San Diego Housing Federation estimates<\/a> about 150,000 more homes are needed to balance the market.<\/p>\n\u201cI want every family, every young person in District 4 to have the same opportunities that I have had,\u201d said District 4 City Councilmember Henry Foster III. \u201cAnd home ownership, the building of generational wealth, is critical to long-term sustainability and success.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, who was the district\u2019s councilmember when the footnote was originally added to city code, appeared at the meeting to speak during public comment. She shared a similar argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy motivation in supporting this project lies in the principle that I want others to have access to the same opportunity that I had in life, a chance to grow up in a home that I knew would always be there for me to dwell in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Patricia Montgomery, is a real estate broker and co-owns a local construction company with her husband, Steppe\u2019s father. She also spoke in support of the development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping that people in the community will have the opportunity to not just live in an apartment or a rented property that\u2019s owned by someone else, but to be able to go and purchase their own home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The development includes 13 \u201caffordable units.\u201d They will be priced above what a typical household in that area can afford, based on census data on median income.<\/p>\n
The city estimated the project will also yield $3.5 million in development impact fees, which can be used to build public facilities like parks, libraries and sidewalks.<\/p>\n
Neighbors who opposed the development said they are not against housing altogether. Appellant and Chollas Valley Community Planning Group Chair Saige Gonzales Walding proposed a \u201cland swap\u201d solution \u2014 saying an equal amount of land could be identified elsewhere that could be used for the development, while preserving the hilltop for the park. The council\u2019s discussion did not address that proposal.<\/p>\n
Both Foster and Montgomery Steppe pointed to a history of large lot sizes being used to exclude Black people from white neighborhoods. Since the footnote was repealed, the council has not moved to rezone lot sizes citywide.<\/p>\n
District 7 Councilmember Raul Campillo was the only one who voted to support the appeal and stop the development. Campillo called the footnote a \u201cpoisonous tree\u201d that can only yield poisonous fruit. He argued the footnote violated federal law around fair housing, and consequently any rights granted to the developer based on the footnote are invalid.<\/p>\n
Before the hearing, protesters voiced what their next step would be if they lost the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cVote them out! Vote them out!\u201d they chanted outside the building.<\/p>\n
Two council members are running for reelection in November, including Foster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neighbors in Southeastern San Diego lost a half-century fight this week. A housing development will proceed on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-391268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391268","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=391268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}