Waving signs reading “No businesses in single-family neighborhoods” and “The mini dorms gotta go,” residents marched on City Hall Monday, July 9, to protest the proposed code changes that, according to the protesters, would allow mini-dorms to continue to operate.
Under the banner of “Stop Mini Dorms,” the group of about 25 marched from Horton Plaza to the City Administration building at 202 C St. Other Stop Mini Dorms protesters in red shirts from the College Area and El Cerrito met the marchers at City Hall to more than double their number.
After several months of working on a rooming house ordinance that could close down operating mini-dorms while preventing new ones from opening, Stop Mini Dorm members were angry that the city’s Development Services Department instead proposed changing the current code.
The group believes that the proposed changes create loopholes that will encourages mini-dorm developers to work around the rules. The protesters were there to ask the City Council to postpone the vote on the code changes and prioritize the process that would put the rooming house ordinance before the council to vote on.
A number of speakers discussed possible solutions and possible situations under which developers could still construct a mini-dorm under the proposed code changes.
Speaking as the “unofficial president” of StopMiniDorms.com, Paul Martin was given 15 minutes before the council.
Dressed in khaki shorts, flip-flops and a faded Corona cap, Martin looked like he could have walked off the beach. Comparing the city power structure to the coaching structure of the Padres and Chargers, and quoting the Declaration of Independence, Martin launched into the problems with the code changes.
“We’ve already discussed how inadequate the six bedroom code change is,” he said. “Having two separates code changes for the campus impact area will assuredly drive the mini-dorm developers to other areas of the city like they tried across the street from my house on Chalcedony Street in Pacific Beach. I have no idea why code changes were proposed that way, but that is absolutely the wrong way to deal with this problem.”
Martin then lectured the council on how developers can work around the rules and proposed solutions, such as limiting the maximum number of bedrooms to four instead of six.
“Just like our founding fathers, we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the paradise community we call home ” Pacific Beach. What we don’t want is unchecked development that negatively impacts us.”
A number of speakers encouraged the council to fast-track a rooming house ordinance.
The current draft of the ordinance basically defines what a rooming house is, which will then allow the city to control them.
Councilman Kevin Faulconer spoke up in support of the mini-dorm opponents, saying that something needs to be done now to halt mini-dorms in single-family neighborhoods.
“The question becomes one of timing,” Faulconer said. “People have said, ‘If you’re not going to be able to do the rooming house ordinance for a year, that’s too long.’ That’s much too long.
If we can do the rooming house ordinance in a matter of months, and I believe the city attorney is looking to do something in September, I will support it. I will support these changes today with the assurance that we will have a rooming house ordinance back before this council expeditiously.
In the meantime, Faulconer said administrative fines were the easiest way to stop the nuisances caused by mini-dorms.
“Hit people where it counts ” in the pocketbook,” he said.
Faulconer made the motion to bring the rooming house ordinance back before the council in September.