San Diego
San Diego County is launching aggressive efforts to counter climate change, with a new climate action plan and a sweeping sustainability plan designed to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2035.
The County Board of Supervisors received reports on both projects Wednesday and discussed the balancing act required to slash carbon emissions while preserving jobs and expanding housing.
Both plans must “address the urgency of climate change and the urgency of putting housing in the right place,” said Board Chair Nathan Fletcher. “It’s amazing if you address those correctly, how those two can align.”
County officials hope to craft plans that will enable San Diegans to live and work in close proximity, creating housing while eliminating lengthy commutes. To achieve that, it will be essential to develop cost-effective regulations, they said.
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San Diego County had the biggest increase in homebuilding in Southern California in 2020 during a pandemic that shuttered much of the economy.
There were 9,486 homes constructed in 2020, up 18 percent from a dismal 2019, said the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California. It is still way off from the more than 17,000 homes built in 2004 but was a return to about average for what has been constructed annually since the region climbed out of the Great Recession.
Real estate experts say the region is still short of meeting its housing needs. Despite many stories of people leaving California because of high costs, San Diego County’s population has continued to grow, albeit more slowly.