City Council rejects cap on conversions

By Lori Weisber
Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO – A proposal to settle a lawsuit against the city of San Diego over its approval of condominium conversions fell apart yesterday when the City Council rejected a cap on the number of converted units that could be built each year.

Specifically under consideration was a 1,000-a-year limit on the number of apartments that could be transformed into for-sale condominiums.

The council voted 6-2, with Councilwomen Donna Frye and Toni Atkins dissenting, to send the matter back to a closed session to determine how to proceed. State law allows government agencies to meet privately when discussing litigation.

The annual cap had been offered as a way to end the lawsuit by affordable-housing advocates and environmentalists. They argue that the city has failed to assess the effects that each condo conversion project could have on the environment. State law requires such evaluations, they contend. The settlement also called for a $75,000 payment to cover legal costs.

“Everyone involved had some say in this and agreed on this, and the council wasn't willing to listen to the public,” said attorney Cory Briggs, who has filed four condo-conversion lawsuits naming the city as a defendant. Three of them also name individual condo converters.

“The city had an opportunity to avoid losing in court; now they take their chances.”

Briggs, who represents the Affordable Housing Coalition of San Diego County and Citizens for Responsible Equitable Environmental Development, said that a number of condo converters had told him they were not opposed to the settlement.

In addition, attorney Evelyn Heidelberg, who represents several property owners with pending conversion proposals, said her clients were not objecting to the settlement proposal worked out with Briggs.

Some council members, however, said they had a problem with the notion of placing a limit on condo conversions, calling it bad public policy.

“It's just very arbitrary, and it artificially dictates market conditions,” Councilman Jim Madaffer said.

As it is, the number of applications for condo conversions has plunged during the past year as the slumping housing market has discouraged new projects. In 2005, property owners sought to convert nearly 10,000 rental units into condos. The number has fallen to just 400 so far this year, according to the city's development services department.