Homeless Cabins Can Be Built on Land Designated as Open Space?

As the debate over the proposed Troy Street homeless cabins continues in Lemon Grove, the Board of Supervisors met on October 21, 2025. On their agenda a consent item (#11) to negotiate the purchase of the related property, located at 2800 Sweetwater Road, from the California Department of Transportation.

This information was found on the East County Advocate FaceBook page published on October 19, 2025.

Lemon Grove City Councilwoman Jessyka Heredia sent a letter to the County urging that the item be removed from the consent agenda for a full discussion. Here is the letter:

Members of the Board of Supervisors of San Diego County, ​I respectfully and urgently request that you pull Item 11 from Tuesday's Consent Calendar.

This item is not administrative in nature; it directly impacts the daily lives, environment, and well-being of residents within our community. Therefore, it warrants a full public discussion, deliberation by the Council/Board, and the opportunity for thorough public comment.​

Our community has already experienced significant challenges, including a lack of transparency and open communication regarding the project associated with this item. Placing it on the consent calendar only serves to exacerbate existing distrust and prevent the necessary public engagement required for responsible governance.​

To begin the process of rebuilding trust and demonstrating a commitment to transparency, we ask that you allow the community the opportunity to hear the details of Item 11 presented on the floor and to exercise our right to speak on the matter during public comment.

This action is critical for healing the current fracture and ensuring the Council/Board is fully informed of the project's real-world implications before making a final decision.​

I urge your vote to pull Item 11 and allow the necessary public scrutiny it requires and that Lemon Grove deserves.

Sincerely,

Jessyka Heredia

Lemon Grove City Councilwoman

I don't know how the vote turned out. It's pretty impossible to find the site where the votes take place at the Board of Supervisors meetings twice a month. It's like they don't want the residents to know what they are doing.

Though they are elected by the vote of the people, they usually don't act on the people's behalf and it is near impossible to find the results of those votes. Not what I would call transparent.

The part that most astonished me what that they were negotiating the sale of California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) land to build homeless cabins.

The north side of San Miguel Road is nearly all lands owned by San Diego County, CalTrans and the CA Department of Fish & Wildlife. I thought those lands would remain rural forever.

It is frightening that the Lemon Grove CalTrans area was being negotiated for sale for homeless cabins under the guise of darkness with local residents not knowing until the final hour. No discussion.

And if it's anything like our Self-Storage units on Quarry Road, it's more than impossible to fight it even when the entire town and two Planning Groups are against it. Our Sweetwater Community Plan and Design Guide arguments fell on deaf ears.

The Board of Supervisors present that day for our Storage Facility appeal were Joel Anderson, District 2; Terra Lawson-Remer, District 3 and Monica Montgomery Steppe, District 4.

We were without our District 1 Supervisor because Nora Vargas had already abandoned her position. Supervisor Jim Desmond was in Washington, DC trying to get a solution for the Tijuana sewage invading our coastal waters.

These three Supervisors didn't give us the time of day.

They didn't even give us the courtesy of listening to our talking points but appeared more interested in staring at their cell phones.

So I guess the $1000 question is . . . who works for whom?

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