Neighbors for Encanto Building Code Glossary: Hoping these explanations help everyone navigate this complex new world for a clearer understanding.
ADU - Accessory Dwelling Unit, also known as a granny flat, casita, mother-in-law unit. Not an apartment. Traditionally intended at an independent home on owner occupied property for aging parents. Not traditionally intended as additional housing for non family members. Construction of Accessory Dwelling Units until (check date) was deemed discretionary and such projects were required to go through full review and adherence to the municipal code, city and community plans, CEQA, and required off street parking, and developmental impact fees to be collected on the projects. Since the California State initiative to increase affordable rental housing the construction of an Accessory Dwelling Unit is a ministerial construction project which requires no review and no adherence to city or community plans which supersedes these legally binding documents. Under San Diego's Bonus ADU plan implemented in (look up date) residents could build additional units if they deeded them as moderate, low or very low income rental units (moderate income is 110% above AMI (please define AMI and help with the breakdown of what that means). Additionally San Diego has created density multiplcation in certain areas allowing in some cases almost 150 Accessory Dwelling Units to be constructed on a single parcel of land. The first of these initiatives was the Transit Priority Ares ( please see TPA) and the most recent is the so called Sustainable Develop Areas (please see SDA) that currently make large lots identified on this map targets for investor developers to purchuse property and effective remove affordable purchasable homes from the market replacing them with investment real estate with 4,8,12,16,22,33,43 units on the lots.
ADU Complex - Most of us are familiar with apartment complexes, also known as multifamily dwelling units. Certain parts of Encanto are zoned for multi-family dwelling units because the roads and infrastructure are properly designed to allow residents on these properties proper acces to streets with adequate ingress and egress routes to ammenitties and neighborhood resources. They also require each unit to have at least 1 off street parking space. Apartment complexes and multi family dwelling untis have stricter coding guidelines to adhere to as they create greater density concerns within the community to ensure renters are safe such as adhering to fire standards by installing sprinklers, using fire retardant building materials, and having a fire extinguisher on site. ADU Complexes proposed to be built by various investor partnerships throughout Encanto do not need to adhere to any of those safety standards as they are not deemed apartments - but a granny flat - the thought is that you wouldn't build something substandard for your mother, or elderly realative - you'd build it the way you wanted it for yourself - however investors will cut every corner they can. Investors know the building code better than the city - they are building these wherever they can find property within the City defined SDA even if the location is not within the required 1 mile walking radius of the project, they are not providing off street parking, they are not paying developmental impact fees - they are not investing in our community they are investing in themselves furthering the disparate impact of these projects on under resourced neighborhoods like ours. The streets these projects are on will remain without sidewalks, unlit, and unsafe for pedestrian transit.
JADU - Junior Accessory Dewelling Unit also known as a garage conversion or studio converstion. Tradditionally used fro adult children or aging parents. Not traditionally intended to provide additional housing for non family members. With recent California incentives every home owner is allowed to build a JADU on their property. With San Diego's Bonus ADU program they can also build an adiditonal JADU as long as the rent charged for this unit is moderate, low, or very low (with moderate being 110% above AMI - again needs explanation or see 110% Above AMI) JADUs we believe still require the property to be owner occupied so we are not seeing issues with this regarding investors who will never occupy their properties because they would never want to live in them with all the extra residents and no parking.
California ADU Measure (need proper wording for this) - (date needed) California passed (measure) allowing every homeowner to build an Accessory Dwelling Unit and a Junior Accessory Dwelling Unity on their property (with the potential to increase total street density by 300%) They have also taken away the requirement for these constructions projects to go through discretionary review, and to require them to allow for off street parking. The intnetion was to allow owners who would like to support the creation of affordable rentable housing to do so. It was never intended to encourage investors to outbid interested homeowners and to take away affordable purchasable property.
San Diego's Bonus ADU Program - (date needed) Shortly after the state passed their accessory, dwelling unit measure the city of San Diego passed an additional incentive as our mayor Todd Gloria doubled down on the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units in order to address our need for low-income rentable housing in San Diego. Rather than address the concern as a city he decided that it was up to us as citizens to fix the rental shortage needs of residents. The city council passed the measure to allow any homeowner the ability to build an additional accessory dwelling unit on their property as long as they were rented out to moderate low or very low-income residents. Moderate-income is a 110% above AMI. Residents were also allowed to build an additional JADUs attached to their primary single family dwelling unit. This was again intended for city residents who desired additional monthly income. An incentive to help with affordable housing. It was not intended for investors to outbid and displace potential homeowners to build ADU Complexes in the middle of single family neighborhoods.
Transit Priority Areas - In order to help address climate change, San Diego created (feed date here.) the transit priority areas throughout the city and defined them as locations within a 1/2 mile radius of major transit stops. With transit running at least every 15 minutes in both the morning and afternoon hours when the heaviest traffic is experienced. One of the major goals of the Transit Priority Areas was to increase housing in order to encourage more people to use our metropolitan transit system, rather than relying on their individual privately owned vehicles or other modes of transportation. To accomplish this, they said that any property within a half mile radius of a major transit stop could build an unlimited amount of these Accessory Dwelling Units that they can put within the foot (? not sure if this is the correct wording and will probably need another see ---- with this term) plan of the individual parcels. There was significant push back by the community with this initiative as the Transit Priority Area was within a half mile radius of the major transit stop rather than a half mile walking distance the transit stop. When considering street topography and geographical barriers, to easily access the transit stops, the City revised the Transit Priority Area as it refers to housing to the Sustainable Development Area locations which significantly increased the total area where these unlimited bonus ADUS could be constructed with no regard to current infastructure, neighborhood resources, safety, and adequate amenities.
