Report makes case for more coastal housing
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As if you needed more reasons to live in La Jolla. Photo: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Building homes along San Diego's coast is about more than ocean views and mild weather, according to a new report.
Why it matters: It's not really a surprise that living on the coast is desirable, but the report uses data to make it clear what exactly draws people there, and makes the case that building more housing there makes sense, author Wesley Morgan told Axios.
- His report was published in August by the San Diego Fair Housing Lab, a housing research nonprofit.
State of play: Pacific Beach and La Jolla score well on the state's economic measures and have lower pollution levels than 90% of California census tracts, according to the report.
- All 21 census tracts in both neighborhoods also fall in the top two tiers under state metrics for schools, economic opportunity and pollution, compared with 55% of tracts citywide, according to the report.
- Eleven of Pacific Beach's 13 tracts also scored above average on schools, as did seven of La Jolla's eight.
Case in point: Those high-performing schools draw students from all over the region, according to the report.
- More than 300 students who live outside its boundaries attend Mission Bay High.
Meanwhile, neither neighborhood saw much of an increase in the number of people living there over the last 25 years.
- Citywide, the number of residents grew by 18.5%.
Yes but: That does not mean nothing was built along the coast. Both PB and La Jolla added housing units, but not enough to offset homes that are only used seasonally or left unoccupied.
- Those homes now make up about half of the vacant homes in both neighborhoods, versus about a quarter citywide, Morgan said.
The goal, according to Morgan, is to open the coast's schools and clean air to more San Diegans, including the many people who already drive there every day for work and school.
The other side: More construction doesn't necessarily make the coast more affordable, Karen Ventimiglia of Neighbors for a Better California told Axios.
- Her group supports more coastal housing, but wants policies to be judged by whether they create homes within reach of people currently priced out, not just by how many units they allow.
- "For us, access means more than increasing the legal capacity to build," she said. "It also means giving working people and families a realistic chance to live in the communities where they work."
Caveat: The report doesn't estimate how many homes, or at what prices, any specific rule change would produce, and it leaves zoning and height decisions to the city.
- And, Morgan said, the city should invest in neighborhoods away from the coast, too.