San Diego plan targets housing gap as families leave
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Plans are in the works to alleviate the high housing costs that are driving home sales to a record low.
Why it matters: While the city is building more apartment buildings in the urban core, there still aren't enough neighborhood "middle housing" options for families, officials and experts told Axios.
The big picture: The city's Neighborhood Homes for All of Us plan, launched last year, encourages more construction of cottages, duplexes and townhomes, which would be bigger than apartments but smaller than detached homes.
- In addition to focus groups to collect feedback, the city held its first technical working group meeting last month, per city spokesperson Peter Kelly.
- Architects, urban designers, economists and other building industry experts discussed regulations to encourage neighborhood homes.
- The city is hosting public workshops this spring.
The overall idea would be to reduce or eliminate lot size requirements so that more than one house could be built on a single lot.
By the numbers: Getting rid of minimum lot sizes could lead to homes costing $600,000 or $700,000 rather than the median $950,000, according to a study by real estate adviser Gary London.
- "We're not talking about affordable housing here; what we're talking about is attainable housing," he told Axios.
Between the lines: San Diego is building more homes but primarily apartment buildings in urban areas, per a KPBS and Voice of San Diego analysis of permitting data from 2018 to 2024.
- That works for people in their 20s and older people, but not people in their 30s and 40s with families, London said.
- Meanwhile, the number of San Diegans in their 30s and 40s is slowly shrinking, according to data from SANDAG.
The Neighborhood Homes for All of Us plan aims to help fill that gap.
- London said townhomes and smaller cottages in neighborhoods like Clairemont would better fit that demographic's needs, making them less likely to leave the region.
Zoom in: San Diego county is years ahead of schedule to meet a state requirement to build a certain amount of housing, per Spencer Katz, spokesperson for Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer.
- He pointed to Lawson-Remer's efforts to streamline housing construction, including letting developers self-certify small parts of projects.
- The county permitted 6,577 homes — 98% of its target — in the last four years, he said.
The bottom line: London said San Diego is in a moment akin to what appears on HBO's "The Gilded Age," where mansions on the Upper East Side of Manhattan began to transform into apartments.
- "San Diego is … now growing up to a community that is more dense, and more interesting and vibrant," he said.