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San Diego City Council approves rollback of ADU incentives

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San Diego City Council approves rollback of ADU incentives


The San Diego City Council voted 5-4 on Monday to impose new restrictions on accessory dwelling units (ADUs), setting up a possible confrontation with state housing officials who warned the changes could violate state law.

Included in the package of reforms proposed by the City Planning Department are new fees to pay for infrastructure, parking requirements for properties far from public transit and restrictions on cul-de-sacs and in wildfire hazard zones.

The greatest change to the program is a new cap on the number of ADUs a homeowner can build in their backyard. The city’s ADU bonus program currently has no such cap, but does restrict the number of ADUs based on lot size, height limit and other zoning regulations.

Councilmember Henry Foster III proposed a cap of four ADUs for lots that are 8,000 square feet or less, five ADUs for lots between 8,001 and 10,000 square feet and six ADUs on lots of 10,001 square feet or more. The standard lot size for a single-family home in the vast majority of San Diego is 5,000 square feet.

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An earlier motion that would have limited all properties to four ADUs failed to win a majority. Foster’s motion passed 5-4 after Council President Joe LaCava switched his vote to “yes.” Also voting “yes” were Councilmembers Jennifer Campbell, Marni von Wilpert and Raul Campillo. Councilmembers Stephen Whitburn, Kent Lee, Vivian Moreno and Sean Elo-Rivera voted “no.”

“ADUs (are) part of our housing solution,” LaCava said after more than four hours of public testimony, most of it in opposition to large ADU projects. “But it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be right-sized.”

Also included in the package of reforms is an allowance for homeowners to sell off ADUs separately as condominiums.

Mayor Todd Gloria and the council have been under pressure to scale back the ADU bonus program, which has led to some projects with a dozen or more ADUs on a single property. Homeowner groups say such projects reduce privacy, constrain parking supply and alter the visual character of suburban-style neighborhoods.

Neighbors for a Better San Diego, the group leading the opposition to the ADU bonus program, sent an email Monday night saying the council’s reforms were “not perfect, but definitely better.”

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“It’s not the ‘4 is Fair Everywhere’ that we had hoped for,” the email said, referring to the group’s preference for a citywide cap of three ADUs per property in addition to the primary residence. “But it will greatly reduce the damage that has been done to neighborhoods by predatory investors under this program.”

Last Friday, the state’s Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) sent San Diego a letter threatening to find the city in violation of state law if the reforms were approved as presented. The ADU bonus program is a component of the city’s strategy to undo the racist and discriminatory housing policies of past generations, the letter argues, and reducing its scope could hinder those efforts.

City staff, who said the letter took them by surprise, swiftly revised their recommendations, agreeing to keep the ADU bonus program in place in wealthy, low-density neighborhoods such as Point Loma, La Jolla and Del Mar Heights where the program had been proposed for removal.

City staffers said they would respond to HCD in writing by the agency’s deadline of July 11.

“What the City Council approved closely aligns with the staff’s recommendation,” mayoral spokesperson Rachel Laing told KPBS. “We thank the council for their feedback and friendly amendments. We’ll continue to engage with the state’s Housing and Community Development agency to ensure San Diego’s housing element remains in compliance and that we maintain our prohousing designation.”

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Defenders of the ADU bonus program say it has produced hundreds of lower-cost housing options in neighborhoods dominated by more expensive single-family homes, and that it’s creating affordable housing for the middle class with no subsidy from taxpayers.

“That’s incredibly meaningful to the people who live in those homes now, and I’m glad that they were built,” said Councilmember Moreno. “But it’s not enough. We still need more housing for families.”

San Diego permitted 5,720 ADUs between 2021 and 2024, according to figures shared by city staffers. Of those, 875 were permitted under the city’s ADU bonus program.

Saad Asad, spokesperson for the prohousing YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County, said the council’s reforms would make housing more expensive and harder to find.

“With one vote, City Council just made it harder to build affordable housing during a housing shortage,” Asad said. “They’ve effectively told San Diegans: Pay more to live here, or move farther out and sit in traffic.”

