San Diego city officials last week released a draft of Blueprint SD, an update to the city's general plan they said will enable a faster response to the city's housing shortage.
The general plan is like a master plan for the city's growth and development. The update does not rezone any community for higher density, but rather, identifies the areas that need to densify in order for the city to meet its climate goals.
Those areas, laid out in a "climate smart village area map," include neighborhoods that are already growing, such as downtown, Hillcrest and North Park, as well as neighborhoods that have seen comparatively little growth in recent years such as Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Logan Heights.
The map was developed using modeling software that analyzes a community's proximity to jobs, public transit and amenities like parks, schools and grocery stores. Suburban-style neighborhoods such as Otay Mesa, Carmel Valley, Rancho Peñasquitos and Allied Gardens are identified as more car-dependent, meaning they should see comparatively less growth in the coming years.
City Planning Director Heidi Vonblum said Blueprint SD will cut down the time it takes the city to rezone neighborhoods for higher density from five years to two or three years. Vonblum said the lengthy and arduous community planning process often leaves residents frustrated and exhausted, and few people are able to meaningfully participate from start to finish.
"The faster community plan update process means that more people can be involved and stay involved in shaping their community's future and can focus on the issues that are really the most important to them," Vonblum said.
The shorter timeline for updating community plans will soon be put to the test. Earlier this year, city officials announced they will be updating the Mid-City Communities Plan, which covers a vast area including Normal Heights, Kensington, City Heights, Rolando and Oak Park. Many of those communities are called out for higher density in Blueprint SD.
Initial outreach on the Mid-City Communities Plan update began earlier this year, and the city aims to complete the process by the summer or fall of 2026.
A recent example of a community plan update that has been stuck in limbo is Clairemont. Early attempts to rezone the neighborhood for more housing began a decade ago, as city leaders looked to capitalize on the extension of the Blue Line trolley along the neighborhood's western edge.
Service on the trolley extension began in 2021, yet most of Clairemont is still under the zoning adopted in 1989. The City Planning Department released a draft update of the Clairemont community plan three years ago, but little progress has been made since then.
City officials also released an environmental impact report for Blueprint SD. If that report is certified by the City Council and withstands any potential legal challenges, it could make future community plan updates more resilient to lawsuits. Vonblum said it will also spare her department from having to do redundant analyses.
"We really are saving a lot of governmental resources, as well as paper, by not having to repeat the same analysis over and over and over again," she said.
But it's unclear how much Blueprint SD will change the political considerations of the mayor and city councilmembers, who are often met with resistance from longtime residents and homeowners who oppose higher-density development and want to slow the community planning process down.
The last comprehensive update to the city's general plan was in 2008 — seven years before the city committed to rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by concentrating its growth in walkable, bikeable and transit-rich neighborhoods. Transportation is the city's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The public has until April 29 to submit comments on Blueprint SD. City staff aim to present it to the City Council for a vote in the summer.
