April 21, 2023

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An aerial view from Coronado of a marina, homes and traffic flowing across the The San Diego-Coronado Bridge in the distance. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

By Ryan Fonseca Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, April 21. The island city of Coronado is renowned as a destination for tourists in the San Diego area, with its beautiful beaches, lush golf courses, and bike-filled streets. It might not come as a surprise that affordable housing is sparse on the island (technically a “tied island,” connected to the mainland via the Silver Strand), where the median home value exceeds $2 million, according to Zillow. City officials and some residents are pushing to keep it that way, even as state legislators target similar affluent communities for defying laws requiring cities to plan for growth and affordability. Coronado’s state-mandated housing plan is two years overdue. As my colleague Liam Dillon reported this week: The city is arguably the most flagrant resister of a state affordable housing law designed to give housekeepers and others, from teachers to nurses, a chance at an apartment in places that would otherwise be out of their reach. At issue is the dramatic increase in affordable housing Coronado is required to zone for in the most recent planning cycle, mandated by state law. One important distinction: the law only pertains to zoning — it doesn’t require cites to build or approve new housing. The last planning cycle, covering 2010 through 2020, called for allocating space for 50 new housing units in Coronado. This time around, that number has jumped to 912, with 70% affordable to low- and middle-income residents. City officials and residents balked at that figure, eventually submitting a plan to the state that includes only a third of those homes. Some residents wondered where all that new housing would go, arguing there’s little vacant land left on the island. Some condo owners, many of whom use the properties as second homes, sent emails and started petitions, “warning that the housing would bring crime, lower property values and, according to one emailer, ‘a broad scope of social vices,’” Liam reported. Roughly 21,000 people live in Coronado, though the figure fluctuates due to the U.S. Navy facilities that cover more than half the land. Census data show more than a quarter of homes in the city are vacant, with most of those listed for seasonal or recreational use. Despite Coronado’s defiance, the state has not yet enforced the law. It’s unclear when Sacramento will respond or how serious the penalties will be. “Assuming the state filed a lawsuit and won, the city would have at least another year to comply before monthly fines kicked in and even longer before a court-ordered receiver could take over its permitting and zoning,” Liam wrote. The legal tensions between cities and the state highlight one of the challenges California faces in addressing the housing crisis. And it postpones opportunities for more people — like the hundreds of housekeepers that commute to Coronado from San Diego or Mexico — to live in the communities where they work. “Housing delayed is housing denied,” Paavo Monkkonen, a professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, told Liam. “With the urgency of this housing scarcity situation, inaction just makes it worse.” An aerial view of the sand dunes on Coronado Beach and residential neighborhood in Coronado Friday, April 7, 2023. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)