S1: Change is coming to Claremont. San Diego city planners recently released a draft update to the Claremont Community Plan. It would rezone many of the neighborhoods , strip malls and shopping centers for high density housing. Joining me to talk about what this means for the community is Andrew Bowen , KPBS Metro reporter. Andrew , it's always great to have you here.
S2: Hi , Jade. Thanks. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So you began your piece with Ian Grooms , a lifelong resident of Claremont. Tell us about him and his concerns about the cost of living in this neighborhood.
S2: I found Ian through his Instagram account called Vibrant Claremont. This is where he shares his thoughts on development in the neighborhood and urban planning. He is 23 years old. He's a recent college graduate. He grew up in Claremont. He served two years on the community planning group , actually while he was in college , and he developed this interest in urban planning after watching the neighborhood really rise up in opposition to some affordable housing projects that were proposed , about 5 or 6 years ago. And you know where some of his neighbors saw this assault on community character , where there's , you know , this high density housing where it didn't used to be. He saw an opportunity to improve the neighborhood. There's , you know , nicer landscaping. The developments paid for road improvements and , of course , welcomed more neighbors into the neighborhood.
S3: There are so many people who can't even afford to live in Claremont. They can't afford this million dollar neighborhood.
S1: And so transit oriented development is the proposed solution here. Can you explain what that is exactly ? Yeah.
S2: So I mean , simply put , it's development that's oriented around transit. So , you know , speaking big picture , we know that we need more housing to make room for future generations to sort of push downward the cost of living in San Diego. But we don't want to put housing just anywhere. So the idea is let's build around public transit so that we can move people more people more efficiently in fewer vehicles with fewer greenhouse gas emissions. So this is ostensibly the city's goal , but as I'm sure we'll get into in just a bit , it's not entirely what the city is actually proposing here.
S1: Well , can you tell me ? Tell us what and how Claremont is currently zoned then ? Yeah.
S2: So Claremont developed in the 50s and 60s in a very suburban style , even though it was in the city. You know , it's mostly single family homes. There are a lot of cul de sacs. There are strip malls and big shopping centers with big surface parking lots. The city was much smaller when this neighborhood was developing , and so Claremont was kind of on the fringe at that point. Today , it is one of the most centrally located neighborhoods in San Diego. So the current community plan for Claremont was adopted in 1989. And the first priority that this community plan lists is , quote , the desire to preserve the low density , single family character of the community. So when that's the thing you're trying to solve for , that's what you're going to get. The city has a 30 foot height limit on almost the entire neighborhood , and that still stands today for for the most part. And there have been a few amendments to the community plan here and there to allow one off developments. But the zoning really doesn't reflect the city's 21st century goals around compact , walkable neighborhoods that are built around public transit. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , the new draft of their community plan goes before city council this fall.
S2: So Genesee , Claremont Drive , Balboa Avenue , these are sort of the nodes of the community where you have a lot of large commercial properties with , you know , those big box stores , the strip malls , the parking lots and those will be zoned or would be zoned to become what the city calls a community village. So that would be a mix of apartments , retail offices , public gathering spaces like plazas and parks. So really kind of like what you need in order to live in that community. There are also a lot of changes to the mobility network , so calls for protected bike lanes and bus only lanes that would speed up the transit connections in and out of Claremont. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , your reporting finds that the neighborhood would remain mostly unchanged , though. How so ? Yeah.
S2: Well , so Claremont has. Despite its central location , it has a lot of canyons. And , you know , while those provide beautiful natural habitat and open space , they also can create a wildfire danger because there's a lot of vegetation there. And so and at the same time , there are a lot of cul de sacs that are along these canyons. And so there's really only one way to get in and out. So in those areas of , of the neighborhood , those remain zoned for single family homes. And then there are these pockets of density in , you know , at the intersections of the major streets and along the major streets. But as I said , the vast majority would remain low density. And I think that , you know , that the justification for low density zoning definitely makes sense when there's a public safety concern and maybe if there's no access to public transit or if it's really far away. But the single family zoning isn't just limited to those really , um , uh , more remote areas of the neighborhood. It also applies to properties that are very close to transit , you know , one block away from a bus stop , that where the bus comes every ten minutes , let's say , or even right next to the trolley stations.
