Judge blocks massive development project in Golden Hill

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Residents of Golden Hill in San Diego have successfully halted a massive development project through legal action, as a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the construction.

The project, which involved demolishing three existing affordable homes to make way for a new 8-story apartment building with 186 units, was approved under the city's Complete Communities Act.

The development project was progressing rapidly until the court's intervention, with bulldozers already having cleared the site.

The Complete Communities Act allows developers to build extensively as long as the project is within a mile of a major transit center, a condition that this project allegedly does not meet.

The site is currently in a temporary lockdown, with only essential work being done to secure the area.

Local utility company SDG&E is working on upgrading the electric lines in the area during this pause in construction.

The community of Golden Hill remains hopeful that their voices will be heard in court, as they challenge a project they believe was approved without proper consideration of its impact on affordable housing and local infrastructure.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KSWB. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KSWB staff before being published.