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Con Rangers San Diego Comic-Con 2026 Exclusives

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Con Rangers San Diego Comic-Con 2026 Exclusives


San Diego Comic-Con is full of challenges: Surviving Hall H lines, navigating the Exhibit Hall, collecting exclusives, and somehow getting more than four hours of sleep a night. The Con Rangers are here to make sure those accomplishments don’t go unnoticed, and they’ve been doing it for ten years (!). For 2026, they’re returning to […]



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Padres cap wild game against Braves with extra-innings win

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Padres cap wild game against Braves with extra-innings win


The Padres have a serious issue in their starting rotation.

That reality brazenly slapped them in the face again Tuesday.

And then it became a side story, at least for the night.

That is how crazy things got at Petco Park.

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The Padres beat the Braves 7-6 when Mason Miller worked two scoreless innings and Manny Machado grounded a walk-off single up the middle to score Jackson Merrill in the 10th inning.

“I think the most important part is just how the team fought today,” Machado said. “I think that was impressive, being down four and then coming back and winning that ball game and fighting to the end. I think that shows a lot about the team. We picked up each other. We picked Griff. Bullpen came in and did their job too.”

The game was decided eight innings after the Braves took a 4-0 lead and the Padres took a 5-4 lead.

That is correct. The craziness commenced when for the second time in five games the Padres were part of a runaway inning.

They were on the wrong side of an 11-run inning Friday in Texas when the Rangers responded with six runs in the bottom of the first inning after the Padres scored five at the start of what ended up a 9-7 loss.

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On Tuesday, the Padres came out on top of a nine-run second inning.

Griffin Canning jogged in from the bullpen to start that inning after Wandy Peralta worked a scoreless first as the Padres’ opener.

Canning would get just two outs, allow four hits, hit a batter, walk another and allow three runs before he departed.

His 40th pitch completed a walk that loaded the bases. That drew more than a few boos from the seats and brought Craig Stammen from the dugout.

The game didn’t really get wild until a little bit after that.

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Kyle Hart walked the next batter to make it 4-0 before ending the top of the second on a groundout.

That is how the bottom of the second began for the Padres as well.

And then six consecutive batters reached base, and they scored five runs against Braves starter JR Ritchie.

The comeback began with walks by Xander Bogaerts and Will Wagner before singles by Rodolfo Durán and Sung-Mun Song cut the Braves’ lead in half and a double by Fernando Tatis Jr. got the Padres to 4-3 and got Song to third base.

An infield single by Samad Taylor flipped the lead.

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Song easily scored on Taylor’s grounder up the middle, and when Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón bounced a throw that got past first baseman Matt Olson, Tatis raced around third and beat a throw home by Olson.

The Braves tied the game 5-5 in the fourth and retook the lead in the fifth.

Michael Harris II singled, went to second on a wild pitch by Hart and scored on Ozzie Albies’ double in the fourth. Dubón homered in the fifth off Yuki Matsui, who had come in to get the final out of the fourth and ended up working through the sixth, leaving the bases loaded in that inning.

Jackson Merrill missed a game-tying home run by a foot and instead got a double leading off the fifth inning when his fly ball to right field hit the top of the wall and bounced back to right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.

Merrill finished the inning at second after a fly ball out by Machado and strikeouts by Gavin Sheets and Bogaerts.

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Tatis did not miss a home run as the first batter in the seventh, sending a sinker from Carlos Carrasco 406 feet to center field to tie the game 6-6.

David Morgan worked the seventh and Adrian Morejón the eighth before Miller threw just 11 pitches in the ninth and went back out for the 10th.

“One, we didn’t have a ton of bullpen left,” Stammen said of the decision to have Miller work a second inning . “And he’d been kind of asking me over the course of the season: ‘Hey, I got another one, come on, let me have it.’”

Austin Riley began the 10th by hitting a long fly ball to right field that moved the automatic runner from second to third before Miller struck out Rowdy Tellez and ended the inning by getting a groundout from Eli White.

