Adopting New Zoning Regs Is the Easy Part

Evelyn Heidelberg

San Diego is in the process of approving new zoning regulations that will encourage mixed-use development and increase density. The planning commission already approved the proposed regulations, and today, the City Council will make their vote. While it looks good for approval, changing zoning laws is the easy part. Developers will still have to get projects to appeal to the community. So far, the community has been supportive of changing the regulations.

“Adopting the new zoning classifications is the easy part,” Evelyn Heidelberg, a partner at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson and an expert in land use and environmental resources, tells GlobeSt.com. “Depending on a particular proposed rezoning and its location, community response is likely to differ.  If the project is in a designated Transit Priority Area, for example, we can expect community support, or less community resistance, other things being equal. The Mission Valley Planning Group expressed its support for the new zoning categories at the Planning Commission hearing last month. There is also widespread support for the City’s Climate Action Plan and at least for the concept of providing more, and more affordable housing, objectives, which the new zoning is designed to implement.”