| Jim LaMattery | 7:04 AM |  | |
| to MayorToddGloria | |||
Dear Mr. Mayor
I want to personally invite you to The Alligator Tour on March 29th, 2025. You can learn more details about the tour at jimlamattery.com. It will take place at 4601 Almayo Ave., 92117, from 12pm to 2pm.
This is neither a NIMBY nor YIMBY event. Instead, it is a LIMBY event. LIMBY is an acronym I’ve coined for those citizens whose properties are next door to projects that have been built under San Diego’s ADU rules and the Complete Communities Plan that are disrupting their neighborhoods and unsettling their lives forever.
You may have read the Union Tribune article about 4601 Almayo Ave, and seen the drone pictures of the project, but I encourage you to come to the event to walk around the site and meet those neighbors living next to it.
After seeing the newspaper article, I can tell you that it is one thing to read about such projects, quite another to visit the site. I believe that if you do visit the site, that something like what I experienced might happen to you. A profound sense of “something’s wrong here” came over me. I wondered, “has our mayor been out here? Does he know that his Planning Department signed off on this?”
I know that you want to help solve our housing crisis in San Diego.
I give you the benefit of the doubt that you haven’t walked around the site. I know that you’ve been busy making housing policy, but in this case, it may be elucidating for you to come and see for yourself how that policy is being implemented.
This is an invitation for you to come and meet these folks, like Anita Beckmann and her family, the next-door neighbor to 4601 Almayo who is concerned about fire safety because the 17-unit project is built on her cul-de-sac which borders a canyon. She is one of the ones who’ve “taken one for the team,” whose personal sacrifice was necessary for the “greater good,” of a housing policy which has allowed 17 units to be built next door to her and her family.
These projects, like 4601 Almayo Ave, in which 17 units are under construction, are what I’ve termed “Alligators.”
Alligators, because they are built by institutional investors, LLCs, and entities that are profiteering from the ADU rules that do not contain an “owner-occupancy” clause. Alligators, because these projects are overbuilt onsite, have no parking provided for their new tenants, and put excessive loads on the nearby older utility systems, water, gas, electricity. Alligators, because they gobble up the older single-family housing stock in our communities that have traditionally served as the entry point for our first-time homebuyers seeking to raise their families in a single-family neighborhood. Alligators, because they drive up the cost of housing as they outbid homebuyers who cannot compete with their all-cash offers, quick-close escrows, and waivers of home inspections.
As you are aware, SB 9, the state’s “Home Act” requires single family homeowners who want to build additional units on their lots to occupy the property for 3 years to prevent developers from exploiting the laws, instead encouraging homeowners who will occupy the units to build intergenerational wealth, rather than institutional investors, by ensuring that the newly created units are intended for owner occupancy.
The Home Act was specifically written with the owner occupancy clause to prevent profiteering off the housing crisis by institutional investors.
It is an LLC that owns 4601 Almayo and is building the 17 units. The LLC will not occupy any of the units built and will thereby avoid the consequences of having to look their neighbors in the eyes and feel the pain and disruption the project has caused.
There are many San Diego single-family homeowners who have built needed units on their single-family lots, in their single-family neighborhoods, that conform to the neighborhoods, don’t block their neighbors’ view, provide ample parking for their new tenants and provide housing we desperately need. They are sensitive to their surroundings because they are occupying the units they build. They can look their neighbors in the eye.
San Diego is a Charter City with a Strong Mayor governance. I encourage you to be the strong mayor that I know you can be. The City Council, at their March 4th , 2025 meeting, resolved to complete a 90-day review of the ADU rules. They need your leadership at this crucial juncture. We, the residents of America’s Finest City, need you to attend the event on March 29th and look those folks in the eyes, those that have sacrificed for our “greater good.”
There will be no protest signs at this event. No proliferation of agendas, nor speechmaking. This is a peaceful event, and I’ve hired a wonderful musician to perform piano background music as we meet the neighbors and view the project at 4601 Almayo Ave.
I have been a residential real estate agent for over 43 years in San Diego. I desperately want to be a part of the solution to our housing crisis. I want to sell these homes, like 4601 Almayo once was, to our young up and coming families. I believe we can find a solution.
I believe in us.
Sincerely,
Jim LaMattery