Author: Staff

From Rebusiness Online / March 25, 2025

It appears that an out-of-state modular home builder has bought the Canon Street Marina Center, a retail and office center in San Diego’s Point Loma Village, plus two adjacent properties. NorthStar Homes, a family-owned and run outfit from Colorado purchased the Canon Street and Scott Street properties for $8.2 million.

By Kate Callen

Most San Diegans who heard the news that Horton Plaza is in foreclosure didn’t know anything about the Los Angeles builder in the middle of the meltdown.

But residents of Mission Hills instantly recognized his name. Steven Yari — the developer who has plunged Horton Plaza into debt — is the same man who bulldozed the Little Red Bungalow in 2023 and has, for nearly two years, left a fenced-off crater in its place.

The empty lot at Goldfinch Street and Fort Stockton Drive is a painful reminder that a city’s greatness is measured by the way it protects its architectural treasures – and this city has fallen terribly short. San Diego will remain a third-rate town so long as our history and heritage carry price tags.

And now City Hall has launched a new campaign to scuttle historic preservation measures. If it succeeds, look for more fortune-hunters parachuting into town for more land grabs.

By Geoff Page

As I came down to Dog Beach on Wednesday, I was forewarned that there was a sick or injured sea lion on the beach and I might want to keep my dog away.  As I got down on the sand, I saw the animal lying in shallow water. It was moving its head but did not seem to want to move otherwise.

But what caught my attention even more though

A fire in a carport broke out late Monday night, March 17, and caused an estimated $350,000 worth of damage to an Ocean Beach home.

Just after 11:30 p.m. Monday the fire erupted and then spread into an adjacent residential garage that had been converted into living quarters, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after losing control of his motorcycle on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, on Sunday, March 16.

The unidentified biker sustained severe injuries, including multiple abrasions, a spinal fracture, a skull base fracture and a laceration to his leg. He was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police suspect alcohol to be a factor in this collision.

By Colleen O’Connor

One of the two fires, “still under investigation,” started at Liberty Station in one of the undeveloped buildings earmarked for an aquatic center. Close to High Tech High.

The proposed design (before the destructive design) included an expansive piece of outdoor space, one fifty-meter swimming pools and a smaller twenty-five meter one and a splash pool. Add to that a water slide.

By Kate Callen

Todd Gloria wants you to know he spotted defects in the Bonus ADU program and he acted quickly to fix them.

And he insists he was appalled that the City’s Land Development Code had a footnote targeting Southeastern San Diego. He used his executive power to remove it at once.

He also invented Taco Tuesdays. He came up with the idea for Zoom meetings. And he personally recruited Manny Machado to sign with the Padres.

We expect politicians to fabricate. They desperately need public approval. That often means twisting the truth to make a loss look like a win.

But there comes a point where spin curdles into farce. Our mayor appears to have reached it.

By Kate Callen

The City Council’s March 4 hearing on Bonus ADUs was riveting. It didn’t deliver concrete action — at City Hall, the can never stops skittering down the road — but it did alter the political landscape. Some takeaways:

Henry Foster III Is In the House. After just 10 months representing District 4, Foster is the Council’s most powerful voice and its resident status-quo disrupter. Councilmembers who catch flak about ADUs typically bob and weave. Foster went into the Encanto community, saw the blight himself, and returned with a righteous anger and an audacious plan. If he stays on this path, he could be a formidable contender for mayor in 2028.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board is holding their current elections, and anyone who is qualified and interested in voting, must do so by March 4.

It’s important for residents and owners to vote in these annual elections, as community planning boards and groups have been under attack of late by development-aligned lobbying groups and the City of San Diego itself.

To vote, you must reside, or be owner/agent for a property or business within the Ocean Beach boundary to qualify (generally west of Froude street).

The City of San Diego’s Bonus ADU Program will be on the minds of many as residents across the city will be attending the City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 4. They will be urging the Council to restore the vote to eliminate the ADU Bonus Density Program—a decision they unanimously supported on January 28, 2025 before later rescinding it due to a procedural problem involving the Brown Act.

Here is some background provided by the group Neighbors for a Better California:

On January 28, 2025, the City Council voted unanimously to end the San Diego ADU Bonus Density Program, but a [possible] Brown Act violation means it’s still in place. On March 4, 2025, Footnote 7 and Bonus ADUs will be discussed, but this Item 330 only impacts footnote 7 in Southeastern San Diego—not the full citywide bonus ADU repeal we want. We need to keep fighting to formally get the Stop Bonus ADU officially on the agenda!…

San Diego International Airport published a statement earlier this month that marked “2024 as its busiest year ever with 25.24 million passengers recorded traveling through the airport’s terminals. This record-breaking year surpasses the previous busiest record of 25.18 million passengers served in 2019.” That was pre-Pandemic.

Said Kimberly Becker, President and CEO, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority: “Each year following the pandemic, the numbers of travelers recorded at our airport has increased.” She added this was a sure sign or recovery.

The airport says there are some main reasons for this growth.

One is the addition of two new airlines, Breeze and Porter Airlines who have service to nine new nonstop destinations.

There will be nothing but talking trash at the City of San Diego’s 10 community forums to get feedback on the proposed monthly trash fees. They’ve actually begun and the first one was last night, Monday, Feb. 24th at the Otay Mesa Nestor Library.

Will the feedback help determine whether the city follows through on plans to add several new services and features to its trash and recycling program that would push the fee higher than it could otherwise be, or not? There’s been plenty of irate responses to the proposed fees in “letters to the editor” in local papers and at town hall budget forums held of late.

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