By Vanguard Staff
SAN DIEGO – A new commentary from the University of California, Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation highlights how San Diego has become one of California’s most ambitious cities in reforming housing policy, streamlining approvals, and accelerating construction.
The report, Steps Local Governments Can Take to Unlock More Housing: Lessons from San Diego, was written by Terner Center Fellow William Fulton, with co-authors Sarah Karlinsky, Director of Research and Policy, and Quinn Underriner, Senior Data Scientist. The authors argue that San Diego’s planning and permitting reforms offer a model for cities across the state seeking to increase housing production and reduce delays.
In recent years, as California has pushed cities to make it easier to build housing, San Diego has gone further and faster than most. The city has restructured its planning and permitting processes to make development more predictable and efficient. Many projects that conform to local zoning and updated community plans now move forward with ministerial approval—meaning they are handled by city staff without lengthy environmental reviews or public hearings. Because ministerial approvals are not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, this shift eliminates one of the biggest sources of delay and uncertainty for developers.
In 2024, San Diego adopted Blueprint San Diego, a major update to its General Plan accompanied by a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report of more than 2,000 pages. Future community plan updates can rely on that broader environmental review instead of conducting new ones, significantly shortening timelines. According to the commentary, this change “moves most CEQA analysis up to the plan level,” making future development faster and more predictable.
The commentary highlights that by conducting full environmental analysis upfront, San Diego has effectively reduced costs and risk for developers, encouraging more multifamily projects that align with the city’s long-term growth goals.
San Diego has also developed several programs to promote higher-density and affordable housing near public transit. The Complete Communities Housing Solutions program allows developers to increase floor area ratio if they provide affordable units in “Sustainable Development Areas,” which include neighborhoods within a one-mile walk of a major transit stop. Developers can also use the state’s Transit Priority Area program, which provides density bonuses for projects near major transit hubs.
Another key reform, the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Bonus Program, adopted in 2020, allows multiple ADUs on residential lots if half are deed-restricted for low-income families. Initially unlimited, the program was later amended to cap ADUs at four to six per parcel after neighborhood concerns, though earlier applicants can proceed under the original rules.
The city has also restructured its Development Services Department, or DSD, to handle a surge in housing applications. DSD’s workforce grew from roughly 500 to over 700 employees to implement new permitting timelines set by Mayor Todd Gloria’s executive orders in 2023 and 2024. Those orders directed city departments to expedite reviews for affordable and mixed-income projects, requiring approvals or corrections within 30 days of application completion and final permits within five days of approval.
Each housing project now has a dedicated Development Project Manager responsible for coordinating across departments. These managers organize interdepartmental meetings where representatives from all relevant agencies—such as fire, utilities, and planning—can make binding decisions in real time. According to the commentary, this structure “empowers staff from all departments to make decisions on an accelerated timeframe,” helping eliminate bottlenecks.
Developers are expected to do their part as well. During the eligibility meeting, applicants must identify potential environmental or structural issues that could complicate review and assist city staff in preparing for expedited processing.
While San Diego’s housing target under the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation remains ambitious—108,000 units from 2021 to 2029—the reforms are producing measurable results. In 2023, the first year under Mayor Gloria’s order, the city permitted nearly 10,000 housing units. In 2024, it approved nearly 9,000, including about 1,000 affordable homes.
The report notes a significant shift in housing types. Single-family home construction has dropped sharply—from 864 permitted units in 2016 to just 132 in 2024—while multifamily and ADU development has surged. The number of ADUs permitted rose from none in 2016 to more than 2,100 in 2024.
Although few cities have the resources to add hundreds of staff or conduct full environmental reviews at the plan level, the Terner Center authors emphasize that the principles behind San Diego’s success can be applied elsewhere: move environmental review to the plan stage, approve conforming projects ministerially, create flexible local density bonuses, and use dedicated project managers to streamline communication.
Fulton and his co-authors write that these steps “provide a roadmap for cities, including those that are much smaller, seeking to increase housing production and expedite housing projects.”
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