San Diego Council, in 5-4 Vote, Doubles Zone for High-Rise Housing

It may seem like a small step for a 5-4 majority on San Diego’s City Council to take—redefining “walking distance” from a half-mile to a mile—but in terms of new housing, this action may turn out to be a giant leap.

San Diego’s existing rules permitted high-rise apartment buildings—as well as what are known as “backyard units”—in neighborhoods within walking distance—previous defined as a half-mile—of a transit line.

Thanks to the one council member who decided the issue on the nine-member municipal government, this measure is likely to spur the development of thousands of new housing units in San Diego (assuming lending eventually loosens up for new construction).

“This will result in more homes for moderate-income and low-income San Diegans, which everybody knows we need very badly,” Councilmember Vivian Moreno told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

However, opponents to the measure noted that simply extending the “walkable” line on the city’s zoning map to one mile does not change the fact—according to surveys cited by the opponents—that many people are not going to walk a mile to the transit line.

Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who voted no, said the change in the density rule would have a “tremendous and terrible” impact on the city.

“What we have probably caused is the opposite effect,” Campbell told the newspaper. “We will have people resort to their cars, rather than spend the 20 minutes to walk to transit.”

She also said the increased density from the expansion of high-rise apartments would rob San Diego of its embrace of open, sun-filled spaces. “We don’t want to turn San Diego into Los Angeles or Manhattan,” Campbell said.

Another council member who opposed the measure complained that city planning officials had slipped the density change into a package of 84 municipal code changes that were voted on as a single omnibus bill approved by majority vote.

The omnibus bill included tougher rules for new projects in San Diego vulnerable to sea-level rise and stronger wildfire prevention rules for renewable energy storage facilities. The package also outlawed storage facilities in prime industrial areas.

Under San Diego’s current eight-year housing plan (California calls each city or county’s plan a “General Plan Housing Element”), which runs from 2021 through 2029 and covers all of San Diego County, the City of San Diego’s portion of the regional target is 108K new homes.