Construction began Friday on an affordable housing development that is expected to bring 77 low-income housing units to the North Park neighborhood. The project is unique because it is the first affordable housing project to be built on property belonging to a church in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. Friday morning, the diocese broke ground on the complex adjacent to St. Luke’s Church, at the corner of 30th Street and Gunn Street. The Episcopal Diocese calls the project a “real estate with a mission.” The 8-story apartment complex will feature 77 apartments for low-income individuals and families and a manager’s apartment. There will also be a ground-floor courtyard and a community room on the eighth floor. It’s being built on a 0.2-acre lot that used to house a community garden. The developer, Trestle, paid the church $2.2 million for a 99-year ground lease to develop and operate the affordable apartments. They’ll be made available through a lottery system to households making no more than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Some units will be further restricted to 30 to 70% AMI. It will be a combination of 361-square-foot studios, 509-square-foot one-bedroom apartments, and 847-square-foot two-bedrooms. “We believe it’s part of our mission in this diocese, in this church, to be partners with our neighborhood,” said Bishop Susan Brown Snook. “We see a number of homeless people in this neighborhood and a number of people who really can’t afford adequate housing for themselves and their families. So, this is our way of contributing to the well-being of the whole neighborhood.” Some North Park residents were upset the decision to build the complex was made without discussion with community members. Others were against the project because no parking will be provided for the commercial space or tenants. Some could see the benefit in a project that was brining affordable housing to the neighborhood. The development falls within the city of San Diego’s Complete Communities initiative and the State Density Bonus Law, so it didn’t need to be approved by the San Diego City Council or local planning groups, and why it wasn’t required to get feedback from neighbors in North Park, or include parking. Nicodemus Lim is a junior warden at St. Luke’s Church. He said the project has been in the works for several years, and he is excited to see it finally start to take shape. “I feel like it’s a prayer that has been answered by God because a lot of my friends left the city who were part of this church – St. Luke’s Church – they left San Diego because they could not afford to live here. And so, that is basically breaking the community apart. But if we have something that will keep us together, that is a blessing.” Construction on the project is expected to take 18 to 21 months to complete. ...read more read less