San Diego Sued Over 5,000-Unit Housing Plan Near U.S.-Mexico Border

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2 days ago
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Rendering of proposed improvements to Beyer Boulevard near San Ysidro to make way for new home development (City of San Diego) | Click on image to enlarge

Sierra Club objects to the July approval of Southwest Village

A 10-year effort to build homes on one of San Diego’s last, large developable plots of land is now in jeopardy.

The Sierra Club has sued San Diego for its approval in July of a new housing strategy near the U.S.-Mexico border. On mostly vacant land, the Southwest Village plan allows for up to 5,130 homes.

Sierra Club alleged the project would disrupt environmentally sensitive land, had a lack of public transit and had flawed environmental approval. The city said it declines to comment on pending legislation and the main developer on the site, Tri Pointe Homes, did not respond to requests for comment.

“Sierra Club supports building more housing, especially affordable housing,” said Lisa Ross, chair of San Diego’s Sierra Club chapter. “But putting thousands of homes far from existing services and transit and dependent on new roads, is the wrong way to build it.”

The 490-acre Southwest Village site sits between the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro neighborhoods and is a rare green patch among dense development. Irvine-based Tri Pointe Homes led the development of the site, and plans for about 1,500 to 2,100 homes.

Part of the reason for a lengthy approval process was there are other developers and homeowners in the area, not just Tri Pointe. The Irvine developer said its initial plans call for 778 multifamily units, such as townhouses and apartments, as well as 142 single-family homes. About 92 apartments would be set aside for low-income renters.

The city’s approved plan called for almost half of it — 200 acres — to be open space. Yet Sierra Club said the plan doesn’t fully consider all environmental impacts, and violates the California Environmental Quality Act. Of major concern to the environmental group was the construction of a new road through the site, the extension of Beyer Boulevard, which it said could disrupt wetlands and species in the area.

Officials in San Diego have been eager to approve housing in undeveloped land near the border for several years. The San Diego Planning Commission approved a nearly 1,000-unit housing development in April in Otay Mesa, adding to other townhouse and apartment projects that have opened piecemeal in the past six years.

The Sierra Club has been successful stopping housing projects in the general area before. In 2021, a 1,119-home project in rural unincorporated San Diego County — east of Southwest Village near Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch — was halted when a San Diego Superior Court Judge sided with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups.

Nathan Moeder, principal of local housing analysts Moeder Advisors, said building in San Diego County’s backcountry is among the most fraught locations for developers. He said it’s typical for only larger firms, like Tri Pointe, to take the gamble.

“Developers chose not to build in the backcountry because of all the red tape,” he said. “A developer must always mitigate two things: Time and risk.”

Moeder said rules from fire mitigation to transit often change when a developer dips their toes into the backcountry, making the process more difficult. He said he wished the process was easier to allow for less expensive new housing. Townhouses approved in areas just outside Southwest Village typically sell for $540,000 to $650,000, less expensive than other parts of San Diego.

The city approved Southwest Village’s environmental impact report, but the Sierra Club argued in its lawsuit that it failed to adequately mitigate significant impacts and failed to consider other alternatives to the plan.

San Diego City Council approved the plan 6-2 in July, with Councilmembers Marni von Wilpert and Joe LaCava voting against the plan, although the objections weren’t necessarily environmental.

LaCava said he wanted more time to review the proposal because, even though it has been planned for a decade, it was the first time the council saw it. Von Wilpert was concerned a new fire station would only be built after 700 homes were constructed and wanted it to be done at the beginning. She also wanted more guarantees in writing that the developer would build amenities it promised, like a public park.