Cap on Building Already Attained in 3 Areas of City : Rancho Bernardo, La Jolla, North City West Affected

Developers who want permits to build homes in La Jolla, Rancho Bernardo and North City West will likely have to wait at least a year because those communities are now closed to residential construction under the city’s new Interim Development Ordinance, statistics show.

Numbers compiled by the city Planning Department also show that the allotment of residential units permitted under the controversial ordinance has been exhausted in the Mira Mesa, Otay-Nestor and Villa de la Valle areas.

The IDO--designed to curtail rapid growth that is clogging streets, overwhelming sewers and crowding schools--calls for an 8,000-unit cap citywide on the number of residential units built by next July.

Within the 8,000-unit cap are specific limits for each community, such as 25 units in La Jolla and 500 units in Rancho Bernardo. The citywide cap also includes a 1,200-unit cushion or “reserve” that can be parceled out to developers at the City Council’s discretion.

Michael Stepner, acting planning director, said Wednesday that city officials originally expected the citywide and neighborhood allotments to be used up gradually over the course of a year.

Caps Going Fast

But the city’s growth rate, and a series of exemptions granted by the council, means that many of the neighborhood--as well as the citywide--caps are being used up faster than originally anticipated.

“Now, instead of spending the 8,000 units over the course of the year . . . the 8,000 units are being spent up front if you will,” Stepner said. “It is not our intention to exceed the citywide cap, and we will be going back to the council with a summary of what has happened.”

The exemptions, granted Aug. 7, are twofold.

The first came when the city attorney ruled that developers who held city-approved subdivision maps before the IDO was passed cannot be prevented from building their residential units. The opinion said the developers have “vested rights” to build their projects.

The second exemption was passed by the council, and it says that certain developers who put in building-permit applications between April 29 and June 22 would be automatically exempted from the IDO limits.

The builders who qualify are those who have projects of up to 30 units or of up to 175 units, depending on which approval process is used. Council members decided to dip into their 1,200-unit reserve, if necessary, to allow for this kind of exemption.

The bottom line, planning department statistics now show, is that the annual IDO allotment in several of the city’s burgeoning neighborhoods has been used up in a matter of weeks.

For instance, in Rancho Bernardo, where the council set a 12-month limit of 500 units, construction of 861 units will be allowed between now and next July, statistics show. The 361 extra units come from the exemptions.

And in Mira Mesa, where the official IDO cap is 726, there will be 901 units allowed.

An Uphill Battle

Because those and the other communities have met or exceeded their limits, developers who decide now that they want to build in those neighborhoods face an uphill battle to begin construction, Stepner said. They will either have to go before the council and plead hardship, or they will simply have to wait another year for the chance, he said.

Stepner also said the exemptions have used up nearly all of the 1,200 reserve that council members were counting on to parcel out later. As of Wednesday, there were only 102 units left, Planning Department numbers show.

When council members come back from their legislative recess, they will have to decide what to do about the sudden drain from the reserve, Stepner said. They could decide to stock it with building units that are unused in slow-growing city neighborhoods, or to increase the 8,000-unit cap.

“Or, the option is to say to developers: ‘Sorry . . .,’ ” he said.