San Diego Unified Postpones Vote on Affordable Housing

On Wednesday, San Diego Unified’s board considered approving the largest slate of affordable education workforce housing ever attempted in California. 

The board was set to vote on proposals from private developers to develop housing at five sites across the district that could produce 1,500 units – enough to reach the district’s goal of creating enough housing for 10 percent of its workforce. A district committee had already returned recommendations last week. And Board President Cody Petterson was determined to get the items across the finish line. 

“My goal here is to land these planes,” Petterson said. “There’ll be some flak, there’ll be people motioning us into one runway or another … and it may get bumpy at times, but we will land this plane together and historically.”

The board did not, however, land the plane.

But by a vote of three to two – with Petterson and Trustee Shana Hazan opposing – the board voted to postpone the approval of housing proposals at four of the five district-owned sites up for consideration. 

The decision wasn’t a complete surprise. Even before the meeting, tension surrounding proposal recommendations made by a district committee had mounted.

But that decision was just the beginning of a wild night that left one board member “stunned.”

At the root of that tension is a seeming disagreement over what the district’s primary goal of maximizing affordability meant. Some board members have repeatedly stated that the goal should be producing the maximum number of affordable units. That’s actually what the district’s request for proposals explicitly states.

The committee that judged proposals, however, almost uniformly recommended projects that would have produced fewer homes. That seemed to indicate they interpreted maximizing affordability to mean they should choose the projects that delivered the cheapest units. 

That tension was clear from the very beginning. During discussion of the proposals for the Revere Center site in Linda Vista, Hazan once again reiterated the mandate for more affordable units.

“It’s confounding to me because the top-scoring bidder does not provide the maximum number of affordable units and that’s really important for me, and I believe important for the board, because we identified that as our highest priority,” Hazan said.

The board did approve one proposal, a 108-unit project at the district’s Instructional Media Center. That proposal was the only submission the district received for that site.

The board’s decision to punt the vote means the final say on housing will come at a workshop yet to be scheduled in January. But what exactly that meeting will look like caused even more disagreement.

After his motion to postpone the decision passed, Trustee Richard Barrera seemed to indicate he wanted developers to reconfigure their proposals based on instructions he’d given from the dais. Those instructions included things like an equal mix of housing for certificated and classified staff – things that weren’t spelled out in the original request for proposal.

Barera’s requests left Petterson feeling the way Hazan had earlier in the meeting – confounded.

Petterson: “Just to clarify here. So far as I understand it, we’re not restarting this process. The proposals that were provided to us as a result of the last year of process are the proposals we’re going to consider in January – or are you saying they should change the proposal?”

Barrera: “I want proposals that meet our goals. Period. So, let’s see what you come back with.”

Petterson: “…This is so wild. I’m completely stunned.”

Ultimately, staff ruled out developers making any substantive changes to their proposals, opting instead to have them fill out a uniform questionnaire. They will also likely give a short presentation touting the merits of each of their proposals. What else will be included is still unclear.

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