City Council rejects mayor's housing package

Mayor Todd Gloria's big housing package is done, at least for this year.

Driving the news: The San Diego City Council on Monday voted against a set of housing deregulations Gloria pushed in hopes of bringing down costs, leaving city staff pledging to bring the package back with changes next year.

What they're saying: Council President Sean Elo-Rivera and Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe voted against the package because of a change to the city's Complete Communities program.

• That program lets developers construct more units in a building in exchange for including low-income units in the project. The change would have let developers build those units at a secondary location.
• Elo-Rivera failed to win support for an amendment that would require the low-income housing to be built in the same neighborhood.
• Councilwoman Jen Campbell also voted against the package, saying the city's recent attempts to spur development have hurt neighborhoods.

Collateral damage: Included in the package was a plan to, over time, shut down environmentally harmful businesses operating on property zoned for housing in the Barrio Logan area.

Flashback: The package had already been whittled down, with its most significant initial proposal removed this summer.

• The planning commission balked at the plan's initial attempt to make San Diego the first city in California to implement an optional state law letting developers build up to 10 units on lots near transit zoned for single-family housing.