When nearby transit is years off, how much housing should San Diego allow? Here’s what a judge just said. – San Diego Union-Tribune

A judge is halting construction of an eight-story apartment tower in Golden Hill after a group of residents sued, contending the project wouldn’t be so tall if it weren’t relying on what they call a bogus claim about nearby transit.

The key issue in the lawsuit — which could affect many other projects across the city that rely on density bonuses related to transit — is whether future bus and trolley routes should qualify if they are planned but not funded.

Under city rules, projects are eligible for density bonuses if they are in zones called sustainable development areas, which must be within a mile of an existing or planned transit route. City policy doesn’t mention funding.

But Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil issued a temporary restraining order last week that seems to indicate he thinks funding might be a key factor.

Wohlfeil expressed doubts that an unfunded future transit route should allow a developer to build as many units as an existing route or a funded future route.

The apartment tower, which would be built on a recently cleared lot just southwest of Balboa Park municipal golf course, relies on a future rapid bus route in Golden Hill that county planning officials call Project TL46.

“The question is whether a ‘major transit stop’ is planned to exist within one mile of the project site,” Wohlfeil said. “Project TL-46 strikes the court as speculative. If, for example, TL-46 were an economic forecast, the court questions whether evidence of TL-46 would be sufficiently trustworthy.”

TL46 is a planned rapid bus route that will be called Route 637 if it begins operating as scheduled in 2035. It is estimated to cost $130 million by the county’s regional planning agency, the San Diego Association of Governments.

The route, which would get within one-third of a mile of the project site on A Street between 29th and 30th streets, would connect North Park and Golden Hill to the 32nd Street trolley station.

Wohlfeil stopped short of issuing an injunction in the case, but he accelerated from Dec. 12 to Nov. 26 a scheduled hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction — a less temporary more rigorous block on construction.

But Wohlfeil noted that his issuing of the restraining order and acceleration of the injunction hearing don’t mean his mind is made up.

“The court emphasizes that its findings and orders herein are without prejudice to a different outcome at the Nov. 26 hearing,” he wrote.

The residents group, which calls itself Preserve Golden Hill, said the case is significant for another reason related to potential gentrification of low-income neighborhoods.

“The significance of this project is that, if ruled legal by the courts, it would allow developers to target prime lower-income rental areas such as Golden Hill,” the group said this week. “Under the guise of ‘affordable housing,’ this would decimate affordable housing stock for luxury apartments.”

Preserve Golden Hill is echoing a longtime critique of the city housing incentive that the project relies on: Complete Communities Housing Solutions.

The incentive lets developers build structures up to four times larger than a property’s zoning typically allows. Many times, it has been used to replace older buildings that city officials call naturally occurring affordable housing.

Complete Communities allows projects that exceed zoning dramatically because it’s based not on the formulas other incentives use but rather on a different concept called floor-area ratio.

Instead of dictating a maximum number of units based on zoning, floor-area ratio determines how much total square footage can be built based on a particular multiplier of the square footage of the ground-level lot. The developer can decide how many units to build as long as the project doesn’t exceed that square footage.

Under Complete Communities, developers in different neighborhoods can use different floor-area multipliers — ranging from two in coastal areas up to eight in areas with mass transit, high-paying jobs and educational opportunities.

The unfunded rapid bus route planned for Golden Hill in 2035 makes the proposed tower eligible for Complete Communities.

“It’s pretty speculative to say that someday there might be some transit there,” said Everett Delano, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

Delano said the project is slated to include 186 units even though the underlying zoning would only only 17 units. He said the developer demolished five units that had relatively low rents in June to make way for the project.

A spokesperson for City Attorney Heather Ferbert declined to comment, citing the upcoming hearing. “We have no comment on pending litigation,” said the spokesperson, Ahmad Ibrahim.