North County Report: An Unexpected Impact From District-Only Elections

District elections have been championed in progressive circles as a way to diversify school boards and local governments. When minority candidates run for office in their own communities, rather than citywide, they have an increased chance of getting elected.

Or so the thinking goes. Whether that’s actually occurred over time is debatable. Multiple press reports in recent years have analyzed the make-up of political bodies from cities that made the switch to district elections and found the results mixed.

But a new academic study suggests that district elections are having another effect on city life: fewer new homes.

Several California cities, according to researchers at CUNY and Princeton, are no longer concentrating home production exclusively in low-income neighborhoods now that those same neighborhoods have a stronger say in the political process. Instead, homes are being built in other parts of those cities. But there’s less of it overall.

In other words, elected bodies become more responsive to neighborhood opposition to new homes when politicians begin representing particular parts of town rather than the town as a whole.

The researchers used Escondido as an example. They found that before the city held its first district election in 2014, most of the projects that received home construction permits were located near downtown. Officials approved roughly 3,300 new units across Escondido between 2011 and 2013. Since then, home construction projects have mostly landed on the city’s outskirts. During the four years that followed the switch to district elections, officials approved just under 2,000 units.

The researchers also found that the type of housing approved by officials has changed in recent years. A greater percentage of the units approved after 2014 were single-family homes.

That bears repeating: as state officials and housing advocates pushed for more density, Escondido heard the warnings of an impending housing crisis and approved fewer multi-family homes.

But Escondido is an interesting choice to highlight, because the new City Council has openly acknowledged that it can’t keep constructing homes on the edge of town.

That makes sense. After all, Escondido, like most cities, is running out of available land to develop. Instead, officials have turned their attention back on downtown, with the hope of building up so that more people can be closer to their jobs and rely on a car less. Earlier this year, city officials created a program that lets developers transfer unused housing units among themselves in an effort to increase density.

Without a doubt, downtown Escondido is going to look and feel very different in the coming years, and that’s the point. Mayor Paul McNamara told the U-T editorial board last year that he’d like Grand Avenue to become “a mini Gaslamp” district.

Last week, the City Council approved a 32-unit project near the Sprinter station at Quince Street, but killed another project — totaling 131 units — across the street from City Hall, known as Aspire.

Before voting against the six-story apartment complex, McNamara and other Democrats echoed community members who said Aspire was too tall, too out of character for the historic neighborhood and didn’t provide enough parking.

A representative for the developer called the Council members’ justifications “illogical and incomprehensible,” the Coast News reported. He said the firm had brought the city exactly what it had asked for — a design that’s out of the ordinary but classy and one that could kickstart a larger trend toward transit-oriented development downtown.

Arguing in the project’s defense, Republican City Councilman Mike Morasco said residents had also lobbied against the construction of City Hall many years ago by saying it would “destroy the charm” of Escondido, but he doubts anyone feels that way anymore.

Democratic City Councilwoman Olga Diaz told us that the developer had been seeking too many fee waivers, hadn’t gotten enough buy-in from the neighboring community and hadn’t met with her to discuss her concerns until the day of the vote.

The lack of affordable housing in the project was also cited as a problem. Aspire would have set aside a mere nine affordable units out of the 131 total.

“Sometimes the projects that I see that are checking all these boxes, with density and all of that, which I think is great, aren’t necessarily affordable to the folks who live here,” said City Councilwoman Consuelo Martinez, who also voted against the project.

• Home-building in low-income, minority neighborhoods was also the topic of a recent forum hosted by student activists. They argued that gentrification doesn’t get the attention it deserves when officials talk about the housing crisis. (Coast News)

Relax, Says Encinitas Mayor — We’re Only Adding 6 Percent More Housing

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has officially signed off on Encinitas’ housing plan. Cities are required every few years to provide the state with a blueprint for where new homes could be built, but Encinitas voters have rejected those plans at the ballot box.

A group of developers and renters sued, and a judge agreed late last year to suspend a local law giving residents veto power over major land use changes. The city is now in compliance with state law and will soon begin work on its next housing plan, which is due in 2021.

