Encanto residents urge San Diego City Council to remove 'footnote 7' and halt bonus ADU approvals

Encanto residents and other community members used the public-comment period at a special San Diego City Council meeting on Wednesday to urge the council to remove a planning addendum known as “footnote 7” and pause or reform the city’s bonus accessory-dwelling-unit (ADU) program.

“Remove footnote 7, past, present, and future,” a speaker representing neighborhood interests told the council, summing up a steady stream of testimony that said the footnote and the bonus ADU rules permit dense, investor-driven projects without required infrastructure or community input. Many speakers tied their remarks to Project 1127220 at 1348 Tarbox Street, which residents said proposes 43 ADUs on a single lot.

Residents described multiple harms they say flow from the current rules: inadequate sidewalks and drainage, limited street parking, potential fire-escape problems on narrow streets, and what they called predatory purchasing of lots by investors. “This bonus ADU program is a giant experiment,” one neighbor said, urging the city to reconsider permitting criteria and the concentration of development in low-resource neighborhoods.

Speakers cited specific numbers and local conditions. Dana Givitt, a College Area resident, said that only about 8% of ADU permits use the bonus program and that “almost 40% of the bonus ADU projects are being permitted in very high fire hazard severity zones,” which she said puts residents and first responders at risk. Another resident told the council the Tarbox Street project would represent a “2150% density increase” over the current zoning for nearby lots.

Several speakers framed the issue as a question of equity and cumulative burden. “Encanto didn’t create the housing crisis,” one resident said, urging the council to shift the burden of denser development toward higher-resource neighborhoods that can better support infrastructure. Speakers recommended use of state and technical tools such as the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) and the Housing and Community Development (HCD) opportunity map to guide where higher density should be allowed.

Testimony also contained accusations about how footnote 7 was inserted and whether it advantages large developers. One commenter said the insertion undermined planners’ work and voter trust and called for approvals linked to the footnote to be withdrawn. Other speakers urged that bonus ADU approvals be limited or eliminated in very high fire-hazard zones and that projects pay development impact fees to fund needed sidewalks, drainage and other infrastructure.

Council staff closed the public-comment period after roughly two hours of testimony, thanked the speakers and said additional written comments could be submitted to cityclerk@sandiego.gov. The meeting recessed and was scheduled to reconvene at 3 p.m. for the mayor’s State of the City address. No formal council vote or directive on footnote 7 or the bonus ADU program was recorded during the public-comment segment.