SAN DIEGO NEEDS TO STOP ITS ‘HOUSING CRISIS HYSTERIA’

I will never see another sunrise from my backyard. I will never see those huge moon rises from the east that I enjoyed with my kids.

Not because of some debilitating medical condition, though it’s a debilitating condition all the same. The condition I’m speaking of is a roughshod government that continues to foist policies upon its citizenry with little or no regard for the citizens themselves. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, the Planning Commission and the San Diego City Council, including my District 9 representative and Council President Sean EloRivera, have an agenda from which they will not be dissuaded — to use the cry for more housing as a way to hide developer-friendly policies and our city’s lack of proper community planning for housing and infrastructure.

I agree there’s a need for more affordable housing, and I support efforts to that end; however, our council has done little to actually provide affordable housing. Mayor Gloria’s “Homes for All of Us” initiative is a perfect example. Under the guise of affordable housing, San Diego provides developer incentives for “bonus” accessory dwelling units that allow a bonus unit to be built for every one that is deeded as very low, low, or moderate-income in a Transit Priority Area, which is defined as a half-mile as the crow flies from a major transit stop, e.g., bus or trolley.

So what’s the result? Bonus accessory dwelling units are popping up all over San Diego, but most notably south of Interstate 8 where land is less expensive and lots are larger. Three two-story buildings with six accessory dwelling units are under construction behind me in College Area, with three of them deeded for moderate-income households, with essentially market-rate rents. Another three buildings with six units are under construction across the street, and three of those are deeded moderateincome. Three buildings on each property rise 25 feet into the sky with no consideration for the single-story homes in the neighborhood. All these accessory dwelling units are being built by the same developer. Ridiculously, the developer isn’t required to provide any parking because we are in a Transit Priority Area, even though it’s a mile walk down a steep hill to the trolley stop — whatever the as-the-crow-flies distance.

My neighbors and I bought homes in this neighborhood because it was zoned as single-family. Single-family is not a property with multiple buildings and seven or eight residences. Our city’s use of accessory dwelling units to redefine “singlefamily” zoning is an insult to all of us who worked hard to find a way to afford a home in San Diego.

Now the Planning Department wants to replace Transit Priority Areas with Sustainable Development Areas in local zoning codes — and expand the distance to transit to 1 mile walking distance. I fully agree that the original Transit Priority Areas should be based on walking, not flying, but 1 mile is absurd — and calling these areas something else doesn’t make them any more reasonable. Data almost universally shows how dramatically transit ridership drops with distance to transit, which is logical, but our city ignores common sense. This change to Sustainable Development Areas will make 4,612 more acres in San Diego eligible for the accessory dwelling units Bonus Program, and the council’s Land Use and Housing Committee supported it.

The new Sustainable Development Areas definition will result in greater infill of existing single-family neighborhoods with accessory dwelling units as apartments with no consideration for the water, sewer, parking, police, fire or other infrastructure needed to support this density.

There is no discussion of infrastructure impact in the proposal for the Sustainable Development Area change, yet it will surely widen the city’s $4 billion infrastructure shortfall.

So where is the data to verify that moving to this new definition of Sustainable Development Areas would have the desired result? The Planning Department has provided none.

Where is the data that show the “Homes for All of Us” initiative is providing more truly affordable housing? Again, nothing is publicly available to help us evaluate if more affordable housing is being created by destroying single-family neighborhoods.

Our city needs to take a pause from the “housing crisis” hysteria and analyze the available data. We need to understand if the policies that have been implemented are meeting their objectives, or not, before throwing more fuel on the fire.

Our city needs to start prioritizing the people who already call San Diego home. Sustainable growth happens when cities plan for it by taking the concerns of both its current and future residents into consideration. It’s just common sense.

Our city government foists policies upon its citizens with little or no regard for our concerns.