OB Rag

Today, August 29, the San Diego Planning Commission unanimously rejected “The Point” project slated for Point Loma Avenue in south Ocean Beach.

To a person, the Commission agreed with OBceans and their lawyer that the property where the ADU apartment complex was proposed was or is within the Ocean Beach Historic Cottage District and is therefore exempted from the rules of the so-called Complete Communities housing policy of the city.

At 12:25 this afternoon, the San Diego Planning Commission voted unanimously to grant the appeal of the 20 apartments proposed for Point Loma Ave. This means the project, as is, will not be built.

In a stunning consensus, Commissioners agreed with the people who brought the appeal of the project in the historic district argument — that the subject property is within the Ocean Beach Historic Cottage District, and therefore is ineligible to be used with the Complete Communities policy of the city.

Live Streaming of Hearing Available

The San Diego Planning Commission is taking up the issue of the 20 units of the proposed ADU apartment for Point Loma Avenue in Ocean Beach.

12:12 Commissioners begin making comments and asking questions.

12:10pm public comments have concluded.

There aren’t too many in favor of the project.

1201 Rep from YIMBY Democrats who supports the project called the appeal “frivolous.”

12:00 Speakers continue to argue against the project and in favor of the appeal.

9:54 am; staff is now presenting the project; this is an appeal by the community of staff’s decision to allow the project.

Editordude: Here’s some good news for San Diego renters: San Diego County is set to welcome 3,226 new rental units by the end of the year with 2,016 of those in the City of San Diego, 369 in Oceanside, and 414 in Chula Vista. Plus, the County of San Diego City has a “New Affordable Housing Mapping Tool” here.

By Brian White / CBS8 / August 28, 2024

Apartment construction is set to break records this year nationwide as more than half a million new rentals hit the market. CBS 8 takes a closer look at what this means for San Diego County.

Public Service Announcement

By Esmeralda Perez / CBS8 / August 27, 2024

San Diego County is receiving about $4 million in ‘Beverage Container Redemption Innovation Grants,’ by CalRecycle to help start 20 recycling sites in either mobile recycling or reverse vending machines at select Smart and Final stores.

“So reverse vending machines look a lot like regular vending machines except the difference is that you’ll put your bottles or cans into the vending machine and then you’ll get nickels or dimes back,…

From The Coronado Times / August 28, 2024

Shelter Island is the home of America’s Cup Harbor, which is one of the few harbors in San Diego Bay that offers a diverse range of restaurants, boat rentals, yacht rentals, and a bustling neighborhood. The amount of yacht rentals in Shelter Island, San Diego has effectively doubled this year.

There are now over 10 yacht rental businesses in a span of only 1 mile.

The Uptown group that is holding elections for the local community planning group has just sent out notices that in-person voting will continue on Friday, August 30th. As you may recall, the election was halted due to computer glitches in the midst of in-person balloting. One can imagine all the frustrated and angered residents who were waiting in line.

Here is the bulk of their new notice:

Online Voting to Resume

In any new process using a new (to us) system there are opportunities to learn, but overall we are happy with the online voting approach. …

For those who closely watch the Rag, here are detailed results of our annual summer fundraising from earlier this month.

It’s a breakdown of numbers of donors and total donations by zip code.

• 92107 (OB and part of Pt Loma); 22 donors / $2,205
• 92106 (Point Loma): 3 donors/ $250

The City of San Diego has finally conceded that no bandaid can fix the Ocean Beach Pier and it — as is — will never reopen.

The Union-Tribune announced it was “the end of an era for a crumbling Ocean Beach icon.”

The 58-year-old pier won’t reopen, after an engineer’s report found that stabilizing recent damage would be too costly. Instead, the city will keep moving forward with efforts to reimagine the pier’s future in the longer term and hopefully replace it.

By Brett Wilkins / CommonDreams / Aug 27, 2024

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump was hit Tuesday, August 27, with yet another federal indictment for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment that revises earlier felony charges against Trump in the election subversion case. The revised indictment comes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s July Trump v. United States ruling, which affirmed presidents’ “absolute immunity” for “official acts” taken while in office.

The San Diego Veterans for Peace, plus members of over twenty local groups, will be out on the Carroll Canyon Road Overpass over the I-15 this Thursday, August 29  and every Thursday until Thursday until the end of September at 4-6 PM protesting the dangerous and highly polluting Miramar Air Show.

As we read the dismal reports of experiencing the hottest year on record along with droughts, floods, far-too-early hurricanes and rising sea levels, the military (the world’s single largest institutional user of fossil fuels and GHG emitter) is planning to pollute our skies once again with the annual Miramar Air Show.

By Geoff Page

As reported here in The Rag last Friday, the City of San Diego held its Open House Meeting designed to garner input on the coming trash collection tax at the Point Loma Hervy Library, Monday August 26. According to those managing the event, about 40 members of the public attended.

To refresh memories, in 2022, Measure B, the ballot initiative that asked if San Diegans would be willing to pay for trash service, was approved. It was passed by only 50.48 percent of voters. To put that into perspective, the difference was only 3,839 votes out of 400,000 cast.

The city is now trying to figure out what to charge the public to collect trash.