SAN DIEGO—Micromanaging development down to your neighbor's fence color is seen as a right and a duty by residents who feel they are stewards of making their neighborhoods great, Norm Miller, PhD, Ernest W. Hahn Chair of Real Estate Finance in the School of Business Administration's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego, tells GlobeSt.com. Miller, who is scheduled as the keynote speaker for Burnham-Moores' 15th Annual Residential Real Estate Conference: Outlook 2016 on Dec. 10, recently authored an article about California's NIMBY culture. We spoke with him exclusively about this phenomenon in the San Diego market in particular.

GlobeSt.com: Why does it seem as though San Diego has a stronger NIMBY sentiment than other parts of California? 

Miller: The more desirable a place is to live, the more difficult it will make it for developers to add new supply. If you want to develop in Buffalo or Detroit, you will be welcomed with open arms. San Diego is one of the best places on earth to live, so as the world becomes more global we will continue to see San Diego real estate, especially along the coast, continue to be in stronger and stronger demand. This alone allows San Diegans to become "NIMBYs" and yet still see some development.  

I don't think that San Diego has a stronger NIMBY culture than other areas along the coast. All areas along the coast are valuable and often very high-end real estate, so these are mostly established wealth and older than average households. Such households tend to be more protective and, in my view, less sympathetic to those who wish to move close to the coast and their sacred sanctuary. It's also culture, and I find a similar culture in San Diego as in San Francisco, but the culture of interfering with the property rights of others seems to be something ingrained in CA. 

I recall a good friend, maybe in her 60s at the time, walking with me in San Clemente, and she saw a small fence painted a color she did not like in front a neighbor's home and made the comment to me, "Gee that is an ugly color. I need to bring that up at the next community meeting and see what we can do about that!" and I said to her, "Is that how everyone feels in San Clemente, that you can micromanage the colors of neighbors fences?" and she said, "Absolutely, that is why we have such a great neighborhood!" I was flabbergasted, but she was serious and felt it was her duty to oversee what everyone did outside the home. This was 15 years ago, and that is when I decided some of this is cultural and it is contagious. One successful interference in the property rights of others leads to more and more of such actions, and today, with everyone connected by social media, it is easy to quickly mobilize protests and let a small minority seem as if they represent everyone.

GlobeSt.com: What's the best strategy for developers in light of this?

Miller:One strategy, which some may view as unethical, is to ask for far more than you expect to have approved. Start with really gigantic ugly project sketches, and let the local population feel they have molded it into something much better by the second or third round of a much smaller scale while they feel they greatly reduced the scope of your project to something closer to what you really wanted to do. Expect to compromise on everything you can as long as it still pencils out, and ask for something in return when you do compromise, faster permitting or protection from further continuous scrutiny.

Second, hire a well-connected and respected lobbyist and a good experienced lawyer up front to help guide you.

GlobeSt.com: How will the culture change as San Diego becomes an even stronger real estate market? 

Miller: I think it will become even more difficult to do smaller-scale projects and infill unless you have community-based advocates on your side. So, we will see mostly larger-scale, inland developments in areas where opposition is less.  We will also see more Caruso-style grass roots approaches that start with community-based research that forms the basis of the proposed project.