Fellow neighbors,

I hope you are all well.  Our City has issued a public notice on the appeal of the Radio Towers project in Emerald Hills.  This project relies heavily upon Footnote 7, which was repealed last year but is absent from the notice.  This project is requesting around 250 waivers from zoning law EVEN WITH FOOTNOTE 7 applied.

If you need a refresh on Footnote 7, please read or watch the KPBS article which has over 63,000 views.  

https://www.kpbs.org/news/racial-justice-social-equity/2024/11/07/neighbors-in-southeast-san-diego-demand-investigation-into-shocking-footnote-in-city-code

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkg2664e5xQ

This land was specifically identified as parkland expansion to account for Environmental Justice and our parks deficit in our community.  Instead of working to acquire the land for Environmental Justice, the City actively worked to exploit maximum profit of this land for a multi-billion developer, help property tax revenue and score political talking points.

The housing affordability crisis is not our community's burden to bear alone in the City.  The City applied Footnote 7 only to our community under the guise of "Housing Crisis."  We are not ignorant.  We know the modification of land use targeted only in Encanto neighborhoods was done as a surgical strike against us.  No affluent areas of our City are being told to absorb housing the way we are, with special laws written just for them the way they wrote Footnote 7 for Encanto.  Our own City miscalculated our ability to defend ourselves.

Together we must stand against this project that reaps huge financial rewards for a multi-billion developer and eliminates the largest lot of land left to help us fight towards cleaner air quality, less pollution, less stormwater runoff, and the Environmental Justice that we are worthy of.

The City is allowing the transfer of protected grasslands found on this lot to a location of new protected land north of interstate 8, where land is already protected in abundance.  Enough is enough, we are just as worthy as our affluent neighbors north of us.

Please share this notice and the impact we can have if we all come together on July 7th at City Hall.  There is not a more powerful message than we, as neighbors who love our community, sit together, filling our City hall.  The multi-billion developer will be out in force with their suits and ties, filling the center of the room with at least 15-20 of their employees to ensure they have a strong chance of winning the windfall profits they seek from us.

Their play will be to cater to the heartstrings of the Housing Crisis, which is a crisis, but exploiting us is not how we solve the crisis.  We solve the crisis with respect to land use and environmental justice.  Those who have the most, bear the most burden in solving the crisis, not those who already have the least.

I ask that you make every effort to come in support of our community on Tuesday, July 7th, 2pm.  City council chambers, 12th floor, 202 "C" Street, San Diego.  Take the time off work now.  Bring the kids.  Bring your friends.  Bring your whole extended family.  Bring people who love our neighborhood.

You can even take the trolley directly to City Hall.  The orange line drops you off directly in front of the building at the Civic Center stop.  It can't be any easier to access.  You can park a car for free at the 62nd street or Euclid Ave trolley stop.

We only have a few opportunities in our lives to make significant change in the world.  This is one of those opportunities for our community.  You will be surrounded by neighbors and friends who are there to support our own self respect and dignity.

We are writing San Diegan History.  We can do this.

(email from Robert Campbell, CVCPG Board Member At Large)