Residence Hotels Get a Reprieve From Council Panel

A San Diego City Council committee on Wednesday approved an interim, emergency ordinance aimed at saving the city’s dwindling number of residential hotels from demolition.

The emergency ordinance, which will be presented to the entire City Council Dec. 16, would prohibit the city from issuing permits for demolition or conversion of residential hotels unless a room-for-room replacement is made by the developer seeking the permit.

An exception, however, was made for redevelopment projects carried out by the city, which already are governed by a one-for-one replacement policy.

The ordinance, approved by the council’s Public Services and Safety Committee, focuses on so-called single-room-occupany hotels, which house low-income workers and senior citizens on fixed incomes. Most of these residential hotels are downtown.

As land prices downtown have escalated, residential hotels have been demolished to make way for high-rent projects.

A report by the city Planning Department says the city has lost 1,247 residential-hotel rooms since 1976, and a San Diego Housing Commission study anticipates the loss of 953 more rooms. Advocates of affordable housing as well as those concerned with finding housing for the homeless say the situation has reached crisis proportions.

There are 3,333 rooms in 65 residential hotels, according to the Housing Commission.

“This is an effort to say, ‘Hey, let’s take a look at what’s going on,’ ” said Frank Landerville, spokesman for the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. “This in an interim measure that’s restrictive because it has to be while the city looks at a permanent solution.”

The emergency ordinance, which would be effective for one year, is to be followed by a permanent ordinance governing residential hotels. According to a report submitted by the city Planning Department on Wednesday, a proposal for a permanent ordinance will be submitted to the committee Dec. 18.