This week’s podcast is all housing, housing, housing (with a dash of transit).
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer made headlines after his State of the City speech nearly a year ago when he said, “Height limits outside the coastal zone put a cap on housing. This year I’ll propose the Council remove them.”
This week, as Andrew Keatts reported, Faulconer’s long-awaited plan came with a lot of caveats and stipulations, and largely functions as an opt-in program.
Keatts, along with hosts Scott Lewis and Sara Libby, discussed what’s in the plan.
This Week on Inclusionary Housing …
San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez made a deal this week with business groups on her top priority: updating the city’s inclusionary housing policy.
The current policy essentially gives developers a choice to either incorporate affordable housing units in their projects or pay a fee to fund that low-income housing elsewhere.
The updated policy Gómez pushed calls for builders make 10 percent of their units available to low-income San Diegans. And if developers don’t set those homes aside, they have to pay a fee that will eventually rise to $25 per square foot.
Keatts, Lewis and Libby dug into the nuts and bolts of these two housing initiatives — and whether the convoluted nature of housing development blocks a whole bunch of people from the conversation.
How MTS Could Move You
This week, leaders on the Metropolitan Transit System’s board considered two different visions for the sales tax that’s slated for the November 2020 ballot. These are options for how the revenue would be used.
Option 1: A new trolley line — the Purple Line — stretching from the South Bay to the jobs center in Sorrento Valley. It would be finished near 2046 and account for a third of the proposed measure’s money.
Option 2: Feed the revenue into bolstering existing bus and trolley services. This would account for about half of the measure’s money.
Our hosts speculated who would want which, and the potential revival of the aerial gondola.