent historical expertise, Neil Dutta of Apollo Realty Investments, “one of the largest fix and flip operators in San Diego,” and former Councilmember Chris Cate.
Admission is free. Food and drinks will be provided. And attendees will be eligible for raffle prizes.
Questions that come immediately to mind include:
What on earth is our mayor smoking? Is he past caring about the perception that he resides in the pockets of the building industry? Is he dropping all pretense that he wants to hear anything from the public?
“The mayor will meet with developers, but he has no interest in what communities have to say,” said Julie Hamilton, an attorney who specializes in land and environmental law.
“That one-sided approach is hurting our city. He should also be listening to members of planning groups who have experience and knowledge.”
Increasingly, Gloria seems to be living in his own fantasy realm where statements that are patently false are true because he says so.
When the City Council unanimously passed the Affordable Housing Preservation Ordinance last month, a politically astute mayor would have agreed with the decision. Instead, Gloria pitched a fit because the measure might reduce properties available for ADU construction.
He praised his cherished ADU program “for creating affordable housing everyday San Diegans can afford [with] options for families” and claimed that “nearly half of [ADU units] are rent-restricted affordable homes.”
Gloria has persisted in hawking the Bonus ADU program as a solution to the affordable housing crisis. That has never been true. Some units are built by property owners to house relatives, but the majority have been built by developers for maximum profit.
And because the City waives developer impact fees on Bonus ADUs under 750 square feet, builders have mostly produced studios and 1-bedrooms that are too small for families.
Neighbors for a Better San Diego (NFABSD), which has analyzed Bonus ADU data since the program’s 2020 inception, has found no evidence of real relief to low-income renters.
“The Bonus ADU Program is not a significant contributor to San Diego’s affordable housing stock,” said NFABSD’s Danna Givot. “It has produced only 3 percent of affordable housing built from 2021 to 2023. It has generated a limited number of moderate-income ADUs with at or above average market-rate rents for studios and 1-bedrooms.”
More mayoral hubris was captured in a March 21 Union-Tribune editorial about transit options titled, “Does it make sense to have climate goals that are preposterous?”
Gloria answered with a resounding “Hell, yes!”
For a decade now, City Hall has pushed commuters to ditch their cars and take public transit or ride bikes. Year after year, commuters have said, “No thanks.”
Citing original targets of 25 percent transit commuters and 18 percent bike commuters by the year 2035, the U-T said, “The plan seemed far-fetched. Now it seems hallucinatory.”
Projections of bike lane usage were “particularly preposterous. There are few more common sources of irritation to San Diegans than the city continuing to build miles of bike lanes even though existing ones are rarely used.”
Gloria is doubling down. He told the U-T he intends to build more bike lanes, adding, “It is always surprising to me how bike lanes engender such an emotional response … My job is not to respond to that kind of emotion.”
Actually, Mr. Mayor, that IS your job. When San Diegans express fury about how your policies are hurting their neighborhoods, you owe them a respectful response and not dismissive snark.
It’s time for Gloria to face his constituents in a public setting to hear their concerns and answer their questions. We hope to see him in Council chambers when the Bonus ADU program comes up again.
Did not vote for Gloria last election. He’s sneaky!!!
And…..our current Governor wants to do away with the Coastal Commission. Sad!
I hope you readers take time to listen to this. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honestly-with-bari-weiss/id1570872415?i=1000699620497
Oh, yeah, the trendy new “abundance” movement that YIMBY’s (including Circulate SD) are using to buttress their heedless “build it tall, build it everywhere” agenda.
If you take Gail’s advice and listen to the podcast (or read the book), be sure to read some the alternative takes on it, too. Here’s one for starters:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/23/the-meager-agenda-of-abundance-liberals/
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing reforms to the city’s Accessory Dwelling Unit Density Bonus Program in order to ensure that building projects “are consistent with the scale and character of San Diego’s neighborhoods,” the mayor’s office announced Tuesday.
https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2025/03/25/san-diego-mayor-todd-gloria-announces-proposed-reforms-to-adu-program/
And we have a bridge to Clairemont to sell you. I know CS you’re more skeptical than to accept Gloria’s pronouncements at face value. He keeps trying to kid us all.
Yes, as always with the dog and pony show Toad, the devil is in the details. But I don’t need a bridge. I’d rather be downsizing.
JLM is John Moores company, the same company that got the city to evict thousands of residents downtown to build Petco Park and then develop the surrounding area with luxury condos for pennies on the dollar, displacing untold numbers of people and eliminating SROs in the City, which allowed the median rents to skyrocket and our population of unhoused to explode.
I thought that was JMI…. ??…….
OMG. I definitely mixed them up and I stand corrected. I would entirely delete my comment if I could, however looking at the site for JLM makes it even worse:
JLM Real Estate Inc. Is a commercial real estate team focusing on the sale multifamily investment properties.
