San Diego’s Grandmother Apartment Campaign Faces Its First Big Backlash

San Diego’s campaign to help solve the city’s housing crisis by encouraging the construction of apartments for grandmothers or granny flats faces his first significant reaction.

Hundreds of Kensington, Talmadge, Rolando and El Cerrito residents are demanding an immediate moratorium on a municipal policy passed in October that they say could seriously damage residential neighborhoods across the city.

The policy allows homeowners to build additional homes if they agree to rent restrictions on at least one of their homes. The number of additional units is limited to one in some neighborhoods, but the number is unlimited if the property is less than half a mile from an existing or planned transportation line.

The residents, who recently formed a group called Neighbors for a Better San Diego (Neighbors for a Better San Diego) say the new policy goes too far and will have the unintended consequence of allowing some people to build multiple grandmother apartments in their backyard.

They say that will destroy the neighborhood’s character, make residential zoning meaningless for the most part, compound the parking shortage in many neighborhoods, and lengthen the time it takes to get to the freeways in others.

Residents are also frustrated that what they consider to be a big change passed with limited public debate or no effort to collect resident input.

“The city made quite a significant change to our single-family residential zoning, and there was never really a public debate about this,” said resident Geoff Hueter. “This takes us from grandmother apartments, which are for your older parents or your children, to six- or eight-unit apartment buildings in backyards.”

Kathy McLelland, another resident, said city officials let their enthusiasm for building apartments for grandmothers outweigh their responsibility to prioritize preserving the neighborhood’s quality of life.

“This is all not well thought out,” he said. “He may be tackling the housing crisis lightly, but in a very irresponsible way.”

Residents say a one-year moratorium would allow city officials and residents to step back and thoroughly analyze the potential impacts of the new policy, and possibly make changes.

“This is not about stopping the world, but we need to make sure we do it thoughtfully,” said Hueter.

The residents’ campaign, which began in Kensington and Talmadge before spreading to nearby areas, is the first the city has faced since it prioritized the expansion of grandmother apartments five years ago.

The construction of granny flats in San Diego it has gone from nine units built in 2016 to 386 in 2020. The increase has been constant: 13 in 2017, 61 in 2018 and 202 in 2019.

New apartment approvals for grandmothers have followed a similar trend. The 14 units approved in 2016 grew to 19 in 2017, 237 in 2018, 501 in 2019 and 541 in 2020.

While some community leaders have raised concerns about the long-term impact on the parking lot, there was no vocal or organized opposition from the community until now.

City officials declined to discuss the specific complaints raised by residents, but said in an emailed statement that the rule for the number of apartments for grandmothers is essentially the city following state law, which requires cities to create incentives for the construction of grandparents’ flats.

State law, however, does not require the specific incentive to allow unlimited bonus for grandmother apartments in areas within a half mile of traffic. The city created that incentive at its own discretion.