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.”

While there is current community support for changing to zoning regulations, that support may wan depending on the project and its impact on the surrounding neighborhood. “Of course developers must always be sensitive to community input on their proposed projects, and here the rezoning to one of the new RMX or EMX zones will need to be approved by City Council,” adds Heidelberg.

Changing zoning might be the easy part, but it is also the first step in providing more housing supply in a market badly in need of it. Developers can take action as soon as the new categories are adopted. “Once the new zoning categories are adopted, developers will be able to seek rezoning of property to an RMX or an EMX zone,” says Heidelberg. “If that rezoning is approved, then except for certain uses that must obtain a Conditional Use Permit, the remaining approvals are ministerial, requiring only staff approval, rather than discretionary, requiring Planning Commission and/or City Council approval.”

In addition, developers can now include specified characteristics in their project plans. “The regulations allow developers flexibility if they provide certain design features and allow greater intensity of land use than many existing commercial and residential zones,” says Heidelberg. “Many developers have voiced supportive for the new zones, although because they have not yet been approved by City Council, no applications for rezoning can be submitted yet.”