The front section of Mishele Stead's apartment in Golden Hill on July 17, 2023.
View of Mishele Stead and Pamela Peterson's apartment building in Golden Hill on July 17, 2023. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler

We ran a story Monday about two women facing eviction from their Golden Hill duplex. The building owner seeks to redevelop their building into a dense residential structure. It’s a crappy situation for the current residents; they’re forced to find new homes in a tight market. But this project could turn four units into 108.

That’s in the works due to San Diego’s “Complete Communities” plan, which among other things allows for more density in transit-adjacent areas — designed to alleviate the housing crisis.

This story by contributor Kathryn Gray is an illustration of real life impact from complicated policy and legal mechanics from 2020.

The San Diego City Council voted on an update to that plan this week called the Housing Action Package 2.0. It would trigger changes across the city. But two features of the new plan got it stuck in the politics machine and the Council ultimately stopped it: fee waivers and off-site affordable units.

(If those terms automatically make sense, you are truly one of us and should probably be a VOSD Member by now. If not, this episode will guide you through one of our thorniest political matters.)

This week on the VOSD Podcast, our stalwart crew — Scott Lewis, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña, Jakob McWhinney and Will Huntsberry — dig into the knotty topic of urban housing, why the new plan got held up and the influence of developer money in city legislation.

Other Talking Points

Producer’s Note: We’ll be off next week for beef reasons. First, we’re going to be settling beefs of our own at Thanksgiving. Looking at you, Uncle Mike. Second, we’ll be preparing for Beef Week, a special Voice reporting theme week.

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Nate John is the digital manager at Voice of San Diego. He oversees Voice's website, newsletters, podcasts and product team. You can reach him at nate@vosd.org.

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