initiative<\/a> proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria to encourage more townhomes in single-family neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want to slow investment,\u201d Benvenuto said.<\/p>\n
Council President Joe LaCava praised Lee for taking a slow and steady approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can all reach agreement pretty easily on what the problems are, but it\u2019s very difficult for government to be surgical in its approach and really get the intended consequences to solve a problem,\u201d LaCava said.<\/p>\n
Lee said he plans to exempt newly built housing. He also stressed that his proposal wouldn\u2019t apply to most rental housing but only to single-family homes, condominiums, duplexes and multiplexes of two to four units.<\/p>\n
Lee said he chose those types of housing because they are the ones that historically have provided entry-level homeownership opportunities for families.<\/p>\n
He said the tax would likely be progressive, meaning investors would pay a higher rate if they own more homes. He didn\u2019t include even a preliminary estimate of how large the tax would be.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera praised the proposal, which was approved 5-0 by the council\u2019s Rules Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cHousing is a human right, and that means corporate and speculative investment that makes housing more difficult to access is wrong,\u201d Elo-Rivera said.<\/p>\n
He called Blackstone and Greystar the worst examples of the practice, accusing them of neglecting properties, using algorithms to pick rents that maximize profit and charging excessive fees.<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera said he\u2019d like the proposal to include a first right of refusal for ordinary San Diegans when properties come up for sale.<\/p>\n
Lee said he would consider all ideas and perspectives. He also said some related ideas could be handled separately from the proposed tax, which requires a vote of the people, as new city policies or ordinances.<\/p>\n
To pass, the tax would require only a simple majority of voters, because the money would go into the city\u2019s general fund. If it were to be used for a specific purpose, that would increase the approval threshold to two-thirds.<\/p>\n
Lee said he plans to return to the Rules Committee soon with more details.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still early in the process, and we\u2019ll be looking forward to engaging stakeholders and the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego City Council members endorsed Wednesday a possible November ballot measure that would levy a new tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,989,181,23,205,100,13,388,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-281368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-local-politics","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-real-estate","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-headlines","18":"tag-san-diego-news","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281368","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=281368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}