S1:
S2: So we have known that the trolley would be coming up alongside Claremont for well over a decade. Um , and so if you go back to around 2014 , the city knew that this big infrastructure was coming. And it very briefly proposed allowing higher density in Bay Park , which is the western part of Claremont. That's right next to the trolley. And at that point , again , the trolley hadn't been built yet. The neighborhood absolutely blew up in opposition. There was this group called raised the Balloon that formed , and they actually held protests where they literally raised up a big red balloon to show people , you know , this is how tall the buildings will be. Think of our views of mission Bay. They'll be blocked. And , you know , it was a really , really big backlash. And in , in , you know , facing that backlash , the city just went into full retreat. And and so they kind of said , all right , we're not going to do anything here. Never mind. Then in 2021 , the trolley actually opened. And so now you have this high speed , high capacity , you know , carbon free trip up to University City , UCSD , down to Central San Diego , downtown , the border. And , you know , you could imagine an alternate universe in which the city did actually up zone or , you know , zoned for higher density around those trolley stations in Bay Park. And then on day one of the trolley service , the development already happened. And you have , you know , hundreds of people living in apartments that are really closely , you know , within close walking distance of the trolley. Instead , what we have , because the city has never actually zoned for higher density , you know , just across the street from the trolley , with some limited exceptions , is we have surface parking lots and we have one story commercial buildings. And so , you know , the city's justification for keeping this low density zoning around the trolley did not at all make sense to one person I interviewed for this story , Nicole Corporates. She is the executive director of the Climate Action Campaign , which is a nonprofit watchdog group that has really been pushing the city to allow more transit oriented development.
S4: The city has goals around housing , which they're nowhere close to meeting. The city has goals for how they're going to reduce carbon pollution , which they're nowhere close to meeting. And we have this deepening affordability crisis. And so when you marry all of these challenges , the city can't really respond with small fixes.
S2: And Jade , I spoke with the city planning director , Heidi Von Bloom. She's you know , her department is responsible for producing this plan. And she said , you know , these single family homes near the trolley are on pretty small , lots and small. Lots are not the most attractive to developers because they don't actually yield a whole lot of housing because there's not as much space. And she also pointed out the topography of this neighborhood. So if you're walking from the trolley into Bay Park , it's an uphill walk. Now , I guess the implication there is that San Diegans won't walk up hills to get places , but personally , I don't mind it.
S1: I don't know , Andrew.
S5: I don't know.
S1: Well , I mean , I also want to talk about SB 79 , because this bill would overrule local zoning and allow larger apartments near trolley stops.
S2: Los Angeles recently or several years ago extended the Expo Line out to Santa Monica. And many of those stations still have single family zoning right next to those stations. And and that's heavy rail , by the way. So it's faster and it's higher capacity than the light rail that we have here in our trolley system. San Francisco also has a lot of single family zoning right next to high capacity transit stops and rapid bus stations. So this is really a statewide issue. And SB 79 , the bill you mentioned is authored by Senator Scott Wiener. It's his third attempt at this idea of forcing cities to allow transit oriented development. And it's also significantly scaled back from previous versions. So , you know it doesn't apply to as many transit stops. The circles that you draw around those transit stops are there's , you know , smaller versions of those. And so , um , you know , it's and yet it's still facing a lot of opposition.
S1: And remind me where that bill stands now. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So SB 79 passed the Senate by a one vote margin. So very close. It still needs to pass the Assembly. And then after , if it does pass the assembly , it'll have to go back to the Senate and then to the governor's desk.
S1: Well , you spoke to Marcella Bothwell. She's with the group neighbors for a better California. What did she tell you ? Yeah.
S2: Neighbors for a better California was founded in opposition to a high rise development that's proposed in Pacific Beach. And it's really kind of broadened its its interest and scope into these statewide bills. So she said , you know , she agrees that the transit system needs more riders , but she just thinks that SB 79 goes too far. And she echoed this argument against a lot of the bills that we see in Sacramento around housing , which is that locals know best how to plan for their own growth.
S6: When you're in Sacramento , you don't know what's going on on the ground , you don't know the topography , you don't know the conditions or concerns. And so you have to listen to people who are living there.
S1:
S2: You know , we don't want a situation where we have all of this density , but the infrastructure hasn't caught up to it yet. Well , in Bay Park in western Claremont , we did build the infrastructure first taxpayers , not just in Claremont , not just in San Diego , but all over San Diego County and Chula Vista , Escondido , Borrego Springs. We have taxpayers who are paying into this fund to build public transit and build transportation infrastructure. And all all of us collectively paid $2 billion for that trolley extension. And yet the city is choosing to artificially limit the access to that trolley system extension through zoning , through single family zoning. So this is not just a local issue. It's really a regional issue. It's a statewide issue. And I really hope it's something that people are paying attention to.
S1: Well , I know you're going to continue to report on it. It's very interesting , Andrew. Thank you so much. I've been speaking with Andrew Bowen , KPBS Metro reporter. Again , thanks so much , Andrew.
S2: Thank you. Jade.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman.
S7: Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
