SAN DIEGO — Plans are underway to add 17 accessory dwelling units (ADU) behind a single-family home in Clairemont, and some neighbors are not happy about it. CBS 8 is Working for You to find out if the project is following the rules.
“17 units behind here. You got to be kidding me,” said Bill Buchwald, who lives on Almayo Avenue. “There’s no parking here. We’ve got a nice, quiet cul-de-sac.”
The 0.45-acre, single-family lot half-acre was sold for $1.4 million in October. The existing home will be remodeled and rented out, while the additional units will be added to the backyard.
“If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere,” said Bob Brindell, who lives nearby. “This is at the end of a cul-de-sac. There’s no parking as it is. Where are these people going to park?”
Construction workers have begun grading and leveling the dirt on the property. The developer SDRE has an office in Kearny Mesa.
“Everybody admits and agrees that we have a housing crisis. Nobody has a perfect solution," said Schuyler Hoffman, an attorney representing the San Diego-based real estate investment firm.
Hoffman, who grew up in Bay Park and Point Loma, told CBS 8 each unit will be a one-bedroom, typically 500 to 800 square feet, and that parking won't be an issue.
“Millennials and Gen Z-ers do not own cars in the typical fashion that we did twenty years ago," said Hoffman. "They’re taking Ubers. They’re taking public transportation. They’re working from home.”
He added, "These are really attractive units, and the build quality is exceptional because we’re trying to attract a certain type of tenant, you know, somebody who is responsible, somebody who is a good neighbor.”
Behind the existing home, they’re adding nine separate structures, most of them two stories that would be separate ADUs stacked on top of each other.
SDRE is using the City of San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program. They’re allowed a bonus market-rate unit for every one they build as a restricted low-to-moderate income rental.
In addition, the property is located in a designated Transit Priority Area (TPA) because it's within a half mile of a bus stop for public transit. In a TPA, the city does not require onsite parking and does not impose a cap on the total number of ADUs allowed, as long as the units are built to code and compliant with lot coverage requirements.
On the city's website, it states, "Within Transit Priority Areas (TPA) one bonus ADU may be permitted in exchange for every affordable ADU and there is no limit to the total amount of ADUs."
"There is an absolute need for these types of projects, and it’s NIMBY, right? Not in my backyard," said Hoffman. "Everybody’s fine with affordable housing, right, as long as it’s not next door to me.”
While SDRE is following all the rules and requirements for the project at 4601 Almayo Avenue, neighbors feel it doesn't fit the character of the community.
“It’s single-family residences when I moved here," said Brindell. "That’s all there were, single-family residences, and now they’re putting these, they’re just dropping them in and not telling us, and just forcing it through.”