Mayor Supports Ending Minimum Lot Sizes — in Targeted Approach

Both Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera recently announced their support — with caveats — for one of the most interesting housing policies currently floating around City Hall. 

A broad coalition of groups have backed the proposal, which would end the city’s requirement that homes be built on lots of a certain minimum size. That may sound about as exciting as a truckload of No. 2 pencils, but it actually has the potential to significantly change the city’s housing landscape. 

Currently, homes must be built on lots of at least 5,000 square feet throughout most of the city — a requirement that ultimately restricts the type and number of homes that can be built. Ending minimum lot sizes would allow townhomes and row homes to be built on slices of ground 1,000 square feet or less. 

Advocates say this has the power to make homes far more affordable for families who are currently being forced out of San Diego. A recent study showed the row homes created by the policy would be on average 42 percent cheaper than a typical single-family home. 

The new row homes and townhomes would be about the same size in square footage as typical single-family homes. They just wouldn’t have yard space. 

Some advocates want the mayor and City Council to end minimum lot sizes citywide, but Gloria and Elo-Rivera did not back that version of the policy. 

“We are being very thoughtful and making sure we do this the right way,” Gloria said. “It’s not a hatchet approach.” 

Gloria gave hints as to where minimum lot sizes might be abolished. 

It would be “close to transit, close to jobs, where there’s existing infrastructure. I think that’s where we need to focus,” he said. 

I asked one of the backers of the proposal whether that was a good idea. 

Gary London, a development consultant, said that if he were king, then yes, he would end minimum lot sizes citywide. But barring that, he said, the city should not simply default to implementing the policy near public transit — which he called the city’s “darling policy approach” to housing. 

What’s more important, London said, is concentrating the policy in places where the housing stock is getting old and needs revitalizing. He suggested Clairemont or other suburban neighborhoods north of Interstate 8 that were built in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. 

“This is family housing,” London said. “You’re replacing old housing with today’s version of family housing for the demographic that originally occupied those communities.” 

London’s firm, London Moeder Advisers, authored the report which showed that ending minimum lot size could reduce the price of new housing by 40 percent. 

Ricardo Flores, executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation San Diego, has been leading the coalition that wants to end minimum lot sizes. At Politifest, during a Solutions Showdown panel on housing, he pitched the policy to audience members. Flores’ proposal beat out two other housing proposals during audience voting. 

He didn’t pitch ending minimum lot sizes as simply a good idea. He framed it as increasing private property rights for homeowners — who currently aren’t allowed to build multiple homes on their 5,000 square feet. single-family lots.  

“So the solution here: lowering housing prices by increasing property rights for single-family homeowners,” Flories said. “It sounds like magic. It sounds like nobody loses there, right?”

But in essence, that was exactly Flores’ pitch — that ending minimum lot sizes is a win-win for all San Diegans. 

Flores and London believe the policy will decrease the cost of housing for families who are currently getting pushed out of San Diego, revitalize the housing stock, increase private property rights and increase property tax revenues for schools and the city. 

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