California Housing Agency Echoes CBLG’s Concerns Over Controversial Pacific Beach Development

In November 2024, Chatten-Brown Law Group submitted written comments to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (“HCD”) on behalf of Neighbors for a Better California regarding a highly controversial proposed mixed-use development in Pacific Beach. The content of several of these comments were echoed in HCD’s own letter regarding its interpretation of State Density Bonus Law, published a month later.​

​The proposed $185 million “Vela” Project at 970 Turquoise Street would be 23 stories tall and include 74 residential units, 139 hotel units, a parking complex, and commercial space for lease. The Developer intends to utilize the State Density Bonus Law’s provisions for incentives, concessions, and waivers from applicable local development standards by providing ten income-restricted affordable units. As explained in CBLG’s submitted comments, incentives and waivers granted pursuant to the Density Bonus Law must be for the purpose of providing affordable housing. The Vela Project’s requested incentives or waivers, such as the request to authorize a 239-foot development in an area subject to a 30-foot voter initiated coastal height restriction, were neither related to the provision of affordable housing nor necessary to construct the Project’s affordable units.

​As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, in December 2024, HCD submitted its own letter to the City of San Diego that reflected several of the points raised in CBLG’s letter to HCD. HCD’s letter concluded that the City is not obligated to approve the waivers and incentives if it finds they will not facilitate affordable housing. HCD further noted that the waivers as proposed may exceed the necessary level of variation from development standards, and that there was no legal way for the Developer to categorize the hotel units as housing units as originally planned.

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