December 7, 2021
Housing Action Package Opens up ADU Regulations for Amendment
It's time to make your voice heard!
The City is quickly moving forward with a new round of zoning modifications. On November 19th, the San Diego Planning Department published a Draft Housing Action Package, which includes proposed amendments to the 2020 ADU code.
We welcome the recognition by Mayor Gloria that the current ADU code is inadequate, but the proposed amendments will NOT fix the major problems with San Diego's ADU laws, especially the Bonus ADU developer incentive program which is being used NOW by investors who have figured out how to max out single-family properties with 7 or more ADUs.
Despite the severe negative impact that overbuilt, multiple-ADU projects have on neighborhoods, our outgoing Planning Director, Mike Hansen, justifies these projects as the city's primary moderate-income affordable housing strategy, even though ADUs produce a fractional percentage of the units that the city needs to meet its housing goals. Even by the Planning Director's own math, ADU production would have to increase 300 times to meet the city's goals.
There has to be a better way — the real crisis that San Diego faces is a crisis of leadership, and we need our mayor, our council, and our city planners to face San Diego’s future with real plans and real data, instead of blaming single-family homeowners.
Read the full text of the Draft Housing Action Package here: