NEGLECTED COMMUNITIES TO GET OVERDUE HELP

For decades, visitors to San Diego who go to poorer parts of the city after first seeing the affluence in La Jolla, Carmel Valley or Rancho Bernardo could be in for a shock. In some southern communities, well used-roads aren’t even paved, and parks, libraries and public safety facilities are much less common. But when city leaders were asked about this, some depicted it as an unavoidable fact of life because of rules requiring developer fees be spent in the neighborhoods where they were collected.

On Monday, the City Council broke with that history. After approving a policy in August under which all developer fees going forward will be placed in a new citywide pot of money, the council set up a new process under which potential infrastructure projects funded with these fees would be evaluated. The city will give a higher priority to projects in neighborhoods that are historically neglected and low-income, that are experiencing the most growth and that are least prepared for the effects of the climate emergency. Under the new approach, the city must do far more outreach in less affluent communities to give their residents a bigger role in infrastructure planning and decisions.

This may not be as tidy a fix as hoped, especially in a city in which good-faith decisions sometimes have painful unintended consequences. Developers will no longer be able to assume the fees they paid to get approvals for new projects would be used for adjacent improvements and may be more cautious as a result. But on balance, this change should be embraced. Councilmember Raul Campillo is exactly right when he says it’s time for San Diego to make up “for a long history of disinvestment in some communities.” Dirt roads in a modern city aren’t acceptable. This should have been clear long before 2022.