Sustainable Development Area - The sustainable development area was created after the Transit Priority Area fell into disfavor among the city's residents in regards to the housing element. Under the Transit Priority Area, unlimited Accessory Dwelling Units could now be built on parcels of land within 1/2 a mile radius of a major transit stop (please see Major Transit Stop), due to due to residents bringing up that the 1/2 mile radius does not take into account topographical and geographical barriers within that half mile radius which can greatly restrict access to the major transit stop the housing component was revised into the so called Sustainable Development Areas. Currently, the Sustainable Development Areas are by definition housing sites that are within one mile walking distance - regardless of the safety or ADA (spell it out and have a see ADA note) compliance of the pedestrian pathways - leading to these major transit stops. So the regulation went from 1/2 mile radius to 1 mile walking when the complaint was that 1/2 mile radius made people walk too much. Go figure. Futher, the transit frequency under the Transit Priority Areas was redueced when it switched to Sustainable Development Area, now, if a resident misses their bus or trolley the city says it's okay for them to have to wait 20 minutes in a possible non ADA transit stop with grocerries, and toddlers. To top it off, they have allowed that the transit stop does not need to be active - it can be a future planned stop that is not slated to be running for the next 50 years regardless of MTS's ability to meet current project deadlines - so these stops may NEVER actually come to our neighborhoods, and what are the residents supposed to do in the meantime?
Major Transit Stop - As defined first under the Transit Priority Area: a trolley, stop or a bus stop where 2 intersecting major bus lines meet. With intervals of no less than 15 minutes between stops in the morning and afternoon hours of most traffic. Under the Sustainable Development Area, they have increased the distance away to 1 mile walk-able distance, and decreased the frequency of transit stops to be twenty minutes or less during the morning in the afternoon hours of heaviest traffic.
Footnote 7 - An addendum to the building code in 2019. Which singled Encanto and Southeast San Diego neighborhoods Where are RS12 zoned neighborhoods would be allowed to be built out as an R. S17 some of the highest density in any part of San Diego. This would allow the subdivision of our lots from 20,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet without the need to bring street infrastructure adjacent to the property or surrounding the property to current coding standards. There was no public notice. There was no public hearing. There was no environmental review. There was no due process. Residents had to find out about this footnote after 2 major construction projects came through the choice Valley community planning group (See Radio Towers and Klauber Street Projects), and when they appealed it they were told they are legal because of this footnote. We wonder why the developers knew about the code when the Chollas Valley Community Planning Group had no idea about its existence.
Redlining - A real estate practice in which people of minority ethnic groups were refused the ability to buy property in certain San Diego neighborhoods. Multiple residents still living in Encanto today remember their grandparents and parents being told they could not buy property on the streets they are currently living on. This is a shame, a travesty and an injustice that current residents we'll ensure never happens again. We feel our Chollas Valley Community Plan aligns with AFFH, and that our residents are very welcoming, and happy when new people and families move in next door.
CEQA - California Environment Quality Act. This is a California mandate requiring new construction projects to undergo an Environmental Impact Review to ensure that the construction projected does not negatively impact the current community's environment, including air quality, ability to attain basic necessities such as food and water, as well as wildlife impacts. As California state law has changed, the construction of accessory, dwelling units from discretionary to a ministerial build project no California Environment Quality Act adherence is necessary. Because of this, no Environmental Impact Review (see EIR) is done for any of these Accessory Dwelling Unit Complexes that are being proposed throughout the Encanto neighborhood.
DIF (Developmental Impact Fees) - Fees collected by the city in order to offset cost due to increased density by the continued development of San Diego neighborhoods. Developmental Impact Fees are assessed based on the size and the scope of each individual project. Developmental Impact Fees go towards improving the condition of the street, the proposed project is on, such as providing sidewalks, curbs, gutters, widening the street to ensure passibility through the street to two way traffic, providing street side parking, or appropriately painted curbs to ensure there are no parking zones. The need to increase The community's water supply to ensure water pressure is adequate for the entire community due to the increased density and demand of fresh water usage. The need to increase the community's open space, public parks and community zones with adequate amenities to alot for the needs of the increased population. These fees also go to address additional neighborhood needs such as
Adequately funding and supporting local schools, ensuring the ability for emergency medical response. Ensuring the ability for swift fire response, and increasing the ability for public safety. To give an example, the building project at 1348 Tarbox street should allow the city to collect roughly five hundred thousand dollars in Developmental Impact Fees, and the city is forgoing them when we're experiencing the highest deficit in budget we've ever seen.
Very high fire hazard zone- Our community and the surrounding communities fall under Very High Fire Zone risk category. Our area have a high likelihood to burn over a 30-50 year period. This is determined by vegetation in the area, the topography of our hilly, steep sloped hillsides, our dry/ arid climate with high winds.
Fire egress - They're also known as fire exit routes. They are the pathway we would follow to exit the community in case of fire, or other major hazard requiring a community evacuation. In 2015 Encanto's fire egress routes failed to dequately exit the Encanto community residents. Most of our Fire Egress routes had an F rating. There has been no additional construction or changes to the Encanto street infrastructure to mitigate this failure before the California ADU measure, nor before the San Diego Bonus ADU Program nor before the Transit Priority Areas and again nothings changed when they designated our community had all this Sustainable Development Area and the city encouraged investor developers to build massive ADU Complexes In our neighborhood.