By Doug Poole
The proposed 12-story project at 820 Fort Stockton Drive is nothing short of a looming disaster for Mission Hills. This isn’t smart growth or thoughtful planning — it’s a reckless gamble that will scar our neighborhood for decades.
The design is physically ugly, completely out of scale, and wildly out of character with the historic charm of Mission Hills. Let’s be honest: it will look like a 12-story prison dropped into the middle of our community. No thoughtful design. No respect for the neighborhood. No consideration for the people who live here.
Developers are exploiting loopholes in the City’s Complete Communities program, fast-tracking this project while silencing community voices. City officials want you to believe their hands are tied — that “ministerial approval” leaves them powerless. That’s simply not true.
Even within Complete Communities, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn has the ability to demand a higher level of review and public accountability. But so far, he has refused to stand up to the developer. Instead, he hides behind process and lets a flawed project sail through without the scrutiny it desperately needs.
Adding salt to the wound, DOMO Modular — the same developer behind 820 Fort Stockton — has already received financing from the San Diego Housing Commission for its project at 3743 4th Avenue, which is being built using the identical factory-built modular process planned for Mission Hills. While it’s not clear yet whether SDHC will also finance 820 Fort Stockton, the very idea that taxpayer dollars could subsidize this 12-story monstrosity is deeply troubling. At best, it raises serious questions about priorities; at worst, it blurs the line between public responsibility and private profit under the banner of “Complete Communities.”
Whitburn faces a defining moment. If this project moves forward, this will be his legacy: a towering, factory-built complex with no parking, virtually no true affordability, and hundreds of micro-units crammed into a fragile canyon-rim neighborhood. Out of 120 units, only two will count as affordable — and even those are just 288 square feet, smaller than a hotel room. This is not affordable housing. This is a developer cash grab disguised as a public good.
Mission Hills is already burdened by narrow streets, limited parking, and very real fire evacuation risks. Adding a massive modular building here is planning malpractice, plain and simple. If Stockdale Capital’s Horton Plaza project collapsed under a $350 million default, how can we trust them to build safely here? What corners will they cut to make this profitable?
Whitburn and Mayor Todd Gloria must stop hiding behind bureaucratic excuses. They need to face their constituents and answer one simple question:
Do you personally believe this project is right for Mission Hills?
If their answer is yes, they should have the courage to stand before us and say so. If not, they must act now to halt permits, demand transparency, and fix the policies that allowed this mess to reach this point.
Mission Hills residents are not opposed to growth. We support thoughtful, sustainable development that serves families and strengthens our community. But this project is the opposite: reckless, exploitative, and dismissive of the very people who will live with its consequences.
Our message to City Hall is clear:
Even under Complete Communities, you have the power to act. Use it.
Anything less will be remembered as a total failure of leadership — one that turned Mission Hills into a case study of how not to plan a city.
Take Action Now – Stop 820 Fort Stockton
A massive, 12-story factory-built tower with no parking and only two truly affordable units is about to be dropped in the heart of Mission Hills.
We can still stop it — but only if we act now.
Contact Councilmember Stephen Whitburn and Mayor Todd Gloria today. Demand a full review and public meeting before this project moves forward.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn
619-236-6633
stephenwhitburn@sandiego.gov
Mayor Todd Gloria
619-236-6330
mayortoddgloria@sandiego.gov
Tell them clearly: Even under Complete Communities, you have the power to act. Use it to protect Mission Hills.
Doug Poole is a resident of Mission Hills
Thank you, Doug, for spelling out the complete grift coming from our councilmember Whitburn. Mr. Whitburn has completely failed to be our community advocate. San Diegans are becoming savvy to this and most of all want advocacy from their councilmembers.
In 2026, we must elect council members in the even-numbered districts that are community advocates so this community advocate ideology will be adopted by the council majority.
It’s doubtful Steve will change his loyalty pledge that he made with Todd in 2020. But when he is out of office, that should be the end of his failed political career. He will go the way of Toni Atkins.
Voters are becoming a very informed electorate, and they just aren’t buying the political spin anymore. It’s now considered yesterday’s news.
During my 24-year stint with the County of San Diego as an environmental management specialist, County Counsel always strongly guided staff to carefully examine any newly proposed regulations for the WORST ways it could be exploited by evil people, then plug the holes in the new regs. Very clearly, no one at the City of San Diego examined the regulations for flaws that could be exploited by evil doers. While we can blame Todd Gloria and Stephen Whitburn, we can also examine why someone in the City of San Diego Planning or Development Services Department would create such loopholes? One answer would be that land developers and their lobbyists packed City staff with their own agents to weaken the laws and Todd Gloria and Stephen Whitburn enabled this disaster.
San Diego’s housing crisis is an ongoing disaster, on a scale much more vast than any single project called a “looming disaster”. This development, along with others across the city, will help address our housing shortage.
The fact that the author thinks new housing is a disaster – not the housing crisis that has forced thousands to leave San Diego – is very telling.
It’s an affordable housing crisis, Paul J, and this project — 2 affordable out of 120 — will do nothing to alleviate that crisis. It’s very telling that you continue to stand up for the development industry no matter what the design, what level of community input, and the lack of affordability. This project will not do anything to the “housing shortage” — which again is an actual affordable housing shortage. See the U-T’s housing section if you think we have a housing shortage.
Frank I understand your point about developers but several of the most recent OB Rag articles are against new housing.
How do we increase the number of affordable homes without also enriching developers? Got any ideas?
Joe, no one is “against new housing.” And no OB Rag article has taken a stand “against new housing.” That is the tripe peddled by YIMBYs to misrepresent and dismiss people who want sustainable development. We need new housing. Young adults in my family are trying to move back to San Diego. But they can’t afford the market-rate units that are saturating the market. And they need more living space than the studios and one-bedrooms developers are building at a fast clip. It’s fine if you want to argue with us on the facts. But please don’t distort our coverage.
I concur with Kate. Cities, government entities can contract with non-profit developers, for one. Another: force government by political pressure to build more affordable housing, such at Midway Rising and the NAVWAR huge redevelopment project. Don’t tear down older buildings, but rehab them into affordable housing. Limit developments’ market-rate housing. There’s all kinds of ideas, available, except for City Hall’s bent knees to developers.