Construction is set to begin on July 8 on a 147-unit affordable housing project at La Mesa’s Spring Street San Diego Trolley station on land owned by the Metropolitan Transit System.
First eyed in 2023, the Spring Street project is the latest in several transit-oriented developments across San Diego County that are transforming underused park-and-ride lots into housing.
With the July 1 implementation of Senate Bill 79, which supersedes local zoning ordinances and allows for affordable housing developments near transit stops, similar developments in La Mesa and throughout San Diego County are likely to be in the works.
San Diego-based developer Affirmed Housing plans to break ground on the $106 million project at 4250 Spring St on July 8, just seven days after Senate Bill 79 goes into effect.
The development is slated for a 2.2-acre parcel on San Diego Metropolitan Transit System land under a 99-year ground lease. The development will comprise 145 affordable units and two manager units, housed in two six-story buildings, along with 159 transit parking spaces and 53 resident parking spaces. Units will be reserved for households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the Area Median Income.
“This is a big deal because it will help so many people,” said La Mesa City Councilmember Patricia Dillard, the city’s representative on the MTS board. “I want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to have a better quality of life.”
Katelyn Silverwood, director of marketing for Affirmed Housing, said the company is looking forward to the development, calling it the firm’s third project in partnership with MTS. She declined to share additional details ahead of the groundbreaking, citing standard protocol for projects in the pre-construction phase.
‘Affordability’ in San Diego County
For La Mesa renters squeezed by rising costs, the distinction between market-rate and affordable housing is significant.
Dillard said the savings can amount to $500 or more a month.
“Everything has gone up — gas prices, food prices, rent,” Dillard said. “You’re getting hit from all sides.”
Rent at the Spring Street project will be calculated as a percentage of a tenant’s income, with rents varying based on household earnings within the 30-to-60-percent Area Median Income.
La Mesa Director of Community Development Lynnette Santos said the 100 percent affordable project would mark a significant step toward meeting the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment goals, particularly for those qualifying as extremely low to low income categories. Those are typically the affordability tiers most difficult to address through market-rate development alone.
Santos said that the project was processed under Senate Bill 35, a state law requiring cities to follow a mandatory streamlined approval process when a developer submits an eligible application. Under SB 35, La Mesa could not conduct discretionary hearings — no Design Review Board review, no Planning Commission discussion and no City Council vote.
“Because SB 35 is a state law, cities must follow its mandatory streamlined approval process,” Santos said. “The city’s role is limited to verifying whether the application meets SB 35 eligibility criteria.”
The eligibility determination was completed through a Site Development Plan review and posted on the city’s website for a five-day public notice period, with a separate 30-day tribal notice period also conducted. The project has appeared on the city’s Active Development Projects webpage since 2023, and an on-site public meeting was held in 2024 where representatives from MTS and Affirmed Housing presented the conceptual design and answered questions.
To date, Santos said, “the city has not received any feedback” from neighboring residents or businesses about the project.
Regarding parking — always a hot point for La Mesa residents and businesses — Santos said state law does not require on-site parking for projects on transit sites and that the 53 resident spaces included in the project are being provided voluntarily.
Utility capacity was also reviewed. Santos said city sewer infrastructure immediately downstream of the project was deemed satisfactory for the increase in use, and Helix Water District issued a letter in July 2023 confirming it could deliver water to the site at an adequate rate, provided all private water improvements are completed as planned.
Parking disruption starts June 24
Transit riders should be aware that the Spring Street station parking lot will close on Wednesday, June 24 — two weeks before the ceremonial groundbreaking — and remain closed for about two years during construction. A limited number of ADA spaces will remain available, but no general public parking will be offered during that period.
San Diego Trolley and bus service at Spring Street is not expected to be interrupted, according to MTS Manager of Marketing and Communications, Stacie Bishop.
Commuters who rely on the lot have two nearby alternatives: Grossmont Transit Center, about a six-minute trolley ride east of Spring Street, and the Massachusetts Avenue station, about a seven-minute ride west. Both have available parking.
In the long run, commuters will see a modest reduction in spaces, Bishop said. The current lot has about 180 spaces, with average daily use of around 60.
The finished development’s 159 dedicated transit parking spaces were based on a 2022 MTS planning study estimating the station’s maximum parking demand. MTS will retain authority over those spaces, including the ability to enforce parking rules and cite vehicles.
The new parking area will include upgrades such as new asphalt, landscaping, and lighting that meet the San Diego Association of Governments’ Designing for Transit standards.
Timing is everything
The Spring Street project traces its origins to a policy MTS adopted in 2019 to redevelop surplus park-and-ride lots into housing. The MTS board unanimously approved the project in October 2023. But financing took considerably longer than expected.
Dillard said the project ran into delays tied to federal funding uncertainty — disruptions that rippled through affordable housing pipelines statewide as funding sources at multiple levels of government were pulled back.
“There were delays because of everything going on — not just at the federal level, but across the board,” she said. “When I came in, we were just at the bare minimum basics of how you get a project started.”
Dillard said she pushed for changes during the process to make the project financially viable while ensuring the developer could still make it work. The biggest factor that made the project possible at all, she said, was MTS’s contribution of the land.
“With MTS, this property is gifted — it brings the cost down for the developer who normally wouldn’t be able to do it,” Dillard said.
Earlier this year, La Mesa Assistant City Manager Amanda Lee said city staff is “actively evaluating implementation options, including potential phasing and safety exemptions” that could eventually come before the Planning Commission and City Council.
La Mesa had previously identified both Spring Street and the Amaya Drive station as potential TOD sites, commissioning a feasibility study that evaluated zoning, housing, parking and economic factors at each location.
Dillard noted parcel availability is a constraint in La Mesa. “We are very limited on our land,” she said. “It’s very hard to find a vacant lot in La Mesa. But when we have an opportunity like Spring Street, we have to take advantage of it.”
Larger MTS push
Spring Street is one of several park-and-ride redevelopments MTS and Affirmed Housing have collaborated on in San Diego County.
ShoreLINE, a 126-unit fully affordable development at the Grantville Transit Center on Alvarado Canyon Road, was completed in April 2024. SkyLINE, a seven-story mixed-use development with 100 affordable apartments at the Rancho Bernardo Transit Station, was completed in March 2026.
In the pipeline is an $81 million, 100-unit affordable apartment building at the Beyer Boulevard Trolley station in San Ysidro.
When the Spring Street project was initially approved in 2023, San Diego City Councilmember and MTS Board Chair Stephen Whitburn said MTS would have nearly 3,000 residential units completed or in the planning process at its transit centers.
When SkyLINE opened, Whitburn said the development delivers “high-quality affordable homes in a high-opportunity area and reinforces the value of building vibrant, transit-oriented communities.”
