San Diego, CA
San Diego shows what happens when a city actually lets builders build
As Los Angeles grapples with a housing shortage, it could learn from San Diego, which has proved better at convincing construction companies to build more.
The city is more welcoming to developers, industry insiders say, with fewer regulations and fees, better planning and less rent control.
“It is easier to build in San Diego over Los Angeles because of its legal structure, political culture and defined processes,” said Kevin Shannon, co-head of capital markets at real estate brokerage Newmark, which is overseeing the sale of a sprawling development site in San Diego that is zoned to have thousands of apartments.
The result: As of last quarter, the number of new apartments under construction in San Diego County rose 10% from three years earlier, CoStar data show. New apartment construction in Los Angeles County tumbled 33% over the same period, hitting an 11-year low in the three months through December. San Diego is expanding its apartment pool at nearly twice the rate of L.A. and other major city clusters in the state.
View of An apartment building is under construction in downtown San Diego on Jan. 16, 2026. The city is more welcoming to developers than Los Angeles, industry insiders say,
(Sandy Huffaker / For The Times)
L.A.’s vacancy rate is among the lowest in the country and rental rates are among the highest nationwide. Still, the supply of fresh rental units, which make up the bulk of new housing in Los Angeles, is thinning out despite robust demand.
Although local lawmakers create regulations to protect renters and keep rents down, hoping to combat homelessness, developers and economists warn that the wrong regulations often can add to the cost of building and maintaining apartments, making it hard to make a profit on new and existing projects. People who already have apartments may be protected, but over the long run, fewer are built, they say.
Rent control has been at the center of the debate recently. The city of Los Angeles just tightened its rent control.
It has just lowered the cap on rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments, a massive portion of the city’s housing stock that houses nearly half of the city’s residents. Although the cap doesn’t apply to units built after 1978, it still discourages developers, as it sends the wrong signal to those already worried about restrictions.
At the state level, a similar housing bill that would have halved the cap on rent increases to 5% a year died in the Assembly last week. Assemblymembers decided that too many restrictions can be counterproductive.
“That sounds nice and humanly caring and all that and warm and fuzzy, but someone has to pay,” said Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach). “How far do we squeeze the property owners?”
San Diego doesn’t have traditional rent control, though it does enforce less restrictive statewide tenant protections.
In Los Angeles, Measure ULA, known as the mansion tax, is another top reason that developers decide to build elsewhere. They also point to other local regulations that make it challenging to evict tenants who don’t pay their rent.
“L.A. has been redlined by the majority of the investment community,” apartment developer Ari Kahan of California Landmark Group said in October.
It’s easier to do business in San Diego because of its real estate development policies, project approval process and overall business-friendly attitude, industry insiders said. It outlines what it wants in a general plan, and if projects line up with that, they can be approved at the city staff level.
“San Diego has a clear, enforced General Plan, and for the most part, it sticks to it,” Shannon said. “San Diego updates its Community Plan and then lets projects proceed if they comply.”
“In contrast, L.A.’s General Plan is outdated and inconsistent,” he said. “Almost everything requires discretionary approvals.”
A view of the downtown San Diego skyline Jan. 16, 2026. It’s easier to do business in San Diego because of its real estate development policies, project approval process and overall business-friendly attitude, industry insiders said.
(Sandy Huffaker / For The Times)
Elected officials in L.A., including the City Council, have the discretion to decide whether a new project can be built, which can add months to its approval process as the proposal winds through City Hall and public meetings.
“The City of San Diego continues to prioritize the permitting and development of new homes to address our region’s housing needs and support a better future for all San Diegans,” said Peter Kelly, a spokesman for the city Planning Department. “Through updated community plans, streamlined permitting processes and proactive implementation of state housing laws, we are working to increase housing supply and affordability in all neighborhoods.”
The city updates its Land Development Code annually to streamline the permitting process and accelerate housing production, he said. It also adds capacity to build new homes through rezoning and updates to the city’s community plans, with a focus on placing new homes and jobs near transit, parks and services.
“If we can bring more supply, it will hopefully bring down rents,” said Kip Malo, a real estate broker in JLL’s San Diego office.
Most new apartments are being built outside of downtown San Diego, Malo said. “The city has made a concerted effort to try to clean up downtown and it has gotten better, but it’s still got a ways to go.
Of course, developers in San Diego still face the same headwinds that affect developers in other cities, such as interest rates that make construction loans more expensive than they have been in years past.
Recent policy out of Washington also hasn’t helped. Higher tariffs have driven up the prices of construction materials and equipment, while the crackdown on undocumented workers has thinned and spooked much of the international workforce on which the industry depends.
An apartment building is under construction in downtown San Diego on Jan. 16, 2026. In L.A., elected officials, including the City Council, have the discretion to decide whether a new project can be built, which can add months to its approval process as the proposal winds through City Hall and public meetings.
