‘I Should Know — I’ve Been Trying to Find Out for Over a Year’
Originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 26, 2026
By Danna Givot
If San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council care — or even just wonder — why they’ve lost the public’s trust, they need look no further than their so-called “Technical Working Group” for Neighborhood Homes for All of Us.
What is the Technical Working Group? A secret group of “experts” hand-picked to develop site plans and four building designs (with up to 10 units each) for “single-family” zoned lots in San Diego’s neighborhoods.
[Please go to the original for any links here.]
Three years ago, the planning commissioners rejected San Diego’s Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) proposal, which would have allowed single-family homes to be replaced by 10-unit apartment buildings. To their credit, the commissioners recommended that community stakeholders have seats at the working group table when crafting the next iteration of infill housing in our single-family neighborhoods. I asked the Planning Department to give Neighbors For A Better San Diego a seat at that table but received no response. This was after two members of the Technical Working Group told me they were in the group, although the city’s deputy planning director told me days later that it had “not been formed.”
For the past year, I have repeatedly requested, via email and in person, data about this working group: its membership, mission, meeting dates, locations and minutes. Neither the planning director nor her deputy has answered my inquiries, even after they confirmed in their April 2026 Planning Department Update, that the Neighborhood Homes Technical Working Group met this March. A year after first requesting information about this body, it continues to operate secretly. I finally resorted to submitting a public records request for this material on May 30, but have received no information.
The city pretends to give the public a voice by inviting us to meaningless “focus groups” and useless “workshops” where we are told to place plastic housing cut-outs on mats with different sized lots. We are not allowed to ask questions — instead, we are told to submit inquiries to a website. I have been submitting questions to Planning Director Heidi Vonblum for a year without a meaningful response.
The real work of designing housing prototypes and crafting policies for what development will be allowed in our single-family neighborhoods is being done behind closed doors by unidentified “experts,” at least some of whom have lobbied for their specific pet programs. This could be called a “conflict of interest” if one were being “technical.”
In contrast, the city’s Development Services Department has an “Industry Technology Working Group” with a website, agendas, presentations and other information. Why won’t the Planning Department be as forthcoming? As San Diego’s largest organization representing the city’s neighborhoods, why is Neighbors For A Better San Diego not part of this group as the Planning Commission advised, along with the Community Planners Committee?
This is sadly reminiscent of the city’s disastrous SB 10 proposal. In that case, the Planning Department also drafted the code behind closed doors. It then held a workshop at the Mission Hills Library and hired consultants — crowd managers really — to shield the Planning Department from any direct questions, just like during the recent Neighborhood Homes “workshops.” It’s a wasteful exercise to check the “public engagement” box on grant forms without allowing meaningful interaction with the public. The ultimate public insult is the American Planning Association San Diego Chapter recently awarding the Planning Department a Merit Award for its Inclusive Public Engagement Guide. Unfortunately, the department doesn’t practice what the guide preaches.
The most important question the public has had no opportunity to ask is why the city needs yet another single-family zone infill program when it has already adopted state-mandated SB 1123 (the Starter Home Revitalization Act)? It allows up to 10 for-sale homes on 1,200 square foot lots on what was previously a minimum 5,000 square foot single-family parcel. This program hasn’t even taken effect yet.
“Single-family” zones already allow up to six bonus ADUs, four SB 9 units and soon, dense, multi-story SB 79 “transit-oriented” apartment buildings within a half mile (as the crow flies) of all trolley and some bus stops.
Why does San Diego need another single-family infill program? Let’s see what happens with these new state-mandated density programs. Let the paint dry before you decide to redecorate.
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Danna Givot, a College Area resident, is vice chair of Neighbors For A Better San Diego and a former McHenry County supervisor in the Chicago suburbs.
HCD pulled a similar stunt in the Spring of 2023 when it convened a group of experts for their housing policy “sounding board.” The meetings were secret. No members of the public could observe. No notes were posted, although agendas were. Public comments were allowed no the agenda, but there were no guarantees they would be shared with members. Several months later, I did see a list of the hand-picked participants. None were local government elected officials.
Don’t believe me? See this:
https(colon)//(3w’s).hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/planning-and-community/rhna/sounding-board-agenda-01.pdf
The whole thing is shameful and best summarized by “the fix is in.” As a local Architect for 44 years, I’ve seen generations of San Diegans work on the refinement of our Community Plans, just to see it all cast aside for a flawed ideology of Build Baby Build. We have truly lived up to a lovely combination of Enron by the Sea meets the City of Bell, with City Planners teaming up with developers. Our best and only hope is to cast aside every politician responsible for this catastrophe.
Excellent Danna! This group of politicians in charge are afraid of their constituents, because they know they’re making decisions behind closed doors and absolutely not being transparent. Hopefully with Gloria being termed out, SD gets a new mayor that cleans house in the Planning, (DSD) Building, Commissioners appointed seats. All he/she has to do is snap their fingers and the appointees and employees are gone. He’s conveniently removed the Directors and Deputy Directors and it seems every Dept. head, from the Union Protected arena, so the players can be gone quickly.
Norman DeWitt: I truly agree with your comments too. Thank you.
When the list is finally made public, we will also know who planning director Heidi Van Bloom will likely be working for, if we are fortunate enough to see her pushed out after the next mayors race.
This behavior by our city leaders is so Trumpian. Secret players paying to play/grifting behind closed doors and shuttered windows – all at the expense of the citizenry. How shameful!
Danna raises an important question: Why is the City developing yet another housing program behind closed doors when existing density programs have barely had time to demonstrate their impacts? Meaningful public engagement requires transparency, accountability, and a seat at the table—not workshops that simply check a box. San Diego residents deserve to know who is shaping the future of their neighborhoods and why. Thank you, Danna, for continuing to demand answers.