Lots of new homes are being built all over San Diego County, and a large portion of them are near freeways.
Between 2018 and 2024, roughly one fifth of permits for new homes in San Diego County were within 1,000 feet of a freeway.
An analysis of state housing data by KPBS and Voice of San Diego shows the fastest growth in housing is happening in the urban core, which includes Downtown, Bankers Hill, Hillcrest and North Park. These are places that have lots of jobs and amenities, and are near transit.
This story was first published by KPBS. It’s part of our In Whose Backyard series which looks at where homes are being built and how that impacts the surrounding communities. Read more stories in the series here.
But there are also several freeways that carve paths through those areas, creating a lot of noise and a ton of pollution.
More than 96,000 housing permits were issued in the county between 2018 and 2024, according to the data. Almost 19,000 of them were for homes within 1,000 feet of an interstate or state highway.
“The noise is always there. I think we’ve just found a way of getting used to it,” said Jolene Miller. She lives next to the interchange of I-8 and I-15 in Mission Valley.
Even when she’s in her house, Miller said she can always hear the constant hum of the freeways. And it’s not just the noise.
“You can wipe your little table down on the patio every day, and it’s going to come out black every day,” Miller said. “So that (pollution that’s) coming through our windows, is coming into our lungs.”
Research from UC Davis shows the impact pollution from vehicle traffic has on air quality in nearby homes. The report found exposure to roadway pollution increases the risk of multiple health conditions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive conditions for people who live within 500 to 600 feet of a freeway.
More than 7,000 permits were issued just within 500 feet of San Diego’s highways from 2018 to 2024.
Research from UC San Diego also links air pollution to infant mortality and the risk of dementia.
And UCLA research found that freeway pollution can travel as much as a mile away from the source.
“It’s surprising how … if you were 500 feet from a freeway downwind, how much indoor pollution this causes,” said Chris Roberts from the environmental advocacy group San Diego 350. “And it’s linked to bad health outcomes, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease and overall mortality.”
The health risks of living near a freeway aren’t exactly news. As far back as 2007, city leaders and planners were considering the impacts highway air pollution could have on new homes proposed in Otay Mesa.
But because of the extensive low-density zoning in the region, the only places where apartments are even legal are often right next to a freeway.
The priority is building homes to address the housing crisis, even if that means adding developments near freeways, said San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn (District 3).
He represents many of the urban core neighborhoods that have a lot of new homes and a lot of highways. Interstates 5, 8 and 15, and State Routes 94 and 163 all run through or border District 3, and three of them converge right in the downtown area.
Whitburn said that he hasn’t heard complaints from his constituents about air pollution.
“Certainly I could appreciate the concerns about having housing adjacent to a freeway or a truck corridor,” Whitburn said. “You certainly want to have residents living in an environment in which it is healthy.”
He said it’s important to build more homes to stabilize or even decrease rents. Between 2018 and 2024, there were more homes permitted in the downtown 92101 ZIP code than any other in San Diego County. This ZIP code had the lowest rental growth rate in that time, according to Zillow data.
In that time, the ZIP codes in San Diego County where more homes were permitted have seen slower rent growth than those that permitted the fewest.
So, in places like District 3, there’s a balancing act. City leaders are trying to address a housing crisis with new construction, while remaining conscious of the impacts proximity to pollution can have on residents.
Miller said she started taking allergy pills, something she’s never had to do before moving so close to the freeway.
“I can’t wait to leave,” Miller said.
Uh, isn’t a freeway by definition public transportation? Isn’t freedom of choice to live where you deem fit? It comes with the territory. Funny how these stories evolve.
Freedom of choice to live where one wants. Wow. What a dream. An illususary carrot i was gaslit into believing and shamed for ever questioning. I see clearly now what others may not or perhaps choose not to. There are some, perhaps many, at least from where I stand, who have NO choice, NO freedom, in of least things, where they will live. And i do mean NONE. Narrow is the mind that cannot perceive such a reality. I,for one, never wanted to live on a bolevard, by a powerplant, next to a freeway, in a crime infested area. You do Not know my story as a native San Diego. This is no freedom of choice.
You post here a lot Chris. You’re close mindedness is obvious on many issues.
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“But because of the extensive low-density zoning in the region, the only places where apartments are even legal are often right next to a freeway.”
That’s the key line in this article. Residents of nicer, wealthier neighborhoods are vociferous and organized in their opposition to any and all new development in their area that isn’t a single-family home on a large lot. They fight tooth & nail to maintain outdated, exclusionary single family zoning that keeps housing scarce, inflates their property values, and forces the rest of us to live in less desirable areas.
These articles are written by comfortable people in homes who NEVER experienced homelessness. Most people would rather live in a home near a freeway than under a bridge on the freeway.
Sounds like the problem is that we have too many freeways.