Like a lot of cities, San Diego is surrounded by numerous fairly new housing developments. But closer to the center of the city are neighborhoods filled with historic homes built near the turn of the last century. Now there’s an effort underway to make sure more of those homes are preserved and not sacrificed for more modern developments.
Janet O’Dea strolls down Albatross Street in Hillcrest pointing out some of the different homes. O’Dea says the tree lined street is one of her favorites. It’s full of different kinds of houses, each one different from the last, but each one representative of the bygone era in which it was built. If O’Dea had her way more of the streets in San Diego would look like this one.
Historic homes restored to their glory without a boxy apartment complex or ultra-modern house breaking up the flow and character of the neighborhood. O’Dea is part of the Uptown Planners group which is working to preserve historic buildings in neighborhoods like Hillcrest, University Heights and Bankers Hill. She says to often homes are demolished before neighbors knew what was happening.
“I think people in neighborhoods like Hillcrest here and Mission Hills, where I live, they really understand the qualities of the neigh
borhood. But they are wrapped up in their lives and taking care of their kids or their parents or having a social life, as we all want,” she says. “And then the next thing they know a house disappears and what goes up there doesn’t really replicate that same sense of feeling that the neighborhood has.”
O’Dea and her group are asking the city to close loopholes that allow historic homes to be torn down with little public notice. The group also wants the city to do historic reviews on older homes before they’re demolished. And it wants renovation and demolition permits clearly posted on construction sites so people know what’s going on. Preservationists in the area have a house they point to as an example of homeowners skirting the rules on historic homes. The Tin House sits at the corner of 10th and Robinson in Hillcrest in Councilman Todd Gloria’s district.
Gloria says he agrees that there needs to be more oversight of what happens to historic homes with a great public voice. But he says preserving older structures doesn’t mean new development is forbidden. Gloria says he likes the idea of establishing conservation districts which are a bit less strict than historic districts.
“What it does is engages the neighborhood to say what are the features that you like in your community that you want to keep. And it’s really more of a form and a function that you want to maintain. Again, it encourages development but it says when new development comes in that they should maintain certain things, like the length of a window or a particular use or orientation to the street. Just so that things match a bit better,” he says.
But Mark Goldman says the city should be careful when creating rules that might limit how property owners can use their land. Goldman is a Real Estate Lecturer at San Diego State University and a mortgage broker. He says it’s important to let the property respond to the market because land use patterns are always changing.
“People want to move in to be closer to their employment, be closer to shopping, be closer to recreational activities and that creates a stronger demand for certain locations. And if the density of the property is limited, the owner of that property might lose value,” Goldman says
Goldman says lawmakers need to find a balance between preservation and progress. But Janet O’Dea says the experience of living in her historic home has been priceless.
“I’ve had the fortune of meeting some people that have lived there in the past that come by and they said I lived here when I was knee high and played cards with my grandpa in the kitchen and talked about all sorts of different things. And that is a joy,” she says.
