By South OB Girl
Dear San Diego Planning Commission and City’s Development Services Department:
I would like to know how many of the new apartment buildings along highway 8 are full and have no vacancies. I am curious if construction is complete for all of the buildings being built to replace what was formerly the golf course in Mission Valley.
Is construction of those buildings complete and are all of the dwelling units now occupied? How many of those units are expected to facilitate solving the housing crisis? I recently saw some new apartment buildings off Clairemont Drive. Are they full to capacity? How many of all these new structures throughout the city – in Mission Valley, Clairemont, and elsewhere – qualify as affordable housing?
The City’s answer in response to most new plans for construction and ADUs these days is that there is a housing crisis. The City and developers believe they are creating housing solutions and promote the mission that their plans are providing housing solutions in response to the housing crisis. So in support of that mission, is there a status report somewhere? Some quantitative data?
Like any federal, state, or city project, there should be a status report or something that resembles a status report detailing how far along we are as a city in reaching the goals for housing. Maybe some graphs. A Tableau presentation. Something. I am asking for reliable and honest data. And for quantitative data. In the last five years:
- How many new dwelling units have been built throughout all of San Diego? How many studios, apartments, ADUs, and Junior ADUs have been built?
- additionally, how many condos rented to long term tenants have been built since 2020?
- How many dwelling units total built since 2020 are STVRs?
- How many dwelling units total built before 2020 are STVRs?
- What is the total number of occupied new dwelling units, for structures built since 2020?
- What is the total number of occupied dwelling units, for dwellings built prior to 2020?
- How many vacant dwelling units are there, built since 2020?
- How many vacant dwelling units are there, which existed before 2020?
- How many new dwelling units qualify as affordable housing?
- How many dwelling units which qualify as affordable housing existed before 2020?
- Total number of homeless individuals?
- Total number of people who qualify for affordable housing and are looking for housing?
- Total number of people looking for housing which is not affordable housing (according to the definition of affordable housing)?
- Total number of people expected to move to San Diego in 2026?
- Total number of people expected to move out of San Diego in 2026?
In short, the number of vacancies in San Diego and the number of people still looking for housing, with some wiggle room based on the number of people expected to move to San Diego and move out of San Diego.
Instead of rewriting municipal codes, turning communities upside down, and remodeling areas with Historical designation, perhaps some quantitative data should be obtained by the City and analyzed — assessing what the precise needs for housing currently are.
I have friends who prepare reports like this in their sleep. Many industries work with complex models that include various factors and more complex scenarios than a city’s population. Actuaries, statisticians, population scientists, and data scientists work with more complicated numbers, more complicated equations, more complex models, and more complex scenarios than the number of dwellings and the number of people living in a city.
Is it too much to ask for the City to obtain data and look at the data? To assess and evaluate the data and draw conclusions based on the data? It would be in the City’s best interest and in the best interest of many San Diegans to know where San Diego is at now with housing solutions and to evaluate what steps need to be taken moving forward, based on the existing data.
I’ve been watching Permits Applied For on the City’s DSD since 2018. The VAST majority of the new construction for ADU’s is “market rate”, not low, or even super/very/extremely low income housing. Therefore the City can build basically until hell freezes over and still they’re not coming up with the thousands mandated by Gav. Example is a multi building ADU on a single family lot near the college are, with 178 “market rate” units, and 18 very low income units. There are empty “market value units”, all over North Park, and other communities, but the “work around”, of very few low or very low ADU’s, is going to give plenty of special opportunities to the developers who don’t have to pay the same fees, the City forces the public to pay for Permits, so the quota for low & very low income units will take years to meet.
Thank you, Pats. I wonder if the City has any method in place for assessing the number of permits applied for and other housing data. I bet the average San Diegan wouldn’t know where to look to find the Permits Applied For data, which you have been watching. You knew where to look, but a lot of people don’t. It actually wouldn’t be that complicated to have a system in place to track permits applied for and other housing and population data. All this talk of “affordable housing needs” is a bunch of bs as far as I can tell, since a 20 unit building on 0.17 acres might have 3 or 4 units that technically qualify as affordable housing. The proposed plans get hyped up as offering affordable housing, and then based on the actual price of the rent, may still not be affordable (in a general, non-technical sense) for many.
