SIGN THE PETITION

If this ballot measure passes, Sacramento will no longer be able to dictate San Diego’s housing policies through ill-conceived laws such as SB 9 & SB 10...(open)

If this ballot measure passes, Sacramento will no longer be able to dictate San Diego’s housing policies through ill-conceived laws such as SB 9 and SB 10... (open)

If you or someone you know attempted to register for the Housing Package 2.0 in-person meeting last Thursday, March 2nd, at the Mission Valley Library, but were unable due to registration being full, please let us know by replying to this email today... (open)

As a result of our media turnout effort and supporters who were able to show up on short notice, we had excellent coverage by both CBS 8 and ABC 10. It's rare that we get to frame the news, instead of the carefully crafted magical thinking that the City presents to the media.

As for inside the room... (open)

Today the City Council had its second reading of the Land Development Code update and, as expected, the one-mile SDA was approved by the same 5-4 margin. We thank the four Councilmembers who voted against it, but we already have to move on. The hits keep coming...(open)

If you live in Council Districts 3, 4, 6, 8, or 9, remind your Council member that it's not too late to CHANGE their vote and PULL THE SDA... (open)

Today, four thoughtful City Council members voted against approving the 2022 Land Development Code (LDC) because they thought the construct of Sustainable Development Areas (SDAs) was too significant and its implications too far-reaching to be handled as part of the LDC Update. The four council members (Joe LaCava, Jen Campbell, Marni Von Wilpert, and Raul Campillo) each had slightly different reasons, but all thought the City should invest the time to get it right....(open)

The Sierra Club San Diego Chapter has submitted a letter requesting the City Council pull the SDA. You can read that letter here...(open)

The League of Women Voters of San Diego has submitted a letter requesting the City Council pull the SDA. You can read that letter here...(open)

On the eve of the City Council vote on the SDA proposal, we shared this outstanding open letter that was sent to City Council members by Nico Calavita, Professor Emeritus in the Graduate Program in City Planning at SDSU...(open)

The Planning Department's Staff Report (see our highlights) appears to be misinforming City Council members by implying that the city risks decertification of its Housing Element if it doesn't pass the Sustainable Development Area (SDA) proposal. THIS IS NOT FACTUAL...(open)

“I’ll never see another sunrise from my backyard.”

That’s how Eric Rosenzweig describes the impact of three, two-story ADUs now under construction on the other side of his backyard fence...(open)

Here's what you can do...(open)

We urge the City Council to pull the SDA proposal from the Land Development Code Update so it can be fully considered as the major land use change that it is... (open)

The investor/builder of the closely-situated properties featured in this report is squeezing three, two-story apartment buildings in each backyard, totaling 15 income-producing rental units where two single-family homes once stood. Make no mistake, these are not "granny flats" that benefit single-family neighborhoods, homeowners, first-time homebuyers, or renters... (open)

Spoiler Alert: They want your money, not your opinion... (open)

We interviewed University City resident Bonnie Kutch regarding her recently-published Opinion essays in The San Diego Union-Tribune and the Times of San Diego. Read Bonnie's insightful commentary on the need for smart, balanced, and environmentally-sound zoning... (open)

For those of you living outside the city limits of San Diego, understand that this radical shift in SANDAG policy would set a precedent for eliminating constraints on over-development in other SANDAG municipalities... (open)

The Land Use & Housing Committee passed the Sustainable Development Area (SDA) proposal in a three-to-one vote Thursday. ...District 1 Councilmember Joe LaCava referred to the SDA as a "significant policy shift" — not a clarification, not regulatory reform, not a state mandate — but a significant policy change that does not belong in an annual code update... (open)

We’ve confirmed that the Sustainable Development Area (SDA) is on the Land Use and Housing Agenda for Thursday, January 12, 2023, at 1:00 PM... (open)

When it comes to driving successful transit-oriented development, distance to transit is a critical factor... (open)

As we pause to enjoy this well-deserved holiday break, we leave you with this summary of some of the more important issues we've reported on and will continue to address in the coming year...(open)

Because Thursday’s workshop was not an action item, no vote was taken to formally recommend one of the plan options. However, the Commissioners were clear in their preference... (open)

The College Area Community Plan Update Goes to the Planning Commission... (open)

Thank You! You made a difference!... (open)

As we explained in our last email, the Planning Department is finally proposing to use walking distance to define proximity to transit, as Neighbors For A Better San Diego has been advocating for over a year.

