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Blueprint For San Diego
Mayor Gloria's New Housing Programs
November/December 2021

This aerial view of an already densely populated Chula Vista neighborhood shows mainly single-family homes. Photo by Jarrod Valliere. Courtesy San Diego Union-Tribune

In July, Mayor Todd Gloria introduced a major housing initiative called Homes For Us All. A collection of programs that includes Blueprint San Diego, this initiative focuses on building new housing as opposed to using multiple strategies that retain naturally occurring, or unsubsidized, affordable housing, incentivize adaptive reuse, and reinvest in the pre-1960s housing stock. Many of these programs will be achieved by tweaking the City of San Diego's Land Development Code, such as creating more live/work units and building affordable housing on public property. However, Blueprint San Diego housing will require a full environmental review because it aims to streamline the community planning process and help implement the City's Climate Action Plan. The forthcoming environmental impact report for Blueprint San Diego will also include some community plan updates, such as for Mira Mesa and the Hillcrest Focused Plan Amendment.

With housing high on SOHO's watch list, we continue to recommend that the City add more strategies to strengthen this initiative and to achieve a well-balanced and more sustainable approach. The goal is to maintain the character and sense of place for San Diego communities as we develop more densely. SOHO's recommendations include:

  • Collect data to identify the locations of naturally occurring, or unsubsidized, affordable housing and impacts to it;
  • Incentivize reinvestment of the pre-1960s housing stock;
  • Facilitate the use of older and historic buildings through adaptive reuse;
  • Create programs to retain and support single-family homeownership; and
  • Encourage the combination of state and federal historic tax credits with low-income housing credits.

The City is seeking comments on these programs, which could potentially be implemented next year. SOHO encourages all San Diegans to express your opinion and ask for a balanced and sustainable approach to help protect and retain the individual character of San Diego communities. To learn more about commenting, please follow the two links in the first paragraph of this article.

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