I’ve often wondered, before ADU’s were on every corner, in 2018 +, as I was reading the Permits Applied for it would say “Artists Loft”, or Granny Flat, or Extension of existing premises, not ADU or STR. BUT the description says, 1 bdrm., bathroom, kitchen, living room, and sometimes it would say a laundry room. I wondered it’s really an ADU/STR, but they’ve just used a different bunch of adjectives. So did the person at the Permit Counter record and count it as a ADU/STR or not? My guess is the City of SD has WAY more ADU/STR’s than they know about, because of the Permit Applicant’s creativity with words.
You are correct. What exactly is the total number of STRs/STVRs? And, I believe you are correct, that the City of SD has WAY more ADU-STRs-STVRs than they know about. That is an interesting research topic you bring up: various descriptions in the land of ADUs. Artist’s loft, granny flat, laundry room. The way things are going, a granny flat will soon be building an artists loft connected to it. The rationale for assessing these situations is not just overdevelopment. These plans are focusing on construction instead of communities, neighborhoods, families, parking, and outdoor spaces.
The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley has an interesting paper, “Steps Local Government Can Take to Unlock More Housing: Lessons from San Diego.” I did not know what to expect, but it is very factual in presenting what PATs just said, the number of affordable units constructed in San Diego is lower, not higher, about the same as 2014. It does not take a position; just statistics.
Excellent. An objective of this article was to remind the City to evaluate data and utilize statistics.
The City’s Annual Report on Homes, which answers a number of these questions, is available here: https://www.sandiego.gov/planning/work/general-plan/housing-element.
The document link titled “Housing Element Annual Progress Report 2024” is then dated 2025 on the cover page. I assume that is actually accurate: 2025 report on 2024 data. When will the 2026 report be published? Reflecting 2025 data? Does the 2024 data include massive development in the areas that were formerly the Mission Valley golf course? Instead of raising all my questions re the data for 2024 and prior (ie lots of questions about prior data), I would like to address where we are at now and the need or benefit of changing municipal code and approving more housing and more development prior to the 2026 Annual Report. I would also like to raise these points: 1) It should be possible to assess housing data weekly and not just annually 2) A third party analysis and evaluation of housing data could be beneficial. 3) A third party tracking of housing data could be beneficial. 4) As Functional Literate commented below, the data is difficult to obtain and most people don’t know where to look. 5) The 2021-2029 Housing Element could benefit from re-evaluation due to the amount of development/construction/permit approval that has already occurred since 2021.
EXCELLENT QUESTIONS!!! Is there a way to put a moratorium on building until the city hires an unbias party to answer these questions? Wait, maybe citizens choose the outside agency, because we all know that data can be skewed to support agendas. I mean, would you hire Pfiser to run safety and efficacy tests on their products? Oh, maybe that is a bad example. Would you ask cigarette companies to evaluate the safety of smoking? Again a bad example.
It appears the existing data is in a report dated 2025 based on 2024 data. I agree with you and think a moratorium on building should be put in place until the 2026 Report is prepared, based on 2025 data, and until the 2021-2029 Housing Element has been re-evaluated. One of the statements in this article specifies that the questions I raised would be based on “honest and reliable data.” That is a challenge in itself. To achieve unbiased data, an outside party could be best for researching into the existing housing data. I don’t think many people across San Diego would say they have faith in the local government (or state government or federal government) to accurately and reliably report honest data regarding housing, or anything. This lack of trust in the local government is not just in OB, but is throughout San Diego.
Most of the data you request is published on a regular basis. Just needs a few minutes of research. Unless, of course, your point is to draw attention to how difficult data is to get unless you’re informed.
Can you tell us how may units built since “Complete Communities” are still vacant?
Good question!!! City wide — how many vacancies are there? Also, how many vacancies in the new buildings over by the 8 on hotel circle?
We voters need Reliable Data in respect to everything the city has had its grubby
little hands on. It appears that there hasn’t been any at all!
Well said Dorothy! Seeking Reliable Data for everything the City has had its grubby little hands on!!!
Correct, the data is difficult to find unless you are informed. From what I see the data is analyzed and published annually. Weekly, bimonthly, or monthly data on housing should be possible.
Correct, the data is difficult to find unless you are informed. From what I see the data is analyzed and published annually. Weekly, bimonthly, or monthly data on housing should be possible.
