Why this matters
This affordable housing development has been delayed for over a year. Still awaiting funding to break ground, the developer is already facing concerns from the community surrounding parking availability.
Construction on a 100-unit affordable housing project on top of a San Ysidro trolley station parking lot was projected to begin in early 2024, but ground hasn’t been broken yet as the developer continues looking for funding.
The lot, owned by the Metropolitan Transit System, is next to the Beyer Boulevard Trolley Station on the Blue Line, one stop north of the U.S. Port of Entry at San Ysidro. The lot was leased to Affirmed Housing Group in 2022 under a 99-year contract, according to an MTS statement.
From the Documenters
This story came in part from notes taken by Alfredo Sanchez, a San Diego Documenter, at a San Ysidro Community Planning Group meeting last month. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. Read the note here.
San Diego County awarded the project $3 million as part of a sum of $42 million given to nine affordable housing developments in January 2024. The project still needs $5 million more, and the estimated start for construction has been pushed to 2026, according to Affirmed Housing Group. Once construction does start, the development is projected to take about two years or more to complete and is estimated to cost a total of $80 million.
“Like most developments throughout California, we have experienced delays due to a rapid rise in construction costs,” said Katelyn Silverwood, director of marketing at Affirmed Housing.
Now looking to secure a state grant, Affirmed Housing turned to the San Ysidro Community Planning Group for a letter of support, said Cristian Fuentes Hernandez, the group’s chairman, during its meeting last month.
The housing plan was originally presented to the planning group in 2022, but with the delay and objections over parking shortages from both members of the planning group and the community, the group unanimously moved last month to get more information about the project before proceeding.
When the project was pitched in 2022, the MTS parking lot had 131 spaces, with 71 dedicated for use by trolley-riders and 60 leased to the San Ysidro Health Center, located across the street. The 100-unit housing project, with an estimated occupancy of 300, will include 60 parking spots for residents and 68 dedicated to MTS. Both Affirmed Housing Group and MTS do not have information on if they will continue leasing spaces to the San Ysidro health center, according to Silverwood.
Transit-oriented developments like this one are meant to incentivize the use of public transportation, but some area workers and residents are feeling the squeeze of parking constraints.
Esperanza Tutogi, a retired community member who lives across the street from the Beyer trolley station and next to the San Ysidro Health Center, said at the planning group meeting that the area already has “brand new apartments” nearby. “To have low-income apartments over there (at the trolley station) is ridiculous,” she added.
Tutogi was referring to the Ventana al Sur Apartments at the corner of Beyer and North Lane. The complex is an affordable senior living community, with 25 units reserved for seniors experiencing homelessness and 101 total units.
Tutogi said that since the complex opened, the streets have been packed.
“I sit on my porch and watch it every day,” she said. “Why put apartments there when there’s no parking?”
She also said that commuters from Tijuana park around the area to ride the trolley to work, making it even more of a crowded space.
With an additional 57-unit affordable housing project being built directly across the trolley tracks from the Beyer lot, San Ysidro resident Hugo Hernandez said in an interview that there’s an oversaturation of housing developments in the area.
“There’s somehow a presumption that maybe parking is not necessary for those people (in affordable housing units) and it’s already clearly impacted several neighborhoods,” Hernandez said. “One just needs to drive around Beyer Boulevard in some of these local areas to see what’s going on with parking.”
The Affirmed Housing project plans to offer studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments to families making between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income. The units will remain affordable for low-income tenants for at least 55 years, according to MTS.
The project is part of a larger effort by MTS to redevelop park and ride locations into transit-oriented housing developments. It also aligns with the city of San Diego’s Housing Action Package 2.0, which claims to promote the development of new homes near transit as well as “provide protections to existing residents, increase the supply of land available for new homes and incentivize new home opportunities in all communities that San Diegans of all income levels can afford.”
Part of the plan includes creating incentives for developments in parking lots near transit. MTS has identified seven sites for potential transit oriented developments, with one pending and five in negotiation stages. So far, work has been completed near the Grantville Trolley Station: Affirmed Housing Group’s ShoreLINE, a 126-home affordable apartment building that opened in 2024, and Union Grantville, a 250-home apartment building focused on housing for students. It opened in 2023.
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