Dozens of neighbors gathered at the 28th St Playground in South Park on Sunday to raise awareness about proposed housing changes to San Diego neighborhoods. The protest was organized by the group Preserve Greater Golden Hill, a grassroots coalition of neighbors. According to the group’s website, their goal is to “ensure growth in our community is safe, scaled, and equitable”.
“We love this neighborhood, we love the walkability, we love the character,” said Richard Santini with Preserve Greater Golden Hill. Santini has lived in the Golden Hill neighborhood for about 20 years.
While Sunday’s protest brought attention to several local housing projects in the works, Preserve Greater Golden Hill also protested against Senate Bill 79. If approved, the legislation would allow developers to build taller and denser housing within a half-mile of public transportation. According to the text of the bill, some buildings could be up to six stories tall.
Santini believes SB 79 is a heavy-handed, “one size fits all” solution to California’s housing crisis, and believes the bill could spell serious trouble for prospective homeowners.
“This is very scary, because what’ll end up happening is any homeowner, any family, any person that wants to buy a home is now directly in competition with any developer who can pay down cash and pay well over 100% in cash for the same homes,” said Santini.
Santini believes that while the plan does address a need for more housing in San Diego, he also believes there is insufficient infrastructure to support the plan.
“The concept is fantastic. What needs to happen is in addition to building development, you also need to build in the appropriate infrastructure to handle that with increasing bus lines, trolley lines expansion, and express bus lines,” said Santini. “Being able to merely say on paper that an express line is simply good enough to build there doesn’t work for anybody,” Santini added.
The last major expansion to MTS’ trolley system was in September of 2024, when the Copper Line opened between El Cajon and Santee, outside the City of San Diego. Santini believes the city’s transportation is not sufficient enough to justify the legislation should it be signed into law.
“This is not really transit that will take you to a job center. This takes you from our area into North Park or this area to downtown,” said Santini. “So any type of person that’s going to be living in these luxury-priced apartments are going to be having their cars,” added Santini.
SB 79 still needs to a clear a vote by the California Assembly, and then one final vote in the State Senate before getting to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. California lawmakers face a September 12 deadline — when the current legislative session ends — to get the bill passed.