San Diegans for Responsible Growth

If the tragic inferno that recently unfolded on Maui taught us anything, it's the importance of proactive brush clearing, emergency preparedness and common sense by local government.  Why is the City of San Diego failing to implement critical brush management programs in communities where it's needed most?  What is the wisdom in packing high-density housing into high-risk fire zones with limited escape routes?  How can the city be so foolish as to reduce lanes on our main thoroughfares to accommodate bike lanes, potentially hampering neighborhood evacuation efforts even further?  The City of San Diego is failing its citizens on all fronts, and fire officials and residents must hold the city to account.

Communities across San Diego are united in solidarity against Mayor Todd Gloria's egregious high-density housing initiatives that are destroying neighborhoods and making San Diego unlivable.  These initiatives far exceed demonstrated demand, ignore the need for supportive infrastructure, shift San Diegans from future homeowners to lifelong renters, destroy our urban canopy, fail to provide truly affordable housing, disregard existing residents’ input, and intentionally destroy established, single-family neighborhoods.

It all began in University City, where more than 200 residents turned out on a cold and rainy morning on March 11th to protest the city's proposal to add 56,000 new housing units to the small, 7.32-square-mile community that essentially would triple the housing density and corresponding population.  While the city lowered their proposed number to 33,000, it is still far more than the existing infrastructure can handle and also poses a threat to the environment and safety of residents who might need to evacuate in the likely event of a wildfire.  The Community Discussion Draft was issued and residents are awaiting the Environmental Impact Report.

The all-volunteer Coalition is calling for responsible growth, meaning sound planning with growth balanced with infrastructure, ample parks and open spaces, preservation of our urban canopy, truly affordable housing policies, opportunities for home ownership, redevelopment of underused commercial and industrial properties, and preservation of single-family neighborhoods for future generations where families can grow and thrive. Most of all, responsible growth includes residents in the decision-making.

The first Citywide Protest for Responsible Growth was held May 6th, with rallies taking place at staggered times throughout the day in University City, Clairemont, Mission Hills, Hillcrest/Bankers Hill, North Park, Normal Heights and the College Area.  More than 800 residents participated, sending a resounding message to City Hall that ruining their respective neighborhoods was not okay!

Upward of 450 residents from more than a dozen communities across San Diego -- from University City to Barrio Logan, the beach communities to those inland -- came together on July 29th along Friars Road at the northeast corner of Fashion Valley Shopping Center to voice their opposition to SB 10 and the city's other high-density housing initiatives.  Passing vehicles honked their horns in support of the messaging, lifting protestors' spirits and giving them hope of making a difference, which it did.  It was decided at the August 3rd Planning Commission meeting to remove SB 10 from the city's Housing Action Program 2.0.

What San Diegans for Responsible Growth is calling for has everything to do with preserving our single-family neighborhoods for the Next Generation. We want our young citizens to be able to one day become homeowners, rather than be life-long renters, and to live in neighborhoods that will nurture and protect their children.  Michael Kozma, a 16-year-old who grew up in University City, was inspired to stand up for his generation and, in the process, he inspired us all with the three-minute speech he gave during the August 3rd Planning Commission meeting that earned him loud applause and a sincere compliment from City Planning Commission Chairman William Hofman.  You may read Michael's full speech below, and watch him at 3:06 in the videotaped meeting here.

"I am calling on all of you to remove SB 10 from the Housing Action Package 2.0. There are so many reasons to not support SB 10, but given the limited time, I will focus on the impact of the bill on my peers and me. 

My name is Michael Kozma, I am 16 years old, and a member of the younger generations that SB 10 has supposedly been designed for. 

While this bill has been marketed as a necessary solution that increases access to housing, it permanently puts my generation at a disadvantage. The equity firms and developers that can afford these renovations will only offer housing for rent and not for sale. SB 10 decreases the supply of permanent housing, increases competition for what is left, and subjugates my peers who accept their fate of renting in one of these complexes. 

As single-family lots are purchased to be redeveloped, the number of homes that go on the market will decrease. Lower supply means higher prices. My peers and I will have to deal with a housing market that is even more expensive, destroying our goals of home ownership, stability, and permanence. 

And even worse, competition in the market will increase dramatically. The ability to put 14 housing units on a single lot of land creates profit margins that no large equity firm can resist. I will never have the money to compete with a major corporation over a single-family house. They will win every single time. If the market does not favor people now, imagine how rigged against us it will be if SB 10 passes. But rest assured, the owners of these firms will still enjoy their single-family homes in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Rancho Santa Fe. 

Our only option for housing in San Diego, then, would be these new complexes. We will be life-long renters, at the will of a corporation, in a landscape completely altered from the community we entered as children. There will not be yards or green spaces for our children as they face important developmental milestones. There will be an abundance of street parking that reduces visibility while increasing congestion and pollution. There will be no privacy. This is not an environment where one can raise a family. 

So yes, SB 10 increases access to shelter. We will have an abundance of cramped apartments owned by corporations that have nothing but profit in mind. That does not help my generation! Like everyone else, we need the space, stability, and permanency that home ownership affords to raise a family and build the communities that we know and love."

 -- Michael Kozma, Age 16, University City