Hello! Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day, so let's all take a moment to honor the Native peoples of the Americas and acknowledge the atrocities committed against their ancestors, who called this land home for centuries before foreign colonizers arrived.

Days like today are important for policy makers to pause and reflect as we make decisions that affect people's lives. We should always be serving in a way that recognizes every person's inherent dignity and right to fairness and justice.

Sermon over. Let's get to the details of tomorrow's regular meeting of the San Diego City Council.

If you'd like more detail on anything summarized here, click the agenda, then click on the item. Over on the right side of the page, you'll see links to a staff report and other pieces of supporting material.

City Council -- Tuesday, Oct. 13

Tuesday's meeting officially starts at 9 a.m., when the Council will listen to public comment on any items on the closed-session agenda. Then they'll retreat to closed session and return to open session at 11 a.m. 

The open-session agenda includes four ceremonial proclamations and eight consent items that are considered noncontroversial and won't be discussed unless a member of Council or a member of the public asks to have an item pulled out for conversation.

The big deal on the discussion / action agenda is the City's proposed acquisition of two hotels.

Serving as the San Diego Housing Authority, the Council will consider a request from the San Diego Housing Commission to purchase two hotels and repurpose them as homes for unsheltered residents who require supportive services. The hotels are the Residence Inn Hotel Circle and the Residence Inn Kearny Mesa, which were selected after a review of 29 hotels. 

The Residence Inn Hotel Circle has two buildings with 192 units -- 152 with one bedroom and one bath, 24 with two bedrooms and one bath, and 16 with two bedrooms and two baths. The Residence Inn Kearny Mesa has 11 two-story buildings with 144 units -- 36 with two bedrooms and two baths and 108 studios with private baths. All units at both hotels have kitchenettes. Two of the two-bedroom units at each hotel will be used as managers’ units.

The Housing Commission has committed 332 housing vouchers to these projects, which will be able to house a total of 404 people. The Residence Inn Hotel Circle will cost $67 million, the Residence Inn Kearny Mesa $39.5 million. The purchases will be paid for through a mix of federal, state, and local funds. They'll cost roughly $4 million to operate.

In a separate but related item, the Council -- again serving as the Housing Authority -- will be asked to approve a one-year contract worth roughly $2.8 million with People Assisting the Homeless to provide supportive services and property management at the Residence Inn Hotel Circle and a one-year contract worth roughly $2.1 million with Father Joe’s Villages to provide the same at Residence Inn Kearny Mesa.

What else is up? Here's what:

• Federal CARES Act Funding: There have been multiple rounds of funding in various categories coming down to the City from the federal CARES Act, which Congress passed this past spring as a response to the pandemic. On Wednesday, the City's Economic Development Department will ask the Council to approve a proposal to accept roughly $35 million in CARES Act funding and use it for the following purposes:

  • Operation Shelter to Home: This is the program under which the City is sheltering people experiencing homelessness at the San Diego Convention Center. About $4.8 million would be used to help pay for the program to continue from Oct. 15 through Dec. 15 (total cost: $11.4 million).

  • Emergency Rental Assistance Program: This is the program that provides assistance to families and individuals struggling to pay rent due to hardship caused by the pandemic. Under this proposal, up to $5 million would be invested in the program.

  • Bridge Shelters: Some $17 million would be used to support operations at the City's four bridge shelters for people experiencing homelessness, plus prevention and diversion services. 

Another $4.7 million would go to administration -- compliance, reporting, and planning.

This item will also include using about $3.2 million from a previous round of CARES Act funding to help transition clients from bridge shelters to permanent housing in the two hotels discussed above, as well as reactivate the City's pre-COVID-19 shelter system.

• 5G Right-of-Way Permits and Refund Program (Item 332): The City's Planning Department will ask the Council to weigh in on a proposal to exempt companies that install 5G small wireless facilities in the public right-of-way from paying what's known as a General Plan Maintenance Fee when they apply for permits. The Council will also be asked to create a refund program for those companies that have paid the fee since Sept. 27, 2018.

Why? Because the Federal Communications Commission wants to remove any and all barriers standing in the way of 5G wireless service. To that end, the FCC ruled, on Sept. 26, 2018, that local governments can impose fees only to the extent that they represent "objectively reasonable" costs associated with the deployment of wireless infrastructure. The Planning Department estimates that the refunds will cost the General Plan Maintenance Fund $959,400.

• Housing Legislation Code Update (Item 330): The Planning Department will also ask the Council to approve a series of changes that it's proposing to make to the City's Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program in order to implement and comply with a number of housing laws recently passed by the state Legislature. These laws involve such things as accessory dwelling units (granny flats), density bonuses, and housing residents who are experiencing homelessness. Planning staff will also suggest some additional changes based on changing local housing needs.

• North Park Community Plan Amendment and Rezone (Item 331): But that's not all from the Planning Department. They'll also ask the Council to fix a mistake in the North Park Community Plan. When the community plan was being updated in 2016, about 3.5 acres of land located between Florida Street and the parallel alley east of Florida Street, and between Upas Street and Cypress Avenue, was unintentionally re-designated from 30-45 dwelling units per acre to 5-9 dwelling units per acre. 

Next up will be a post on the committee meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 14 and 15 -- Budget and Government Efficiency, Active Transportation and Infrastructure, and Land Use and Housing.

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