The San Diego Unified School District kicked off major campus work Tuesday at 62-year-old Holmes Elementary School, part of a district-wide push for site modernizations.

Students at the two-time California Distinguished School joined Board of Education President Shana Hazan, Vice President Cody Petterson, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and others Tuesday to mark the groundbreaking on the construction, funded by local school bonds.

“Holmes Elementary staff have been devoted to students and the neighboring community for more than six decades, contributing to high test scores and academic success,” Hazan said. “With local voters approving our bond measures, we can match that success with high-quality, modern facilities, like the ones we will see here.”

Once completed, the project is slated to add an upper-grade classroom facility, a student services facility, a Universal Transitional Kindergarten classroom building, two kindergarten classrooms, a joint-use grass play field and other improvements, according to the district.

Existing upper-grade and kindergarten classrooms will be modernized to include new paint, flooring, finishes and white boards.

“With new housing underway down the street, now is the time to re-invigorate our campus so that it is ready to serve all neighborhood students,” Holmes Principal Jonathan Saipe said.

According to the district, additional improvements include the modernization of three classroom buildings, expansion of the food services kitchen, conversion of the student services facility into educational spaces, creation of a new parking lot with a student drop-off and pick-up area and enhancements to safety, security and exterior hard court areas.

The joint-use grass play field will feature a walking and running track, a drinking fountain, new trees, fencing and gates to separate the field from the main campus. As part of a partnership with the city, the field will be accessible to the community as a neighborhood park after school hours and during school breaks.

Construction on the project is estimated to be completed in late 2026.

City News Service contributed to this article.

An industry group and a nonprofit on Thursday announced a partnership to help address an ongoing worker shortage in the construction industry.

The Building Industry Association of San Diego now provides contractors and job seekers access to the WorkforceConnect jobs board platform, officials said in a news release.

“This free online service sets itself apart from costly alternatives through its innovative approach, leveraging existing partnerships and extensive outreach initiatives across Southern California,” according to organization leaders.

They added that because attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is crucial in the construction industry, the WorkforceConnect platform “aims to facilitate seamless connections, ensuring (that) projects thrive and talent flourishes.”

WorkforceConnect founder Debbie Barnum said her organization’s link with BIA “is a prime example of the local community stepping up, providing job-seekers the knowledge of and access to great paying careers in our communities.”

The partnership opens the doors “to a future where the construction industry stands out as a beacon of opportunity,” said Lori Holt Pfeiler, the BIA’s president and CEO.

“With thousands of jobs currently unfilled, our collaboration is crucial. It connects our members with students and job seekers eager to carve out their own paths and contribute to building our communities,” she said.

– City News Service

SANDAG is set to begin a three-year construction project later this month to stabilize Del Mar’s ocean bluffs to protect the adjoining railroad tracks.

This section of track has been repeatedly closed by landslides and erosion, threatening San Diego’s only railroad link to the rest of the United States.

“The economy depends on this connection for both passenger and freight transport, but landslides, rapid erosion, and seismic activity have caused collapses along the Del Mar bluffs,” according to SANDAG.

Crews will install concrete-and-steel “soldier piles” and cable tie-backs, improve drainage and build seawalls along a 1.6-mile-stretch from Coast Boulevard south to Carmel Valley Road. Construction is expected to run through the spring of 2027.

The work will take place along sections of the upper and lower bluffs and the beach during normal business hours, on Sunday and Monday nights, and during pre-scheduled weekends.

The night work is expected to begin in mid-April, and nearby residents could hear noise and see lights from heavy equipment. This work is necessary because of train traffic during the day.

 The $78 million project is funded from a combination of state, federal, and local sources.

A related program to improve pedestrian access along the railway is expected to begin construction late 2026.

With a nod toward union workers, Mayor Todd Gloria Wednesday signed into law legislation allowing for an overarching project labor agreement with local labor organizations for most city-funded construction projects.

“Today represents a historic moment for workers and working families in San Diego,” Gloria said. “This project labor agreement will ensure good- paying, local jobs for San Diegans and ensure the dollars we spend on construction projects goes back into their pockets, which will help power our regional economy for years to come.”