Correct, the data is difficult to find unless you are informed. = And, from what I see, the data is analyzed and published annually. Weekly, bimonthly, or monthly data on housing should be possible.
The housing crisis we have today is the result of the Reagan revolution. He demonized the poor and slashed welfare programs. It continued on through the Clinton administration with the Faircloth amendment which cut off all federal funds for public housing. Public housing is the only way to get people off the streets. Building so called “affordable housing” does nothing for the homeless because they can’t afford anything. In the meantime, houses with 6 bedrooms and 5 car garages are being built in Del Sur…
You are correct, unfortunately affordable housing (according to the official definition of “affordable”) does nothing for the homeless. Some affordable housing isn’t even “affordable” for average income folks. Additionally, 3 or 4 affordable units in a new complex of 20 total units doesn’t provide a large number of affordable options for renters.
As a follow up comment for this article, a moratorium on building should be put in place until the 2026 Report is prepared, based on 2025 data, and until the 2021-2029 Housing Element has been re-evaluated. Further to that, there should not be changes to the municipal code until the 2026 Report is ready and the 2021-2029 Housing Element has been re-evaluated.
I think for the City of SD to hire an outside researcher would be a great idea to show them exactly how many ADU/STR’s really are within the City. They would have to individually research every single Permit, except the obvious like a multi story, multi unit building obviously is NOT an ADU/STR, or a commercial building, but every residential Permit would need to be thoroughly read. AND, it has to be someone who has a construction background to put the trickery two and two together. Professional people processing a Permit for the owner, contractors, and property owners have become very creative with their description of what exactly their getting a Permit to build.
Well said, Pats. In agreement. Many industries use computer systems (such as Salesforce and Workday, for example) to track their customers, customer information, clients, client information, and sales. These systems can even track every email and phone call made to a customer. Most universities use some of the same computer systems to track data for every applicant and every student. It would be very possible to track various housing data — construction permits, ADU construction, STR-STVR status, and other details — in a similar way.
I haven’t had reason to keep up with the current Permit Application and the DSD’s newly created web page. BUT I have included the website for anyone to play around with to see how it looks and works.
https://www.sandiego.gov/development-services/permits-inspections/dashboard
On page 2-4, I did find a chart with info from 2020-2025. It shows what has/is being built is the high dollar housing. The totals for the lower income brackets are very few to none. The Applicant also seems to have the option of calling their project “residential” or ADU/JADU. So… if the Applicant doesn’t want to be a part of the new taxation for ADU’s, I question potential trickery if they can call it “residential”. If you see something that says “no plan required”, that means the Applicant is going to put in something mechanical (maybe centeral heating and AC), or Electrical (maybe change their electrical panel from 110 to 220), or Plumbing (maybe put in a new tub/shower, pool – but the pool alone would require a Permit). That’s why I say, whomever is approving the Permit Applications needs to know construction jargon.
Pats: I will put the link you provided here again so that it is in the new comment feed. A Dashboard, re San Diego City permits and inspections: https://www.sandiego.gov/development-services/permits-inspections/dashboard
I wonder what fields could be added to the Dashboard? Permit approved, construction completed, affordable/not affordable, residential, STVR. There is absolutely potential trickery a foot.
Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to
the term “infill?” Infill was the term used 40
years ago.
The objectives of infill can be achieved without changing existing municipal code, introducing new policies, and approving an FAR of 2.5 (in place of an FAR of 0.7) in a designated Historical District.
Does anyone know of a group that I currently (& hopefully effectively) resisting the installation of metered parking I. Balboa Park? It’s a destructive move on the part of the city.
Once you know the date of the City Council meeting where public comment was given about metered parking in Balboa Park, you can then watch the City Council meeting for that date and you can find archived videos for City Council meetings here: https://sandiego.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3
I will have to look into this a little bit but there were MANY speakers at the City Council meeting that voted on the parking meters in Balboa Park. I think there were so many speakers that they were given 30 seconds per speaker (which was a tough amount of time for most people). I would suggest watching that City Council meeting and seeing which groups or individuals you might like to contact. Or reading over the minutes for that meeting. For minutes. Do a past meeting search here: https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecouncil/Meetings. Type in Search Text = Balboa Park. Specify a date range. When you know the agenda and date of the meeting, you can then find the video of the meeting or read the minutes. I am not sure which discussions about Balboa Park and metered parking which have been discussed at City Council meetings which you might want to find.