At JLM, we are focused on our clients’ best interest above anything else. We help clients acquire, sell, and 1031 exchange into small to medium sized apartment complexes in Southern California.
We are one of the top producing teams in all of Southern California and have sold over $350,000,000 worth of real estate in the last 3 years.
Our mission: To Help Real Estate Investors Navigate Transactions Efficiently and Maximize Their Net Worth
“… JMI Realty is a private real estate investment and development company that was organized in 1992 as the real estate investment subsidiary of JMI Services, Inc., the investment vehicle of the John J. Moores family. In 1998, JMI Realty was appointed by the City of San Diego and the San Diego Padres to act as the Master Developer of the Ballpark District…”
https://www.jmirealty.com/home/about
Don’t know where my reply went. I posted I stand corrected, but JLM is pretty terrible too, Housing as investments by the wealthy is why rents are out of control.
JLM Real Estate Inc. Is a commercial real estate team focusing on the sale multifamily investment properties.
At JLM, we are focused on our clients’ best interest above anything else. We help clients acquire, sell, and 1031 exchange into small to medium sized apartment complexes in Southern California.
We are one of the top producing teams in all of Southern California and have sold over $350,000,000 worth of real estate in the last 3 years.
Our mission: To Help Real Estate Investors Navigate Transactions Efficiently and Maximize Their Net Worth
Over 50 percent of San Diegan re-elected Gloria, which means they are on board with his policies.
His tax measure would have passed then by that logic. But it didn’t. So the grand affordability scheme gets circumvented by stealth taxation.
Is tonight’s “conclave” an invite only or could someone from the OB Rag also attend? What’s done in the dark needs to be brought into the light and I fear the principals in this matter do not have our best interest in mind.
Paulette, you’re right but we don’t even know where the event is taking place! The flier — above — had no address.
Why won’t someone do something about the SHADOWs these MONSTROUSITIES create ON MY PROPERTY
“The mayor will meet with developers, but he has no interest in what communities have to say,” said Julie Hamilton, an attorney who specializes in land and environmental law.
Well, if the President of the United States can take $288,000,0000 MILLION USD from a Nazi saluting Billionaire to get elected, I don’t see why Todd can’t take a few measly bucks from developers.
A “nazi salute” where was that?
Now back to the topic: if the location is found of the Mayor’s exclusive developer meeting I will be happy to attend tonight.
The mayor’s ADU meeting with developers is Thursday at 5-8 p.m. at 8889 Rio San Diego Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92108. Walk-ins are welcome. No admission. Free refreshments.
Apparently the location of the event was a ruse. Two people tried to find it. One person called the mayor’s office to get that information and that’s what they were told by the young lady who first answered the phone. But they were transferred to two other people in the process, so this looks to be a purposeful deceit. And the Rag got that information from them.
Another person drove to 2 locations in Mission Valley and one on First St Bankers Hill in search of this elusive meeting and didn’t find anything. No cars. No people. They surmised that someone pulled Frank’s leg or it’s an early April Fools joke. “The joke is on me,” they said.
The event was in the Mission Valley Mall at the Nova Brazil Brewery. The Mayor promised that there would be very few changes to the ADU bonus program, Just a few refinements. He stated that recently his office released a memo on what issues might be changed. He also stated that his $239,000 salary is not enough to buy a home in San Diego. Funny thing is that 3 minutes earlier he also stated that some politicians lie but not Him ……… In summary He is still 100 percent behind the ADU Bonus program and conveyed this Thursday night. JLM Reality had two video cameras going through out the presentation, watch there web site they may publish these videos.
Interesting, “just a few refinements” said SD’s worst mayor ever.
We must make sure we end Gloria’s disastrous and destructive Bonus ADU program in full.
Allen, thanks for clearing that up. A brewery is fine for a political gathering — but a mayoral forum?. The location was kept under wraps even after repeated inquiries from constituents. Why was it a secret? Why is this public servant so afraid of the public? It’s like he’s shrinking before our eyes.
Something tells me that once Gloria’s term ends, he’ll have no trouble buying a house in San Diego.
Is that tomorrow Thursday Gloria’s undercover meeting to find new ways to scam property owners?
OUR, yes OUR City Council better wake the hell up and find their backbones and pull the reins back on this Demi god before San Diego implodes.
Update: If the 8889 Rio San Diego Drive location was a ruse, it backfired. I went to that meeting and learned a lot about how ADU development SHOULD work. The resulting story, “A Conversation with an ADU Builder,” has just been posted. It tells how City Hall took a solid housing concept and corrupted it here in San Diego. I’ve written a lot about the bad actors in the building industry. It was nice to write a story about the good guys.