The San Diego City Council gave its final approval to the ordinance Tuesday morning — made possible by the passage of 2022’s Measure D, reversing a 10-year-old ban on project labor agreements for city construction projects.

PLAs are “pre-hire collective bargaining agreements negotiated between construction unions and construction contractors that establish the terms and conditions of employment for construction projects,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“Project labor agreements help the city of San Diego build major infrastructure projects on time, on budget, and in a way that benefits our local workers and economy,” Councilman Raul Campillo said. “In 2022, I spearheaded the city’s move to put Measure D on the ballot because it was long past time that we got rid of San Diego’s outdated ban on project labor agreements.”

The law signed Wednesday is intended to build on past PLAs in other cities, which can make it difficult for smaller construction companies to compete with large firms. It will go into effect for prime contracts and subcontracts for “covered projects” — defined as those with an estimated construction contract value of at least $5 million in the first two years of the ordinance and a contract value of $1 million or more thereafter — on July 1.

“The San Diego Building Trades, our 22 affiliated unions and over 35,000 active members are excited to enter into a programmatic project labor agreement with the city of San Diego,” said Carol Kim, business manager of the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council. “This project labor agreement is a major win for San Diegans that ensures reliable, high-quality work on capital improvement projects throughout the city.

“It also secures good, sustainable careers for thousands of local workers that will help protect and grow our economy through good times and lean times,” Kim said.

In a victory for labor unions, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved a citywide Project Labor Agreement through 2031 Tuesday, reversing a years-old ban.

A PLA is a collective bargaining agreement between contractors and unions, which takes place before a specific construction project begins.

Labor unions and supporters cheered the decision, which they say will boost the local economy and protect workers.

PLAs were banned after voters passed Ballot Measure A in 2012, effectively stopping the city from negotiating with unions on construction projects.

In 2022, San Diego City Council member Raul Campillo moved to put Measure D on the ballot, reversing the decade-old decision. It passed with 57% of the vote, allowing the city to begin using PLAs again.

Under the policy approved by the City Council, the PLA will take effect beginning July 1 of this year and 2024 and last seven years.

The agreement will cover projects that have a construction value of at least $5 million for the first two years, then projects with a construction value of $1 million or more starting in July 2026.

The full text of the Project Labor Agreement can be read here.

Firefighters extinguished a half-acre brush fire Monday before it reached any structures north of Interstate 8 and east of Interstate 15 in San Diego.

San Diego Fire Rescue Department said the vegetation fire was reported at 11:48 a.m. New Year’s Day at 4510 Alvarado Canyon Road, near the College area, with firefighters arriving on the scene at noon.

“San Diego Fire Department stopped the fire before it reached an apartment building under construction,” according to fire officials. “Mop operations were being completed.”

No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged.

Units assigned included one division chief, two helicopters, five engines, three battalion chiefs, two brush rigs and 42 personnel.

City News Service contributed to this article.

The majority of San Diegans are renters, but rents are crazy expensive because supply is so low. Very few new homes are built, so those that are sold come with a steep price. The average home in San Diego sells for $900,000.

How did we get here? What caused our region’s housing crisis? How do we fix it? What do we need to do to build more homes San Diegans can afford?

Tony and Juan get answers to these questions from two of the region’s leading housing advocates, Lori Pfeiler and Hannah Gbeh, in this episode of Dear San Diego.

In addition to housing policy and politics, Lori and Hannah talk about what it’s like working in an arena mostly dominated by men at the top of the food chain.

Lori is CEO of San Diego County Building Industry Association, and Hannah is the organization’s vice president of government affairs.

Lori turned some heads when she was named CEO of the BIA in 2021. She turned more heads when she hired Hannah as the BIA’s outreach to government.

The duo lead a venerable organization committed to building homes for all San Diegans, unwinding decades of bad housing policies, advocating for fewer regulations and more housing (especially middle income housing our region desperately needs), and supporting candidates and politicians who support the BIA’s mission.

The Dear San Diego podcast with Tony Manolatos and Juan Hernandez is produced by JC Polk of Olas Media at the digital branding company’s studios in Mission Valley.