(Sandy Huffaker / For The Times)
California’s construction industry depends on immigrant workers. Around 61% of construction workers in the state are immigrants, and 26% of those are undocumented, according to a June report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
San Diego is “still California,” Malo said, and has hurdles to get projects approved that aren’t faced by builders in Texas and other states with more lax requirements for new projects, Malo said, but “the political winds have shifted in developers’ favor.”
Thursday, July 9
• La Jolla Town Council: 6 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollatowncouncil.org
Friday, July 10
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
• Kiwanis Club of La Jolla: noon, La Jolla Community Center, 6811 La Jolla Blvd. kiwanisclublajolla.org
Sunday, July 12
• La Jolla Open Aire Market: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Girard Avenue at Genter Street. (858) 454-1699. lajollamarket.com
Monday, July 13
• La Jolla Library Book Club: 1:30 p.m., Community Room, La Jolla/Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave. The July book is “Fresh Water for Flowers” by Valérie Perrin. sandiego.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=316631
• La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
• Laughmasters Toastmasters: 6:30 p.m., online. Email jrmmt@cox.net.
Tuesday, July 14
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hensel Phelps Construction Co., 9404 Genesee Ave. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• Rotary Club of La Jolla: noon, La Valencia Hotel, 1132 Prospect St. rotarycluboflajolla.org
• Co-op Toastmasters Club: noon, online at bit.ly/46W13bx (meeting ID: 849 4320 0407, passcode: cccu2020). (669) 900-6833. toastmasters.org/find-a-club/00001125-coop-club
• La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Wednesday, July 15
• Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Club: noon, online. torreypinesrotary.org
• La Jolla Shores Association: 6 p.m., Martin Johnson House, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8840 Biological Grade. lajollashoresassociation.org
Thursday, July 16
• La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club: 6:58 a.m., La Jolla Shores Hotel, 8110 Camino del Oro. Call Cheryl Collins at (760) 936-3272 or Steve Cross at (619) 992-9449.
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sanford Burnham Prebys (patio outside Buildings 6 and 7), 10901 N. Torrey Pines Road. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Friday, July 17
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
Did we miss listing your community event? Email calendar information to Noah Lyons at noah.lyons@lajollalight.com by noon Thursday for publication in the following week’s edition. ♦
San Diego, CA
Elite California city set for mass illegal street vendor expansion as judge issues stunning verdict
San Diego seems to have no solution to its illegal street vendor problem and it’s only getting worse in many areas including the popular Balboa Park and Gaslamp Quarter.
Local business leaders are frustrated following the January 2026 California appeals court ruling, which forced the city officials to entirely halt the crackdown on street vendors.
“It’s a disaster,” Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach Main Street Association, told the San Diego Union Tribune last week.
An increasing number of street vendors are exploiting the court’s ruling and many don’t even bother to get a permit.
Executive Director of Gaslamp Quarter Association, Michael Trimble, said that street vendors block the sidewalks, making it difficult for the businesses in the area to function.
“The lack of action has also led to an escalation of activity, including new vendors setting up tents and selling goods without permits, health approvals or accountability,” said Trimble, the Union-Tribune reports.
Organized groups of hot dog vendors have returned to the Gaslamp Quarter—bringing associated hazards like open fires, blocked walkways, and the dumping of grease into storm drains.
“It’s so much of a slap in the face to merchants that have done things the legal way, the right way,” said Ruth-Ann Thorn, owner of Native Star boutique and Exclusive Collections Gallery in the Gaslamp Quarter, reports inewsource.
Officers can no longer impound vending carts and law enforcement in Ballpark District is restricted, SDPD’s Ashley Nicholes said in a statement, according to the Union-Tribune.
“Recent court rulings involving the city’s street vending ordinance have limited what police officers can do to enforce street vending laws,” Nicholes said.
San Diego’s tug-of-war with street vendors started in 2018 when the state law decriminalized aspects of street vending. The task to draft a vendor law fell into the laps of then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2019, then passed on to Mayor Todd Gloria in 2021 and then Councilmember Jennifer Campbell.
The law, approved by the City Council in May 2022, banned vendors in Balboa Park, Little Italy, Ocean Beach and some beach areas during summer months. But, the merchants kept complaining about the lack of law enforcement and that led to the revision of the law in 2024.
The revised law made it easier for officials to impound vendors’ carts, limited free-speech protections, which didn’t include yoga classes on the beach and selling food.
After an immediate backlash, a federal appeals court ruling in June 2025 said the city’s ban on beach yoga classes is unconstitutional as they are protected under the First Amendment.
A California appeals court in the case of Imhotep Mustaqeem earlier this year ruled that San Diego’s revised 2024 street vendor law violated state law by establishing “overly restrictive” geographic no-vendor zones and restricted operating hours.
