|
Transforming an MTS Parking Lot into Affordable Apartments
An innovative new affordable apartment project in Rancho Bernardo shows how San Diegans are thinking outside of the box and working together to build more affordable housing in all corners of our city.
Affordable Housing developers Affirmed Housing partnered with the City, Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), the County of San Diego, our city’s Housing Commission and the Building and Construction Trades Council to make their new SkyLINE project possible.
SkyLINE will use a portion of an existing underused MTS parking lot that is in close proximity to several off-site amenities -- including bus service, grocery stores, pharmacies, healthcare options, and the Rancho Bernardo library -- transforming it into 100 apartment homes set aside for individuals and families earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income and roughly 14,000 square feet of commercial space that will be Affirmed Housing’s new company headquarters.
For the City of San Diego and my administration, SkyLINE checks a lot of boxes: For starters, it’s one of the inaugural projects in our Bridge to Home program. This program, overseen by our Economic Development Department, bridges the gap in financing for projects like this through direct city investment. For this project, the City invested $5 million to help get it across the finish line.
Now three funding rounds in, Bridge to Home has awarded more than $60 million to 16 housing projects totaling nearly 1,340 affordable homes, with 368 of those set aside for people experiencing homelessness.
Second, SkyLINE is part of our Affordable Housing Permit Now program – which was initiated by the executive order I signed last year, requiring 100% affordable housing projects to be reviewed within 30 days. Our Development Services Department not only accepted my challenge, but then exceeded expectations, reviewing projects in 9 days on average.
This program is saving time and money and getting shovels in the ground faster.
Finally, SkyLINE is being built under a project labor agreement. I had the honor this week of signing into law the first citywide project labor agreement that will ensure that our City public works projects are built on time and on budget and prioritize local workers for these high-quality, good-paying jobs.
Building more homes for all income levels is the best way to lower the cost of housing and put more hard-earned dollars back in the pockets of San Diegans. And aligning this housing with public transit gives residents more options for getting around, cuts their fuel costs and helps us reach our ambitious climate goals.
| 