Whac-A-Mole is an amusement arcade game, invented in Japan nearly a half-century ago, whose players try to hit moles as they pop up from their holes, but if they hit one another immediately pops up.

It’s become a cultural icon and, as Wikipedia notes, “is often used colloquially to a situation characterized by a series of futile, Sisyphean tasks, where the successful completion of one just yields another popping up elsewhere.”

For years, California’s state government has been playing whac-a-mole to persuade — or compel — local officials to become more receptive to housing development needed to close an immense gap between supply and demand that drives up living costs and contributes to the state’s very high poverty and homelessness rates.

The game has become especially intense during Gavin Newsom’s governorship. His housing agency, sometimes in league with the attorney general’s office, has been forcing cities to rezone land to meet quotas and eliminate impediments to development, such as overly prescriptive design criteria.

The Legislature has contributed to the effort by passing dozens of new carrot-and-stick laws that give state officials more power to counteract the often stubborn reluctance of local officials to comply with mandates.

As the state cracks down, local officials who oppose new housing that they see as disrupting the ambiance of their communities conjure up new strategies to minimize compliance. Hence, it’s a game of political and legal whac-a-mole.

Three recent events illustrate the syndrome.

One occurred in San Francisco, the city that Newsom once governed as mayor. Over the years, it has earned a reputation for making housing developers go through bureaucratic and political hoops that can take years to navigate, add millions of dollars to costs and often make projects untenable.

The city has a quota of developing 82,000 new housing units over eight years, more than half of which are to be “affordable” to low- and moderate-income families. However the city’s Board of Supervisors had rebuffed Mayor London Breed’s efforts to overhaul housing regulation.

The state ramped up pressure, threatening to strip the city of control over housing permits, finally forcing the board to act. Last week the state gave its blessing to the overhaul.

As state officials were whacking one mole in San Francisco, another popped up a few miles to the south in San Mateo. The San Mateo Heritage Alliance applied to the state Office of Historic Preservation to designate Baywood, a San Mateo neighborhood of upscale single-family homes, as an historic district.

It was the latest effort by local neighborhoods around the state to take advantage of a loophole in Senate Bill 9, one of the many new laws aimed at compelling cities to accept multi-family housing projects. The legislation, signed in 2021, in essence outlaws exclusive single-family zoning, but doesn’t apply to neighborhoods designated as historic.

Attorney General Rob Bonta has interceded when some historic designation petitions were obvious attempts to block new housing, but it remains a new front in the ongoing conflict between state and local officials.

Nearly 400 miles further south, Bonta and the Newsom administration are trying to whack another mole in La Cañada Flintridge, a bucolic suburb of Los Angeles which has stubbornly resisted state pressure to build more housing.

Last week, Bonta sued the city, seeking to reverse its denial of an 80-unit affordable housing project and also declare the city to be out of compliance with state housing laws, thus subjecting it to the “builder’s remedy,” meaning it would lose virtually all authority over housing projects.

The “builder’s remedy” is, in effect, the state’s most powerful hammer with which to whack resistant municipal moles.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. 

Very few San Diegans can afford to buy a home, and many can’t pay their rent. This is not news, unfortunately. The average home in San Diego sells for $900,000. The average rent is north of $3,000.

We also know it takes years to build a home in San Diego, and government fees account for nearly 40 percent of the costs. Again, these are facts. The results: a massive housing crisis and a homelessness epidemic that’s become a national news story.

One would think against this backdrop that the San Diego City Council would be eager to make it easier to build more homes San Diegans can afford. Well, sadly, that is not the case.

The council had an opportunity to approve a modest set of policies to incentivize the construction of homes for families, first-time homebuyers, college students, people experiencing homelessness, and middle-income residents. Instead, it rejected Mayor Todd Gloria’s Housing Action Package 2.0 on Monday night.

The naysayers said they voted no for two reasons. First, they said, the mayor’s package includes fee waivers for the development of 3-bedroom units instead of continuing to offer those waivers for the development of studio apartments. The second reason: the proposal would have allowed home builders to build required affordable housing units and new market-rate housing in different locations instead of all together as one development.