At a forum Tuesday in San Diego, Mayor Catherine Blakespear defended her city’s current housing plan, which has gotten significant pushback from residents, many of whom feel that their community character is under threat. Even if all the sites in the plan end up being developed, she said, the housing stock will increase by a modest amount: 6 percent.

“That is not going to change your quality of life dramatically,” she said.

She acknowledged that Encinitas will be adding more apartment complexes and more density, and stressed that the city’s push to increase affordable units, like granny flats, would be one avenue to meeting the state’s mandate.

“Having a really deep understanding of what housing law is and what it’s trying to accomplish and why it’s designed the way it is has allowed me to see housing not as a punishment but as a responsibility and also as a privilege and an opportunity.” she said. “Because when you think about the communities that you want to build, you want places for seniors to live and you want places for artists to live and you want young people to be there. That is your vibrant community.”

Carlsbad Is Having Quite a Couple Weeks

• City Councilwoman Barbara Hamilton abruptly resigned her seat weeks before she originally planned to go. She expressed frustration last week that the city wasn’t moving quickly enough to appoint her successor. (Union-Tribune)
• The city officially joined the Clean Energy Alliance, making it the second to do so after Del Mar, the Coast News reported. As Ry Rivard wrote in August, smaller cities around the region are opting to form their public energy programs rather than join a larger one being established by San Diego. The county is hitting pause on the idea for now, the U-T reports.
• Carlsbad plans to add an average of 500 trees annually through 2025. (Union-Tribune)
• A used bookstore and arts hub in Carlsbad is facing unexpected eviction. The city, said a friend of the owner, “is gentrifying and there’s a lot of good that comes with that, but it’s also losing a little of that unique personality it always had.” (Union-Tribune)

Hello, Goodbye — Sorta

From Jesse: My fellow misfits and miscreants, sometimes in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one reporter to dissolve the bands that have connected him to a place and look elsewhere for good stories.

That is to say, after 13 months I’m handing the reins of the North County beat to the talented Kayla Jimenez, who’s been covering sexual misconduct in schools around the region.

It’s been real, so stay in touch. I’ll continue to cover the District 3 supervisors race but I’ll be refocusing my efforts around the San Diego metro.

Please continue to send tips to Kayla. Continue to indulge me with your taco recommendations.

Stuff We’re Working On

• Ry Rivard concluded his four and a half years at VOSD with a piece about what he’s learned covering water in the West. He helped put the Carlsbad desalination plant (and other major water projects) in its larger context.
• Rivard also reported that water vending machine companies, including North County-based Glacier Water, compete aggressively to sell outside of supermarkets and pharmacies at an incredible markup. The industry is only lightly regulated. In fact, the California Department of Public Health inspected just two machines in San Diego County last year.

In Other News

• None of the four Republican candidates running for the 50th Congressional District, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, managed to secure the party’s endorsement. The ballot results are confidential, but the U-T reports that Darrell Issa, who represented the neighboring 49th Congressional District until last year, didn’t receive any votes.
• Lawyers representing the Crossroads of the West Gun Show said they will challenge a new state law that bans the sale of guns and ammo at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, reports KPBS. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill banning the sale of guns and ammunition at the Del Mar Fairgrounds beginning in 2021 on Oct.11. Marx went to the last event and tried out his best gonzo impression.
• An Oceanside councilman’s legislative aide who is now running for state assembly is facing heat for a comedy stand-up routine he performed years ago. He used crude language about sex and how to determine a woman’s sexual history. (Union-Tribune)
• Del Mar and the California Coastal Commission remain at odds over how to deal with rising sea levels. The city unanimously rejected 25 modifications proposed by the state. (KPBS, Union-Tribune)
• A sci-fi author and his family live every day like it’s 1964. They carefully curate and regularly update a mix of songs, TV programs and commercials that were on the airwaves around the time LBJ was running for election against Barry Goldwater. (Union-Tribune)
• A KPBS analysis of broken trash bins in San Diego found that neighborhoods including a portion of Del Mar, Carmel Mountain and Sorrento Valley were high on the list to order new trash bins.