Imhotep Mustaqeem, a licensed vendor who had sold snacks outside Petco Park since 2009, sued the city after police impounded his cart under San Diego’s revised 2024 ordinance. While a lower court initially ruled against him, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ultimately vindicated Mustaqeem and quashed the 2024 street vendor law.
A California yoga instructor known as “Namasteve” is leveling up his warrior pose as he battles San Diego’s efforts to end his popular beachfront classes.
Steven Hubbard recently filed his third lawsuit over a 2024 city ordinance that prohibits teaching yoga to four or more people at local beaches and parks.
Hubbard, who’s been teaching yoga by the Pacific Ocean shoreline for 17 years, contends the local law violates his right to free speech because he doesn’t charge his students and instead accepts voluntary donations.
“It does set a dangerous precedent for government to be passing bans on specific types of speech that, for whatever reason, it doesn’t like,” Hubbard’s lawyer, Bryan Pease, told The Independent. “We don’t know why they decided yoga is something they want to target. They’ve never explained it, but it is concerning from a First Amendment perspective.”
Neither the San Diego mayor’s office nor the city attorney’s office replied to inquiries from The Independent.
The yoga ban is buried in a subsection of the San Diego Municipal Code that defines the “services” that are regulated at beaches and parks.
“Examples include massage, yoga, dog training, fitness classes, equipment rental, and staging for picnics, bonfires or other activities,” it says, marking the only time yoga is mentioned.
At the time the ordinance was introduced, Pease said, it was “put on the city council agenda as a sidewalk vending ordinance.”
“There was no public notice that they would be targeting the free and donation-based teaching of yoga in parks and beaches,” the lawyer said. “ I don’t even know that the city council members themselves knew what they were voting on.”
Videos posted on Hubbard’s “Namasteve Yoga” page on YouTube show scores of students following his instructions as they face the water in the Southern California sunshine.
San Diego park rangers issued Hubbard a total of 10 citations under the 2024 law, Pease said.
Some were for leading classes from his backyard while livestreaming on YouTube as students apparently watched on their devices by the beach, Pease said.
After Hubbard first challenged the 2024 ordinance in federal court, the judge overseeing the case denied a motion to block its enforcement, saying the First Amendment didn’t protect the teaching of yoga.
But that decision was reversed last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that Hubbard and fellow yoga teacher Amy Baack were “likely to succeed” in challenging the legality of San Diego’s public yoga ban.
“Teaching yoga is protected speech. The City’s prohibition on teaching yoga in shoreline parks is content-based and fails strict scrutiny,” according to the unanimous decision written by U.S. Circuit Judge Holly Thomas.
Hubbard has also filed two lawsuits in state court, with the most recent on June 22. It was first reported by the Times of San Diego.
It seeks unspecified damages for three tickets he received in May 2025, all of which charged him with giving a lecture without a permit.
The accusation came despite a ruling in the federal case that said requiring a permit to give a lecture “substantially overburdens” the right to free speech, according to Hubbard’s lawsuit.
All the citations issued against Hubbard were dismissed in April when the city attorney’s office didn’t appear in court to prosecute, Pease said.
Meanwhile, city lawyers have issued a series of subpoenas that seek “detailed GPS tracking information, all social media posts from all time and complete financial records for all financial transactions” involving Hubbard and Baack, Pease said.
Pease characterized the move as “pure harassment,” saying it seemed “calculated to have a chilling effect on people’s participation if they think their personal information is going to be obtained through these channels.”
“All that the city attorney has said to me about it is that it’s to prove that this is commercial activity, and they’re going to hire a financial expert to go through all these records,” he said.
A hearing on a motion to quash the subpoenas is scheduled for July 17 in state court, and pretrial discovery in the federal case is pending, with a deadline of August 28.
-
Minnesota14 seconds agoGiordano’s deep dish pizza bringing second location to Minnesota
-
Mississippi3 minutes agoPolice investigating video of Nolan Wells’ alleged argument on Horn Island before Mississippi teen went missing
-
Missouri8 minutes ago
Missouri Lottery Mega Millions, Pick 3 winning numbers for July 7, 2026
-
Montana15 minutes ago
Montana Lottery Mega Millions, Big Sky Bonus results for July 7, 2026
-
Nebraska18 minutes agoNebraska Rep. Mike Flood faces frustrated constituents at second town hall of year
-
Nevada23 minutes agoThe Best Summer County Fairs In Nevada
-
New Hampshire30 minutes agoDozens Arrested During Fourth Of July Holiday Weekend Enforcement: New Hampshire State Police Roundup
-
New Jersey33 minutes agoWater rescue in the ocean off Wildwood, New Jersey caught on video
