Two California housing advocacy groups are suing the city of San Diego, alleging city planners illegally excluded properties from a state program meant to spur development near transit stations.
In a legal filing obtained by Times of San Diego, Californians for Homeownership and the California Housing Defense Fund say San Diego ran afoul of the state housing law by requiring that projects are connected to bus or rail stations by dedicated sidewalks to qualify.
Signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2025, Senate Bill 79 allows developers to build more housing than allowed by local zoning restrictions for projects that are near major transit stops.
In May, city officials adopted an ordinance that interpreted the state law to exclude any property within a mile from a transit stop that does now include a sidewalk connecting the project and the station.
Matt Gelfand, counsel for Californians for Homeownership, said that was a misinterpretation. The law calls for a “safe walkway,” but the housing groups say that does not require a dedicated sidewalk.
As an example, the lawsuit cites a parcel near the 62nd Street Trolley Station in Encanto, which Gelfand said the city excluded from its list of sites for transit-oriented developments.
The site is 375 feet from the station but was excluded from the city’s transit-oriented development map because pedestrians must traverse a 100-foot dirt alley to reach the station.
Because there is a gap in the sidewalk, the city excluded the area.
“The city of San Diego has misinterpreted this provision to allow the exclusion of a parcel based on any gap in sidewalk availability between the parcel and the qualifying transit stop,” the lawsuit said. “As a result, the city is unlawfully excluding numerous parcels throughout the City, including parcels that are nearly adjacent to qualifying transit stops,.”
Gelfand said the city’s decision contradicts the law.
“This walking path issue is a San Diego issue and not what state legislators and the state law require,” Gelfand told Times of San Diego.
He said there are many examples of locations similar to the example in Encanto that the city excluded from the map, but did not know of any specific developments that were rejected because of it.
“This is a common effort by local agencies throughout the state to minimize state legislation, and this is not unique to San Diego,” Gelfand said.
Bill Fulton, the city’s former director of planning and a professor of urban studies and planning at UC San Diego said the city likely erred on the side of caution when defining what walkable passages meant because state legislators failed to do so.
“This is what happens in California,” Fulton said. “Legislators are vague and fail to define what a walkable pathway is, and now it’s left up to a judge to be the one to define it.”
The lawsuit will now make its way through state court.
Click here to see the city’s list of transit-oriented development stops.
The city declined to comment due to pending litigation.