The 3-bedroom issue is a huge one for San Diego. We simply do not build enough places for families because it costs so much to do so. The mayor is right to try and spur the development of multi-bedroom homes and apartments. The more fee waivers — for all types of housing — the better.

As for giving builders the flexibility to locate new affordable and new market-rate units in different locations, this is actually policy that market rate and affordable developers agree on. Further, to avoid concentrating low-income housing in poor neighborhoods, the proposal would have required that housing to be built in either moderate- or high-income areas of the city.

San Diego is one of the most expensive cities in America to live. San Diegans want more housing they can afford and fewer government regulations. Decades of bad policies fueled this housing crisis, so standing in the way of modest reforms is not a good idea.

We need lawmakers to create and support housing policies that spur growth. We applaud Mayor Gloria and the council members who voted for his proposal: Stephen Whitburn, Marni von Wilpert and Vivian Moreno. We encourage the other council members to strongly reconsider their positions.

After the vote, Mayor Gloria tweeted: “Let’s be really clear: the lack of affordable housing in San Diego is central to nearly every challenge we face as a city. Homelessness. High cost-of-living. Recruiting and retaining talent, young people, and businesses. There’s only one way to address this: Build. More. Homes.”

We could not agree more.

Lori Pfeiler is the President and CEO of the San Diego County Building Industry Association. Doug Austin is CEO and founder of AVRP Studios.

The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority was joined Wednesday by local officials and business leaders to celebrate the completion of the steel structure of the first phase of the new Terminal 1.

To mark the milestone, officials signed a steel beam that will be among the final beams installed in the first phase.

“This ‘topping out’ celebration symbolizes the completion of the New T1 steel framework,” Airport Authority Board Chair Gil Cabrera said. “But it actually represents more than just the progress being made on the new T1 building, it represents progress toward providing this dynamic binational region with the air transportation infrastructure it needs and deserves.”

According to the airport authority, the first phase is scheduled to open in late summer 2025 and will offer 19 gates, a parking plaza, an elevated departures roadway, outdoor check-in pavilions and a dedicated arrivals roadway.

“This project milestone would not be possible without the efforts of our Airport Authority Board and staff, our airline partners and the thousands who work for the Turner-Flatiron joint venture and its subcontractors,” said Kimberly Becker, authority president and CEO. “Thank you to all of our partners who have a hand in this massive undertaking. We can’t wait to come back in 2025 and cut the ribbon on this critically needed terminal.”

Cabrera and Becker were joined by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, leaders from Southwest and Delta airlines as well as Turner Construction.

The T1 parking plaza is around 45% complete and is scheduled to open in late 2024. This five-story structure will offer 5,200 parking spaces. Ten percent of parking spaces in the new parking structure will be equipped with charging stations for electric vehicles.

According to the authority, construction is also underway on a three-lane on-airport access roadway that will take traffic from Laurel Street directly to the airport, removing 45,000 vehicles a day from Harbor Drive.

“This will connect to a dual-level roadway and curb front that will separate arriving and departing passenger traffic with an elevated departures roadway and curbside outdoor check-in,” officials said.

Curved glass panels are being installed on the facade of the new terminal, part of the “Luminous Wave” curtain wall, composed of 689 glazing units that when fully assembled will result in a glass wall that is 32 feet tall, and 900 feet long and that will help control heat, sunlight and glare for those inside the building.

A total of 19 new restaurants and retail stores will open in the first phase of the terminal. Around 500 contracted construction companies and about 5,000 workers have been hired to work on the construction of the first phase.

The second phase is scheduled to open in 2028 and will add 11 more gates for a total of 30 gates in the new T1.

“The entire new T1 project will feature more security checkpoint lanes, more gate-area seating, an outdoor patio area post-security providing views of the airfield, San Diego Bay and downtown; up to two airline or common-use lounges/clubs, and a children’s play area,” the airport authority statement read. “Site-specific public art will be created by six commissioned
artists and will be integrated into the design.”

City News Service contributed to this article.