“It definitely goes a long way,” Miller said, “when you empty everybody out early and you have another game tomorrow, being able to carry two innings there and keep two guys fresh for tomorrow and give us a chance to win again tomorrow as well.”

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Merrill was the runner on second to start the bottom of the 10th after he made the final out in the ninth. Machado walked to the plate against Raisel Iglesias, the Braves closer, who had also worked the ninth.

“Looking for a strike,” Machado said. “He’s a strike thrower, one of the best in the game right now. So just trying to be aggressive on that first pitch, something I can drive. Don’t really need much, just just a base hit to score Jackson. So just trying to hit it hard somewhere.”

No matter the result, the Padres are left to figure out what to do about Canning, whose ERA swelled to 7.38 after he yielded his ninth multi-run inning among the 45 innings he has begun for the Padres this season.

He is but one of the flat tires on the rotation bus.

The Padres got seven shutout innings from Michael King in a 1-0 victory over the Braves on Monday. It was the first time a Padres starter went seven innings since King did it on May 18 and just the third quality start by a Padres pitcher in 24 games.

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The members of the starting rotation, including the two times Canning has worked after an opener and the two times Lucas Giolito has done so, have a combined 4.76 ERA over the past 25 games.

But the Padres figured out how to win Tuesday, just the second time in a month they have won consecutive games.

“Griffin didn’t have his stuff like he wanted to,” said Taylor, who finished 3-for-4 with a walk. “But we fought. We’re going to keep fighting until the game is over. We fought. Got back in the game. Good at-bats, good pitching. And you leave it into Manny’s hands, he’s going to take over and win the game for us.”

 

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San Diego Unified leaders propose policy to limit technology in classrooms

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San Diego Unified leaders propose policy to limit technology in classrooms


SAN DIEGO (CNS) – San Diego Unified School District leaders Tuesday announced an effort to better integrate technology in classrooms and reduce excessive media consumption, to be voted upon by the school board Tuesday evening.

If the Board of Education approves the proposed resolution at Tuesday evening’s meeting, the first changes would go into effect on Aug. 10, the first day of the 2026-27 school year.

The proposed changes include:

— Prohibiting video-streaming platform use such as YouTube on individual devices;

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— Prohibiting non-instructional gaming platform use on individual devices; and

— Removing computer carts from Transitional Kindergarten classrooms, while still allowing for access to devices for students with needed accommodations.

“Technology has expanded educational opportunities for students in ways we could not have imagined a generation ago,” Board President Richard Barrera said. “But our responsibility is to ensure technology serves students – – not the other way around. This resolution takes thoughtful, research-based steps to reduce passive screen time and create more opportunities for students to engage with their teachers, collaborate with their peers, and develop the communication, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills that will serve them throughout their lives.”

Other facets of the proposal, which would be phased in over the course of the next year, include:

— Developing age-appropriate device usage guidance;

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— Limiting screen time outside established time frames;

— Expanding family resources and parent controls;

— Strengthening digital citizenship instruction;

— Reviewing instructional software annually; and

— Continuing evaluations of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

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District leaders said that while technology remains an important learning tool, excessive screen time and passive digital media consumption can “negatively impact attention, academic performance, sleep, social-emotional development, and overall student well-being.”

The impetus of the resolution is not to remove technology from classrooms, its proponents say, but to instead support diverse learning needs while “creating more opportunities for meaningful human interaction, student engagement, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.”

“One of the strengths of this resolution is that it recognizes these decisions should not be made in isolation,” Board Trustee Shana Hazan said. “Families, educators and community partners have helped elevate this conversation, and their voices will continue to guide this work. Technology remains an important educational tool, but it should never replace the relationships, creativity, collaboration, and human connection that are at the heart of a great education.

“This resolution creates a framework for bringing diverse perspectives together to determine what is best for students at every stage of their development,” Hazan added.

District leaders say if the resolution passes, staff will work with advisory groups such as the Community Advisory Committee, District Advisory Council and District English Learner Advisory Committee to further refine ideas.

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