Bonus ADU Being Challenged by Neighbors Throughout San Diego
Neighbors Say Stop the Abuse of Power
By Paul Krueger
It’s been a long and difficult effort to win even limited reforms to the city’s destructive “Bonus ADU” Program.
Credit for common-sense restrictions on San Diego’s backyard apartment buildings will be shared by neighborhood activists who documented the program’s abuses and joined forces to make persuasive presentations to the city council and planning commission.
Through it all, Mayor Todd Gloria, his staff, and the political appointees who run his planning and development departments consistently dismissed concerns about the “Bonus ADU” Program.
But now that the tide is turning, the Mayor wants us to believe he actually supports efforts to limit the damage inflicted by multi-unit monstrosities.
Worse, he and his minions now congratulate themselves for “…ensuring (high-density, infill) projects are consistent with the scale and character of San Diego’s neighborhoods.”
It’s damn near Orwellian for the Mayor’s publicists to claim the City “…monitors its housing programs to ensure they are achieving the desired results, and often makes adjustments based on feedback from the community…”
Anyone who has studied the issue knows the reality: The Mayor, his Planning Department, the City Council, and the Planning Commission are in fact directly responsible for the blight caused by excessive ADU construction.
They have consistently rebuffed any criticism of the infrastructure-busting program.
They have empowered predatory developers to jam up to 126 dwelling units on a single-family lot, with no parking, miniscule setbacks, and give-away waivers for developer fees.
Four years ago, College East residents invited Mayor Gloria to attend a meeting about the looming impact of multi-unit, multi-story ADU projects planned for Manchester Road and 69th Street.
The 50 neighbors who gathered that afternoon had repeatedly asked project developers about the scale, design, and impact of the multi-story buildings. Their requests were ignored.
So they asked their elected officials — including a mayor whose campaign slogan promised government “For All of Us” – to visit their neighborhood, listen to their concerns, and bring developers to the table.
Mayor Gloria’s staff never bothered to respond. But they did find time that same day for him to attend a ribbon-cutting for a vegan cookie shop on Alvarado Road, less than a mile from the meeting.
This has been the cynical and scornful playbook for the Mayor, most of the City Council, and their allies:
Ignore community meetings, public testimony, and the research that verifies the so-called “unintended negative consequences” of the “Bonus ADU” Program.
Move the goalposts when confronted with undeniable evidence of the program’s failures. After admitting that “bonus” program has not produced the promised very-low and low-income rental housing, Gloria’s PR team instead uses the nebulous term “affordable,” which, for them, includes small one-bedroom apartments that rent for $2629/month.
Resort to vicious, personal attacks by denouncing neighborhood activists as old, white, selfish, and entitled homeowners.
But early this year, the Mayor and his allies were blindsided by sweeping grass-roots opposition to large-scale ADU projects in Encanto, Chollas View, and other Southeastern San Diego neighborhoods.
“Neighbors for Encanto” represents homeowners and renters in those “historically underserved and disadvantaged” neighborhoods. The group includes more minority, low-income, and Spanish-speaking activists than groups in other neighborhoods decimated by Bonus ADUs.
Unlike his Council colleagues, District 4’s Henry L. Foster III listened to his constituents. He introduced legislation to align the city’s ADU program in single-family neighborhoods with state law, which requires cities to allow just three ADUs on a single-family lot.
It was a gutsy move, because Foster’s council colleagues consistently support YIMBY pro-densification dogma. They also fear the mayor’s wrath, and they need the building industry’s sizable campaign contributions.
But when the District 4 residents and their councilmember joined the fight, the mayor faced a dilemma. He couldn’t dismiss them as elitist homeowners. So he resorted to subterfuge.
At a March 4 Council meeting, Planning Director Heidi Vonblum defied a principle of good government practice — and likely violated the state’s public meetings law — by issuing a last-minute memo warning the Council of dire consequences if it supported Foster’s motion.
By holding back the memo, she was able to persuade the Council to exempt a huge number of single-family parcels from the sensible ADU restrictions.
Don’t be fooled. The mayor is not our ally. He has proven time and time again that he, his administration, and his donors in the building industry will stop at nothing to sabotage meaningful “Bonus ADU” reforms. That’s why we must keep “speaking truth to power” and calling out the mayor’s false narratives by presenting the facts about the devastation caused by unbridled development.
Category: Architecture, feature, Government, Housing, Real Estate
