The San Diego Unified School District board has passed a sweeping plan to develop affordable homes around the district in an attempt to ease a regionwide housing crisis — part of its ongoing effort to provide relief to its workforce, shore up enrollment and support its operations with revenue from its vast real estate portfolio. By unanimous vote and to applause from attendees, the board approved a package of three resolutions — one to develop enough homes to house 10% of employees within a decade, one to explore developing affordable workplace housing at five sites and one to create a regional housing finance authority in partnership with the San Diego Community College District. “We have essentially failed completely to keep up with the demands of our community members for housing,” Cody Petterson, the board’s president, said at Tuesday night’s meeting in University Heights. He said the district’s affordable housing shortage is hastening enrollment declines across the district, but particularly in the coastal areas he represents. “I’m in sub-district C, which has really taken the brunt thus far,” he said. The first resolution the board considered set a goal of providing the option of housing for 10% of district employees over the next decade. The district already offers some housing at the Livia development in Scripps Ranch, and last year, it green-lit a proposal to develop the former Central Elementary in City Heights. On Tuesday night, the more than 10 public speakers who commented on the district’s first resolution generally supported it but pushed for greater density and more homes. “I would caution against falling into this trap, aiming for the highest percentage of affordable homes rather than the highest number,” said Andrew Bowen, a homeowner in the area. “You could have a 50-unit project that’s 100% deed-restricted or a 150-unit project that’s 50% deed-restricted — one of those projects providing more affordable housing,” he explained. “The fact that that it includes market-rate housing should not count against it.” In response to those concerns, the board amended the resolution to place the highest priority not on maximizing affordability, as it had said initially, but rather on maximizing the number of affordable housing units. But they also discussed the pricing that would be needed to justify building, after the board’s vice president, Richard Barrera, raised concerns about building housing that some employees could not afford. The district plans to have each site host a mix of homes with different income restriction levels, so that the sites are not divided by certificated and classified employees, Petterson added. Union leaders also supported the plan, including the leader of the district’s paraeducators union. “I have several members who are homeless and still show up 100% every single day for our children, and more often than not the neediest children — our special education students who have severe behavioral, cognitive and physical impairments,” said Issel Martinez. The second item the board passed was a resolution of intent to consider joint occupancy proposals for upward of 1,500 units of affordable workplace housing at five sites: Eugene Brucker Education Center, 4100 Normal St., San Diego Revere Center, 6735 Gifford Way, San Diego Fremont/Ballard Center, 2375 Congress St., San Diego Instructional Media Center, 2441 Cardinal Lane, San Diego Commercial Street, 2101 Commercial St., San Diego Lee Dulgeroff, the district’s senior executive director of facilities planning and construction, said that the district’s request for proposals would incorporate the change the board had approved. But before the district begins to consider any proposals from developers, it plans to schedule community listening sessions at each of the five sites and solicit ideas, he added. That resolution garnered support from public speakers, with many pushing for density and less parking than planned. Nearly all of the more than 20 people who signed up to comment spoke directly to the University Heights site of the Eugene Brucker Education Center, where the meeting was being held. “Instead of constraining this project with parking and density limits that the city and planning committees don’t even impose upon it, we can build more homes for families,” said Vahan Hartooni, a homeowner in the neighborhood. Kristen Harms, the president of the University Heights Historical Society, said she was pleased with the plans for parking and historical preservation but wished they reflected more previous engagement from the community. Similar concerns were brought up about another site. Clifford Weiler said he was an education attorney who agreed with the need for affordable school employee homes but said he had also been “protecting Fremont” for decades. He said parking and height restrictions were important for the Old Town area. “If it’s too high, you’ll get very aggressive opposition,” he said. “Just for Fremont. Please consider Fremont differently. I don’t want to have to come back and say ‘I told you so.’” The third resolution passed by the board aims to create a Regional Housing Finance Authority with the San Diego Community College District, and to name both Petterson and Barrera to its board. The creation of such an authority was made possible under legislation, Senate Bill 440, signed last year that authorized two or more local governments to establish housing authorities to raise and allocate funding to develop affordable housing. Jack Beresford, a spokesperson for the community college district, said Wednesday that the community college board of trustees would consider participation in the coming weeks but otherwise declined to comment. ...read more read less