Attempting to lessen San Diego’s housing shortage and reduce the blight of vacant storefronts, city officials are investigating the possibility of easing requirements, allowing more elbow room for commercial tenants. These ground floor “mixed-use” vacancies could soon become ground floor housing. 

According to San Diego Union-Tribune, developers would pay a fee (a suggested rate of $15 per square foot) for the conversion of commercial use to ground-floor housing. Those fees would then finance subsidized housing for the city. Developers would increase their financial security if they were allowed to open the door to tenants beyond commercial use. 

City officials noted that while the stricter rules have worked in parts of Downtown, Little Italy, and La Jolla, the rigid regulations were not as effective in neighborhoods with less foot traffic. Shopper trends are driving sales to online commerce, leaving less of a demand for retail space.

San Diego officials are also using this opportunity to address the affordable housing shortage in the city. The region’s median home price of $550,000 is unaffordable to more than 70 percent of San Diego residents, according to the Union-Tribune report.