Southeast San Diego Residents Demand Answers After Discovering Zoning Footnote Allowing Smaller Lots

Residents of Southeast San Diego packed a school community room last week to demand an investigation into a little-noticed footnote in the city's zoning code. They say it quietly allowed far denser development in their neighborhoods than in the rest of the city.

The dispute began with the highest point in Emerald Hills, an empty private lot with radio towers and 360-degree views of San Diego. Some neighbors had hoped it would become a park or a youth or senior center. Two years ago, city staff announced a housing development would be built there instead. Martha Abraham, who lives nearby, said the zoning map appeared to permit about 70 homes on the parcel, but the developer planned more than 120. 'We would say, like, it's not zoned for this many houses, and we would be told by the developer, it is zoned for that many houses,' she said.

Her community planning group sought an explanation and, she said, felt unsupported when they turned to their council member, who told them the office supported housing. Members ended up combing through more than a thousand pages of laws and public records. 'I feel like there was a magic bullet, and we just hadn't found it yet,' Abraham said.

A second project in Encanto, again with roughly twice as many homes as zoning seemed to allow, deepened their concerns. Rob Campbell, who lives down the street, said his objection was to the number of homes, not to housing itself. He noted that the area is identified as an environmental justice-affected community and questioned how paving over remaining green space would improve air quality or ease the heat island effect. The planning group wanted to appeal, but the city began charging planning groups a $1,000 appeal fee in 2022. The area is mostly Black and Latino and low-income. Members raised money, took time off work and traveled downtown, only to see the city postpone the hearing, saying it had found new information.

Reviewing the city's rebuttal, Campbell found a reference to 'Footnote 7.' In the zoning code's R-S-1-2 column, which covers both the Emerald Hills lot and the Encanto site, he found a small number seven he had never noticed. The footnote, passed in 2019, reduced the minimum lot size from 20,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet, but only in the city-designated Encanto and Southeastern Planning Areas. 'That was the first time I knew that we were different. But I didn't know why,' he said.

At last week's meeting, more than a hundred neighbors heard Andrea Hetheru, chair of the Chollas Valley Community Planning Group, lay out the findings. She argued the footnote effectively tells Southeast residents that 20,000 means 5,000. She tied it to the federal requirement to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which obliges local governments to actively dismantle housing discrimination, and to a history of redlining and restrictive covenants. The footnote, she said, is part of the resistance to the laws that followed the Civil Rights Movement. Residents applauded, and neighbor Russell Steppe said, 'disrespect is disrespect, and the law is the law.'

Representatives of D.R. Horton, the developer of the radio towers property, attended. One Emerald Hills resident who gave her name as Mara listed lawsuits against the company, and a representative replied that any nationwide company of that size would face lawsuits. Councilmember Henry Foster III suggested residents wait to hear more from the city, prompting the crowd to chant 'Footnote 7!' He later said he appreciated residents standing up to demand answers. He was the district's chief of staff when the footnote became law and said it 'did spur housing.'

Monica Montgomery Steppe, the council member who passed the footnote, did not answer questions about it. In an emailed statement she cited community input, localized planning needs and opportunities for first-time home buyers to build generational wealth. Former planning director Mike Hansen said he did not direct that the footnote be included and does not know why it was. Current planning director Heidi Vonblum said she would not recommend it now, calling exceptions for a low resource area 'problematic.' She has asked the state for permission to reconsider it, since state law bars reducing density in one zone without increasing it elsewhere. If the state agrees, the City Council could take it up in mid-2025.

In the meantime, the developers are proceeding. D.R. Horton vice president Dan Boyd told the crowd he was proud of residents' activism but said, 'We think what we're going to do is just move the project forward.' Campbell, for his part, said the experience taught him to read everything.