The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to repeal a controversial footnote in the city code. District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera was absent.
The 2019 footnote reduced minimum lot sizes for a certain zone of land, allowing denser housing — but only in neighborhoods in Southeastern San Diego. These neighborhoods were formerly redlined and remain majority Black and Latino and low-income.
On one lot in Emerald Hills, developers plan to build more than 120 homes where zoning would only allow 70 anywhere else in the city.
Neighbors discovered the footnote after a year of investigating why large developments were coming to lots that didn’t seem to be zoned for it.
City staff acknowledged the footnote didn’t follow best planning processes by singling out neighborhoods and by not directly discussing it with those neighbors, but denied claims that it violated fair housing laws.
They calculated that removing the footnote now would result in 465 fewer potential single-family homes.
During the council discussion the area’s councilmember, Henry Foster III, reiterated his commitment to creating more home-ownership opportunities in his district. He called large lot sizes — which were shrunk in his district by footnote 7 — discriminatory, outdated and harmful, because they drive up housing costs, excluding people from owning homes.
But he took issue with the way footnote 7 was added to city code.
“The lack of transparency and engagement in policy-making affecting neighborhoods, especially those historically discriminated against like District 4, is unacceptable,” he said.
Existing developments already approved under the footnote — including one planned for the radio towers lot in Emerald Hills — are moving forward. Staff said halting or reversing the projects, as community members are demanding, could violate state law.
The community planning group wrote a letter to the mayor in November asking him to stop those projects with an executive order. City staff warned that would violate the city charter, municipal code and state law, and the decision must be made by the city council.
Dozens of neighbors wearing bright yellow spoke in public comment. They said repealing the footnote is not enough without stopping all projects that rely on it.
Following the typical timeline of bureaucratic steps, the mayor will likely sign off on the repeal in early March. It will take effect 30 days later.
Any development applications deemed complete before then could move forward under the footnote’s regulations.