Unfortunately, this change is negated by the proposed overall expansion of walking distance from one-half mile to a full mile. This expansion means that MORE San Diego single-family neighborhoods will be targeted for overdevelopment... (open)

Will  your street be upzoned from single-family homes to 8-story apartment  buildings? Attend the meeting to find out and make your opinions known... (open)

...we  embrace this opportunity to address the glaring deficiencies of San  Diego’s new transit development maps, regardless of what the city wants  to call them... (open)

At the last minute before today’s Planning Department workshop on the Land Development Code Update,  the Planning Department has retracted the proposed Transit Priority  Area (TPA) revisions and instead proposes to introduce an entirely new  definition of proximity to transit, which they are calling Sustainable  Development Areas (SDAs)... (open)

Neighbors  For A Better San Diego emailed a survey on San Diego housing issues to  all eight candidates on the November 8th, 2022 ballot for City Council.

We've entered the results into our at-a-glance chart... (open)

After  waiting 7 months to see the Planning Department's revisions for the  College Area Community Plan Update, many of you were locked out of last  night's long-awaited meeting on September 28th, 2022... (open)

We  are very sorry to report that tonight's College Area Community Plan  Update Committee Meeting is having two unexpected technical issues:

The meeting has unexpectedly capped out at 100 participants

and

The Chat has been disabled ...(open)

The community's proposal has been submitted to the Planning Department to be considered  alongside whatever plans the Planning Department proposes. This plan,  which is based on the City's GIS data (SanGIS SANDAG GIS Data  Warehouse), provides 10,524 potential additional housing units without  significantly upzoning the area's single-family neighborhoods. You can  read more about the Community Update and our proposal here... (open)

During the  July 27 meeting with the College Area community, the Planning Department  advised the community's Plan Update Committee that if they wanted a  Community Plan Update proposal that reflected their 7 Visions Report, then the community's Planning Group would need to produce its own plan. And so we did... (open)

Whether  he was deliberately sticking a finger in the eye of Talmadge residents,  or just promoting a former lobbying client of his communications  director, Todd Gloria lavishly praised a Bonus Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) project on 49th Street in his latest weekly newsletter... (open)

Mat  Wahlstrom digs into the numbers behind state and local housing policies  and points out the inconsistencies between what these policies  encourage and what San Diego’s real housing needs are...(open)

During the July 27th College Area Community  Plan Update (CPU) meeting, the Planning Department abandoned any  pretense of working collaboratively with the College Area. If the  College Area wants a plan update that reflects its vision for the  future, the Planning Department has told them they will have to produce  it themselves... (open)

Whether  it’s the poor stewardship of the public’s money reflected in the Ash  Street bailout, or the promotion of poorly-written housing policies that  claim to deliver equity and climate action but accomplish neither, San  Diego’s homeowners are the only group willing to stand up to the Mayor’s  political machine and call out the flawed thinking of these actions... (open)

Dear Mayor Gloria, In keeping with the promise of a fair and transparent government,  College Area residents deserve to know if grant funding is driving the  Planning Department's decisions to unnecessarily upzone its  single-family neighborhoods in order to fulfill grant obligations...(open)

For the past several months, College Area  residents have pushed back against the City's proposals for 5-story (or  higher) apartment buildings in its single-family neighborhoods.

