Emerald Hills Resident Sues San Diego Over Controversial Housing Development

Resident Kenny Key Is Well-Known Activist

By Katie Hyson / KPBS / August 21, 2026

An Emerald Hills resident is suing the city of San Diego over a housing development coming to his neighborhood. It’s the latest challenge to the development in a years-long debate.

Residents have been asking for a park on the hilltop for decades. Their appeal to stop the new development was rejected by the city council last month.

Kenny Key, who lives next to the lot, is challenging that rejection in a new lawsuit.

“It’s just a proud Black neighborhood that I grew up in,” he said. “I feel an obligation to stand for my community.”

He’s a retired heavy equipment operator for the Department of Public Works, he said. He was trained by CalTrans and worked on a striping crew. In other words, he knows roads.

“The most important thing that I remember about that job was the emphasis on safety, public safety,” he said.

The development will add 123 homes to what the city labels a very high-risk fire zone.

It relies on a 2019 footnote in city code that allowed for much denser development, but only in the low-income, Black and Latino neighborhoods in the Encanto area.

“This project here is set to bring harm to this little micro-community,” Key said.

The lawsuit claims the city didn’t properly assess whether the development will make wildfire evacuations and emergency response more difficult. It asks a judge to evaluate the city’s assessment and overturn the council’s appeal rejection.

“This lawsuit is not about demonizing developers,” said Paul Suppa, Key’s lawyer. “It’s not about opposing housing. It’s not even about applying a particular evacuation model. It’s a much simpler issue. What happens when you add 123 households to a known, very high-risk fire severity zone? When emergency vehicles go in, how do residents get out?”

The City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on pending litigation.