School District Stalls on Major TOD Project

University Heights, San Diego — The San Diego Unified School School District’s board of trustees delayed a vote to approve transit-oriented affordable housing at the Brucker Site on El Cajon Boulevard & Normal Street.

• Trustee Barrera pushed for the delay and successfully postponed it to January.

• Trustee Petterson fought the delay, arguing that this process has been in the works of year and the District was ready to start building.

  • Trustee Hazan sided with Petterson.

Community groups in Barrera’s school zone sent a letter opposing affordable housing at the Brucker Site. They are requesting that no more than 500 affordable homes be built (this is 1,000 homes less than the largest proposal for the site).

Voice of San Diego’s CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Scott Lewis, remarked the following about Barrera’s move to delay the vote: “it seems pretty clear that he saw where this was going and said we got to stop it“

RideSD’s Vice President, Leif Gensert, attended the school board meeting to speak in support of more homes at the Brucker site. Building homes near transit and where people work is key to improving transit ridership, reducing traffic on our roads, and meeting our climate goals.

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Published December 15, 2025.