As a result, the City of San Diego Planning Department will be holding an Open House to collect feedback from the community... (open)

Our recommendations to the Audit Committee specifically focus on the  challenges that residents have faced in fulfilling their role in the  City's  “complaint-driven enforcement”...(open)

Frustrated neighbors speak out against up-zoining in College Area...(open)

Following the Planning Department's May 25th meeting, more than 100 residents participated in a June 6th planning exercise for the College Area hosted by Neighbors For A Better San Diego and the College Area Community Council... (open)

This meeting is open to everyone. Click here to register. You must register in advance if you wish to attend in any capacity, including viewing, listening, and possibly speaking... (open)

Residents in  University City are celebrating a hard-fought win against the Planning  Department's effort to drastically increase density in the residential,  single-family portion of their neighborhood... (open)

Eric  Rosenzweig spoke for many residents when he outlined the very negative  consequences of building eight-unit apartments in older neighborhoods  that were designed, engineered, and built for single-family homes... (open)

In  an effort to bring awareness and transparency to the closed process by  which the Planning Department, at the direction of Mayor Gloria, is  proposing to radically upzone College Area neighborhoods, Neighbors For A  Better San Diego has created this short, ten-minute video outlining the  College Area Community Plan Update... (open)

Neighbors  For A Better San Diego emailed a questionnaire on San Diego housing  issues to every candidate running for the 2022 San Diego City Council  election... (open)

Although  this issue is specific to the College Area, we are sending this email  citywide because Neighbors For A Better San Diego feels it's important  for other communities to be aware of the actions of Mayor Gloria's  Planning Department... (open)

In this issue  of Perspectives, we welcome College Area homeowner Eric Rosenzweig who  is experiencing first-hand the repercussions of San Diego's ill-planned  Bonus ADU developer-incentive program... (open)

In our effort to inform, empower, and give voice to San Diego's single-family homeowners and prospective homebuyers, we've invited neighborhood advocates and thought leaders to share their opinions, research, and findings. The result is Perspectives, our periodic editorials by guest contributors with the goal of helping our members become better-informed neighborhood stakeholders... (open)

We've identified major flaws with the city's College Area Community Plan Update survey, but we feel it's important to fill it out, regardless... (open)

It appears that the City is using  out-of-date housing and population projections for the College Area  Community Plan Update. The resulting grossly-inflated assumption of how  many people need to be housed in the College Area is being used by the  Planning Department to justify significant upzoning of the area's  single-family neighborhoods... (open)

We  want our members in District 9 to be particularly aware that there is a  College Area Community Plan update in progress that proposes to convert  a number of single-family neighborhoods to townhomes and other  multi-family housing... (open)

The Washington Post published a story last month about the rise in investor-owned housing in 40 U.S. cities, including San Diego... (open)

Are bike lanes your priority?  What about street paving?  Sidewalks?  More Parks? ...or Police or Fire Stations?  Only you can let your priorities be known... (open)

It's important that community members show up to vote for candidates who best represent their neighborhoods and values. It's  also important to show the City of San Diego that there is broad  community support for Planning Groups as the City is working to  disempower these groups... (open)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 1st, is the final approval of the Housing Action Package, which is included in the consent agenda as Item 54... (open)

Our Neighborhood Voices has announced they will re-file their measure to qualify for the 2024 ballot instead  of the 2022 ballot. This means that signature-gathering will need to  reset and restart... (open)

Thank you to our many  loyal members. We literally took on City Hall and in less than a year  and without much money and no big political support, we achieved the  following... (open)

Rather than address the legitimate concerns raised by Neighbors For A Better San Diego, the Mayor has instead hired a new Communications Director, Rachel Laing, to attempt to bully us into silence by calling us NIMBY racists... (open)

She’s not a “Boomer”, isn’t “wealthy”, and doesn’t live in Kensington, Talmadge, or Mission Hills… But this Allied Gardens resident ... (open)

Thanks to you, the #1 result of the survey was to "Eliminate ADU fee waivers and [enact] ADU policy reforms" (page 26)... (open)

Throughout this process, we have made a rational and compelling case for aligning San Diego’s ADU policies with state law... (open)

The Land Use & Housing (LU&H) Committee is going to be taking up the Homes For All Of Us: Housing Action Package, including possible amendments to the city’s ADU code, at its next meeting on Thursday, January 13...  (open)

The Land Use & Housing (LU&H) Committee will be discussing the Draft Housing Action Package, giving us the opening we've needed to formally propose our changes... (open)

