Issues: Affordable Housing

Don't let San Diego become another Nevada or Santa Barbara

By Jim Schmidt, The Transcript
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

On March 16, a big Nevada Development Authority bus with 15 people arrived at Horton Plaza to entice some of San Diego's businesses to leave. I was there as the Nevadans attempted to shaft this city on the TV and radio while passing out bags of nuts. Listed on the bags were "5 Ways To Lower Your Nut." These included: eliminate personal income tax; axe corporate income tax; don't pay inventory tax; lower workman's comp costs; and relocate to Las Vegas.

The colorful Nevada bus, which was ticketed for parking too long in a red zone, didn't attract business executives and drew strong opposition with signs like "You'd be nuts to leave San Diego for Las Vegas" from the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. Previously, the Nevada gang had visited San Francisco and Sacramento.

It is doubtful if the Nevada group visited Santa Barbara as most of the damage to business already has been done there. Recent newspaper articles have highlighted Santa Barbara's problems of median home prices of $ 1.1 million, the exodus of big employers, poor families doubling and tripling-up to afford rental housing and terrible traffic congestion for workers who can't afford to live there and commute to their jobs. Santa Barbara is known as a bastion of the "slow growth" mentality that the anti-everything people have pushed in San Diego since the early 1970s when the Sierra Club started attacking new affordable housing projects like Pardee Construction Co.'s housing in Mira Mesa. Pardee was providing housing in the $16,000 to $19,000 price range for families in the $6,000 to $7,000 income bracket.

Santa Barbara's previous problems from the "slow growth" movement included not going into the state water project because of opposition from the "no growth/slow growth" opponents. As a result, a few years later Santa Barbara had severe water problems when its water storage dam went dry. People were not allowed to water their lawns, and a company that sprayed lawns green reaped the profits. Golf courses had real problems with the lack of water. Santa Barbara then went into the state water project to help solve its water problems.

Santa Barbara's affordable housing problem is horrible. Santa Barbara-Ventura area residents express concerns on the terrible commuter traffic situation. Drivers "crawl" on state Route 101 from Ventura and other areas to their jobs in Santa Barbara. In San Diego the situation is similar, as many people have bought more affordable homes in areas like Temecula/Murrietta, which is 60 miles of very bad traffic congestion from downtown San Diego.

Now Imperial County, located approximately 110 miles from downtown, is becoming a place to buy affordable housing. Keep in mind that with a 10 percent down payment, families can afford to buy housing at a price about three times their gross family income. This means that families with $100,000 gross income cannot qualify to buy a median-priced home here of about $500,000. Things are only worsening as some new North County homes are being sold in the $1 million range.

Isn't it about time that labor, business, civic groups, teachers, students, retirees and everyone team up to oppose the groups and people who continually oppose new housing in San Diego City and County as well as in other cities in the county? My Jan. 12 article in The Daily Transcript urged that the public be told the truth about growth and how our housing-supply shortage is the primary cause of our affordable-housing problem.

San Diego has a strong economy with job opportunities for our young people to stay here. The California Department of Finance reports that San Diego's average annual gain in total jobs over the last 10 years is more than 30,000 net new jobs a year. Also, we are living much longer than our parents, so San Diego is going to continue to have growth. We must have homes, condos and apartments available for our citizens. Keep in mind that the building and sales of new homes in one area helps apartment renters; there is a movement of three to four families or individuals as other homes, condos and apartments are vacated, which then opens up housing availability for others.

Ending the long delays in processing building permits with costly extra inspections and additional mortgage interest added to the price of the housing (caused by the delays) would help solve San Diego's housing affordability situation. The building industry itself needs to come up with a plan and recommended changes to speed up the completion of new homes, condos and apartments. Positive changes are doable.
Let's hope local government and the public start making it happen. Let's not have San Diego become another Santa Barbara. With its very hot and cold weather, please also tell Nevada to leave us alone. That city has terrible traffic congestion in areas, and it faced Sierra Club opposition from the Club's recent lawsuit to block the five-mile widening project from six to 10 lanes of U.S. 95 (from three to five lanes each way). Instead, let's send the Nevada bus to Massachusetts for the perfect fit.

Schmidt is a retired banker and attorney. He is currently active in civic organizations and transportation, housing and sports. Send comments to editor@sddt.com. All letters are forwarded to the author and may be published as Letters to the Editor.

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