Update 07/20/2025:
As published by the SD Union Tribune on July 15, 2025, San Diego city council reluctantly OKs controversial housing development in Encanto. Article highlights include these excerpts:
- Council members who voted to approve the project said they had no choice, because the allegedly racist policy that had paved the way for it wasn’t repealed until April — long after the project had gotten far enough into the city’s approval pipeline to be deemed a complete proposal.
- Council members said their reluctant approval likely foreshadows similar approvals the council will be forced to grant for large-scale alternative dwelling unit, or ADU, projects in coming months, despite the council voting to roll back the city’s ADU incentive.
- With both policy changes — repealing the allegedly racist policy known as Footnote 7 and amending the backyard apartment incentive — the city will be forced to let through projects that pre-date the changes.
- “The city may only apply the development standards that were in effect at the time the application for this project was deemed complete,” Deputy City Attorney Leslie Fitzgerald told the council of the 23-unit project in Encanto.
- ‘We cannot go back and re-apply new rules to existing projects,’ one member said of the Encanto project.
This article is shared from the San Diego Union Tribune website. Read the entire article through this shareable Link to SD Union Tribune:SDUT: San Diego council reluctantly OKs controversial housing development in Encanto
San Diego council reluctantly OKs controversial housing development, despite Footnote 7 fix
