Today’s question: How much longer before this lovely home is demolished and replaced with something ill-suited to the street? On Dec. 2, 2021, I used Leica Q2 to take the Featured Image, after my wife read about the property in University Heights Community Association News. Photo vitals, aperture manually set: f/4.5, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, 28mm; 12:18 p.m. PST.
According to public property records, the place sold for $1.595 million during October 2021. UHCA News reports: “This charming Victorian home at 4350 Cleveland is 2,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and built in 1905, according to the 2015 Uptown Historic Resources Survey Report”.
Real estate research isn’t my area of expertise, so I must rely on the story, which continues:
As part of the sale, the previous owner obtained permits to build a 12 micro-unit complex with three stories, a roof top common area, and NO PARKING! There will be two 410-square-foot studio units, six 598-square-foot 1-bedroom units, and four 800-square-foot 2-bedroom units. Just one of the units will be designated affordable.
All around this part of San Diego, single-family homes are renovated into additional residences; leveled and replaced with multi-unit structures; or joined by granny flats or larger buildings on excess lot space (e.g, front or back yards). Proximity to a public-transit stop opens opportunities for developers to move ahead, despite the impact on residents or the streets where they live. One day, a demo crew reduces the neighboring property to rubble. Months later, a large structure looms over your home, reducing natural airflow and sunlight while increasing congestion, noise, and parking problems.
As Bill Ellig, UHCA News story author, further explains:
Projects like this can be built almost anywhere in University Heights except for those areas zoned for single-family homes. If the project meets zoning and other municipal code requirements, it is approved by City staff, without public review. Such projects are considered ‘ministerial’ and are therefore not subject to review by Uptown Planners or North Park Planning Committee.
The two organizations that he mentions are community development groups that represent University Heights (and some other neighborhoods) for the city of San Diego. Bill is a former UP member, so he should understand the topic reasonably well—and certainly better than me.
The second question: Are these property conversions necessary? Recent zoning changes fit into a broader strategy to discourage driving cars and encourage use of public transit—all in the interest of reducing so-called carbon emissions. As such, the city has loosened up zoning regulations around Transit Priority Areas, located within one-half mile of public transportation stops, which include buses. As the UHCA News story rightly explains: “Developers may apply to build micro unit projects in a Transit Priority Area with a 100-percent density bonus and no parking”.
Being a Maine boy, respecting and protecting Mother Earth is encoded into my DNA. But even I wonder the rationale of saving the planet by wasting time—the presumption being people living in one of these no parking-complexes will gladly spend an hour or more riding a bus to work when they could drive there in 10-15 minutes.
That’s assuming the job isn’t any meaningful distance East, North, or South of the city on a commuting route requiring bus and trolley. Add another 30 minutes or so. For example, leaving from the University Heights bus stop at Park Blvd. at 8:00 a.m. on January 31 for Westfield UTC mall would take an estimated one hour and 16 minutes. By car, 14-24 minutes, depending on traffic—and that variable applies to both means of transportation.
You tell me: Save time and get to work on time or waste time to save the planet? San Diego public policy presumes the latter. Is that thinking realistic or utopian fantasy? Or do you think it’s something else?
The companion photo comes from iPhone 13 Pro. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 32, 1/161 sec, 13mm; 12:20 p.m.