{"id":259655,"date":"2026-04-09T17:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259655\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:15:23","slug":"preservationist-group-sues-city-over-historic-district-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259655\/","title":{"rendered":"Preservationist group sues city over historic district changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"One<\/a>One of the historic cottages in Ocean Beach. (Photo courtesy of Kathy Blavatt\/Ocean Beach Historical Society)<\/p>\n

SAN DIEGO \u2013 A prominent group has sued the city, arguing that environmental study is required before the recent approval of changes to a historic preservation program can be considered valid.<\/p>\n

The San Diego Superior Court action is being brought by Save Our Heritage Organisation<\/a>, a nonprofit devoted to the preservation of San Diego\u2019s historic architecture and landmarks.<\/p>\n

SOHO wants an Environmental Impact Report to be done under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), to address any adverse environmental impacts to historic resources posed by the city\u2019s Preservation and Progress Program.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 24, the city approved Package A, the first of two planned comprehensive updates in a quarter-century\u00a0to the program, which identifies and protects historically, culturally or architecturally significant buildings and places.<\/p>\n

Through\u00a0Preservation and Progress<\/a>, the city is updating policies and regulations in an attempt to protect historic resources while aligning with its housing, equity, sustainability and resilience goals.<\/p>\n

SOHO claims Package A\u2019s approval is invalid, since it was done without analyzing the potential environmental impacts of weakening protections for historic resources across San Diego via modifications to the city\u2019s Municipal Code and General Plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistoric places are an integral part of our environment and shared city identity,\u201d said SOHO\u2019s executive director\u00a0Bruce Coons. \u201cCEQA requires the city to carefully study and mitigate the impacts of proposed major policy changes. That did not happen here, and adverse consequences to San Diego\u2019s historic resources will be irreversible.\u201d<\/p>\n

SOHO contends the city relied on past EIRs that it failed to supplement for the substantial changes to the program, affecting historic neighborhoods and cultural resources citywide. The approved changes targeted by SOHO in Package A would allow the City Council to exercise discretion to overturn historic property designations granted by historic experts on the city\u2019s appointed Historical Resources Board.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s segmentation of the Preservation and Progress Program updates into phases \u2014 Package A and a forthcoming Package B \u2014 also has been challenged by SOHO. The organization contends CEQA requires environmental impacts and mitigations for all parts of historic projects\u00a0to be studied and approved together as the \u201cwhole of the action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Package A\u2019s policies would also affect emerging historic districts, for instance, those in Ocean Beach. SOHO notes OB could potentially be adversely impacted by the passage of Package A, as it is\u00a0one of the most historic beach communities on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

With a history stretching back to the late 1800s, the community is layered with architectural, cultural and social history from its early seaside development and amusement attractions, to its role in 1960s social movements, including Vietnam War protests. The community includes important parks, churches, civic sites, commercial districts and women\u2019s clubs, as well as sports, railroad history, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has never completed a comprehensive historic survey of Ocean Beach, despite saying for years that it would,\u201d according to a SOHO news release. \u201cNow, without that work, the public is being asked to accept that the only history worth recognizing amounts to just 72 cottages.\u201d<\/p>\n

SOHO claims there are hundreds of qualifying structures in OB deserving of historical designation. The organization also spelled out what it believes \u201cshould\u201d be done concerning OB and its emerging historic district.<\/p>\n

\u201cA proper process is straightforward: establish the historic context statement, conduct a professional survey, identify contributing resources and submit the results for formal designation,\u201d said SOHO, which added this caveat:\u00a0\u201cAll of this should happen\u00a0before\u00a0major planning decisions or removing current protections that could threaten historic resources, not after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of SOHO\u2019s suit over Package A, Coons noted, \u201cThe [city] violated the law, that\u2019s why we\u2019re suing, because they\u2019re making fundamental changes to the way the city\u2019s historical ordinance is being used.\u201d<\/p>\n

If allowed to stand, Coons said, the changes the city has made will allow elected officials to render judgments on historical properties, which are political decisions and not based on the project\u2019s merits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re weakening the current historical protections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A court win for SOHO, Coons said, would be the city admitting \u201cthey have to do an environmental review.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the historic cottages in Ocean Beach. (Photo courtesy of Kathy Blavatt\/Ocean Beach Historical Society) SAN DIEGO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[37079,3101,114494,74,76,75,4922],"class_list":["post-259655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-historic-district","tag-ocean-beach","tag-preservation-and-progress-program","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-save-our-heritage-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}