Council President Sean Elo Rivera has posted an online survey asking his D9 constituents to share their priorities... (open)

We had a tremendous turnout at the December 16th Planning Commission meeting... (open)

We'd like to thank all of you who showed up to speak, watch, or cede your time today at the Planning Commission meeting. Click to the full video of today's meeting. Item #4 begins around the 1:07:45 mark. (open)

San Diego's Bonus ADU Program is based on a seriously-flawed Transit Priority Area (TPA) map... (open)

A bullet-list of basic talking points... (open)

The Planning Commission is going to be considering changes to San Diego's ADU regulations on Thursday, December 16th and we need your help!... (open)

As  we begin this Thanksgiving holiday, we'd like to acknowledge your many  contributions and thank you all for your continued support... (open)

Introducing OurNeighborhoodVoices.org, the California initiative to UNDO SB 9 and ALL overreaching zoning bills pouring out of Sacramento!.. (open)

CHANGES TO THE CITY'S ADU CODE: Councilmember Elo-Rivera recently proposed changes (summarized in the graphic below) to San Diego's developer-friendly 2020 ADU code to  correct some of the flaws exposed by Neighbors For A Better San Diego  (open...)

"Brand New Upzoning Laws Create Big Money-Making Opportunities!"

Well, that didn't take long... (open...)

Thanks to you, San Diego City Council takes a first step towards revising its ADU code... (open)

The City of San Diego has responded to the flaws we exposed in San Diego's 2020 ADU ordinance by sending out an "Accessory Dwelling Units Fact Sheet"... (open)

As of September 6, over four thousand San Diego residents have signed our petition asking the city to revise its ADU ordinance. Neighbors For A Better San Diego (NFABSD) has met with Mayor Gloria and all of the San Diego City Councilmembers... (open)

With the final passage of SB 9 and SB 10 by the State Senate, it is now just a  matter of time before Governor Newsom signs them into law. Where does this leave us in the fight against Sacramento’s assault on single-family neighborhoods?... (open)

This is an important SB 9 update from Maria Pavlou Kalban of UnitedNeighbors.net

Please  know that the passage of SB 9 in NO WAY affects our efforts to correct  San Diego's neighborhood-killing 2020 ADU ordinance... (open)

Below is a detailed update on SB9 and SB10. Thank you to UnitedNeighbors.net and LivableCalifornia.org for their tireless work on stopping these bills and educating the public... (open)

This is an Action Alert regarding SB 9 and SB 10... (open)

We've  been told it's necessary to hand over San Diego's single-family  neighborhoods to developers in order to solve the "Affordable Housing  Crisis" in our city. The data, however, doesn’t support this claim... (open)

Here is the video and the links from last Thursday's ADU event hosted by the San Diego Network of Town Councils...(open)

The chart above highlights the various approaches that California municipalities have taken to meet the State's requirements for ADU incentives. Instead of adopting one of these rational alternatives, San  Diego chose to develop an extreme Bonus ADU program that incentivizes  developers to outbid homebuyers and build apartment complexes on  single-family parcels, contributing to the elimination of our  single-family housing market, diminishing single-family neighborhoods,  and squeezing out the middle class... (open)

Note: We've updated the chart in this email. Click here to view the newest version.

Boardmembers of the Kensington-Talmadge Planning  Group received a letter this morning from the Chamber of Commerce ahead  of a scheduled presentation tonight by Neighbors For A Better San Diego ... (open)

Residents from  Talmadge and surrounding neighborhoods gathered this morning from 11:00  am to 12 noon in Talmadge to speak out against the transformation of a  single-family residence into a **six-unit rental complex** with no  parking, no setbacks, and no landscaping, in one of San Diego’s oldest  neighborhoods... (open)

Since today’s Zoom event with Mayor Gloria and Councilmember Elo-Rivera  was not conducive to a full discussion of the motivations and impacts of  the ADU ordinance (141.0302) that was passed by the Council last  October, we would like to present the issue ourselves... (open)

Hijacked  and misused to sugar-coat San Diego’s neighborhood-killing zoning  changes, this term is the new catch-phrase of City Hall and developers... (open)