San Diego City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee voted in March in favor of replacing the current Uptown Planners with a new community planning group model brought forward by Vibrant Uptown which designates board members by neighborhood. Should the full council approve the move in May, the new Community Planning Group (CPG) will have 90 days to hold an election and select a new board to replace Uptown Planners, which will operate in the interim.

In the proposed Uptown CPG, rather than at large members, each neighborhood will elect a renter and a homeowner to represent them. One of the criticisms of the current Uptown Planners group is that it only ever met in Hillcrest and often Mission Hills residents dominated the elections. This model would designate two seats each to Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Bankers Hill/Park West, Middletown/Five Points, University Heights and the Medical Complex area. Meetings would be hybrid and change location.

“The priorities of residents in one neighborhood might differ from those in another neighborhood and I think it’s important to ensure that each of these neighborhoods have a voice,” said Councilman Stephen Whitburn, who noted that City Council itself once had general elections until districts were created so council members would be able to represent the individual needs of their constituents.

“Giving every neighborhood a guaranteed voice is more representative and more democratic,” Whitburn added, emphasizing his past experience serving con the North Park Community Planning Group.

In addition, five seats will be reserved for businesses and one for a nonprofit under the proposed replacement. Gail Friedt, a co-founder of Vibrant Uptown, said they plan to ask hospital representatives to fill at least some business seats so that the many workers commuting in to the area will have their interests represented on the advisory group.

The opportunity for bids to be recognized as community planning groups (CPGs) was one of the reforms City Council made in Sept. 2022 in an effort to make the groups better reflect their community. Upstart groups had until January of this year to apply to replace their current CPGs. Still, the policy stated the city must side with existing groups if both applications were equal.

The council committee only approved Vibrant Uptown’s proposal, shooting down a similar effort from a group of mostly young renters in La Jolla. The other 50 CPGs did not face outside bids.

Although applicants and existing groups tried to frame the conflict as being one of renters vs homeowners or pro vs anti development, council members insisted they voted based on board structure. Although the city does want to diversify CPGs so they reflect all of their community, that was not the basis for the vote either.

“This is not about a decision about the individuals who submitted an application. This is also not about what an individual or group thinks about where their community has been, or is today, or their vision for the future. It’s only about compliance with the policy and who the community will elect to fill the membership of the recognized group,” said Council member Joe LaCava, who spearheaded CPG reforms.

LaCava voted against replacing La Jolla’s current CPG with the more racially diverse, younger, and less wealthy group since the proposed structure of the two were not substantially different. Instead, adding diversity will be up to voters.

“Today’s action does not determine the individuals who will fill the seats,” Whitburn said.

A commitment to outreach was also a criterium the groups presented to the committee. Vibrant Uptown’s proposal included a plan to expand voting hours and locations, as well as to have online elections for the first time in San Diego. In the most recent Uptown Planners election in March 2024, 235 ballots were cast in a planning group area with a population of 50,000.

Community planning groups are one of the only organized public groups giving feedback and input to the city. Detractors of the reforms fear the city is limiting the advisory group’s role in shaping development and land use for their neighborhood.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that CPG reform has become less about increasing representation than eliminating dissent and to appoint those with vested interest to sidestep the electorate,” Mat Wahlstrom, a current Uptown Planners board member, told the committee.

While Vibrant Uptown sponsored the replacement CPG, its name would be Uptown Community Planning Group and Vibrant Uptown would continue to exist separately to organize clean ups, town halls, beautification projects and more in the community, according to Friedt.

The final vote on which group the city recognizes as Uptown’s CPG will be held in May.

Pictured above: Vibrant Uptown held a town hall in November 2023 at Urban Mo’s on the PlanHillcrest Community Plan Amendment with over 80 attendees in person. (Photo by Drew Sitton)