Building Industry Association
of San Diego

The City of San Diego’s Community Planners Committee (CPC) wants changes to the planning department’s Substantial Conformance Review process (SCR).  Currently, city staff conducts a ‘process one’ review to determine if any minor modification to an approved development permit is in substantial conformance with the original permit.  The CPC wants to change it to a ‘process two’ that would subject every minor change to new planning group review that can be appealed to the Planning Commission.  Such changes would add months to the development process. City staff is opposed to the changes sought by the CPC.

In early September, both the City Planning Commission and the Land Use and Housing Committee agreed with city staff and voted not to alter the city’s current SCR process. The issue goes to the full city council for a hearing on January 5, 2010.

(11:01 p.m.) Oceanside City Councilman, Jerry Kern has emerged victorious against a union-backed recall and will keep his seat on the Oceanside City Council.  Voters overwhelming rejected the recall by a 63% to 37% margin.  Kern won going away from the first returns with the vote margin barely moving as the results were counted throughout the evening.  The freshman councilman fended off a brazen union attempt to shift the balance of power on the Oceanside City Council to a more union friendly body on the eve of new contract negotiations with the city.  Kern’s victory with 14,803 votes is a loss for Oceanside Mayor, Jim Wood, who as a former member of the municipal employees union, campaigned in favor of the recall. In all, more than $200 thousand dollars was spent in an ultimately futile effort by the pro-recall campaign.  The cost of the special election to Oceanside taxpayers is expected to reach $500 thousand.

(10:00 p.m.) The union led recall against Oceanside City Councilman, Jerry Kern is headed for a crushing defeat. With 65% of the votes counted, the recall continues to lose by a 63% to 37% margin.

(8:30 p.m.) Early election returns show Oceanside voters strongly rejecting a union lead effort to recall Oceanside Councilman Jerry Kern.  A counting of the 16,000 mail in ballots has the recall failing by a margin of 63% to 37%. A low voter turnout was expected for the December recall leaving the mail in ballots as a strong indicator of the election outcome.  Final results are expected within the next few hours.

The recall effort against Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern goes to the voters tomorrow.  The freshman council member is fending off an attack by the municipal employees union to unseat him in exchange for a more labor friendly candidate. The business community has rallied to Kern’s defense but the pro-recall campaign has spent North of $150 thousand to capture the seat. Such strong arm tactics should be strongly repudiated and voters should reject the recall and keep Jerry Kern in Oceanside.

Polls open at 7:00 a.m. Contact the Registrar of Voters Office at www.sdvote.com to find your polling location.

The BIA’s Project Green Light is in full operation as the association seeks to give members the  opportunity to offer their support for a variety of projects at public hearings throughout the county.   Project Green Light allows BIA builders to post projects in the government review process on the BIA website.  In turn,  industry members have a chance to support projects they like by writing letters or attending local public hearings in person.

Construction is the one industry sector that defies the ‘jobless recovery’ because new projects lead to new jobs.  Every approved project is another job opportunity.  Project Green Light provides our members the chance to make this a reality on projects they want to support.

Check the BIA ‘Project Green Light’ page to learn more and to get the latest information on projects up for consideration.