Emerald Hills resident Martha Abraham, who is running for the District 4 City Council seat, said that if elected, she will push the City of San Diego to investigate Footnote 7, a controversial 2019 housing plan that allowed denser housing in parts of southeast San Diego, including her neighborhood and Encanto.
The nurse and small business owner, who led community efforts to repeal the housing rule that reduced certain lot sizes from 20,000 square feet per lot to just 5,000 to allow more housing, faced about a 100 community members at the Christian Fellowship Congregational Church during a housing development forum Sunday.
Footnote 7 was canceled last year following community pushback, but Abraham wants the city to investigate the matter.
“We have to understand what the problem was and where the gaps were, so that we can stop this from happening again,” said Abraham.
Henry Foster, the incumbent and Abraham’s opponent in the District 4 race, was scheduled to attend but did not show up, citing a “scheduling conflict.” Foster has faced backlash over Footnote 7, with critics accusing him of denying knowledge of the plan despite having known about it in advance. Foster supported the plan’s removal last year, after acknowledging the project didn’t serve residents’ interests.
Moderated by the church’s Social Justice Board chair, Clovis Honoré, the housing forum was dominated by discussions of Footnote 7, including who was responsible and how to prevent future development that would overcrowd District 4.
Abraham, who is campaigning on affordable housing, stormwater repair and economic revitalization in District 4, said Footnote 7 was illegal because officials buried the plan in a group of proposed amendments to the city’s Land Development Code without due zoning process.
Community members accused former District 4 council member Monica Montgomery Steppe and Foster of failing to catch problems with the plan before approving it. Montgomery Steppe served as council member until December 2023, when she vacated the seat after winning election to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Foster, her former chief of staff, subsequently won a special election to fill the seat.
One community member, who was part of grassroots initiatives to repeal the rule, said she privately asked Foster to side with residents. “He said, ‘I don’t know anything about it,’” the member told the audience, referring to Foster denying he wasn’t aware of Footnote 7. “You cannot imagine my shock when we got these emails, and he is the point person,” the member said.
The community intended for major portions of the disputed land located in Klauber Avenue and Radio Towers Hill to be preserved as open park space. Abraham said the housing project on Klauber Avenue was advancing, though it was identified as a potential park in the city’s general plan.
“The biggest injustice we are witnessing is that Footnote 7 only applies to us,” said Abraham, referring to the high-density plan which only targeted District 4 rather than citywide.
Residents listed overcrowding, traffic, health and fire hazards that the proposed developments could bring. Another resident said developers had intended to build gated communities in the area, with the least expensive home costing $600,000 — a price that would prevent community members from finding affordable housing there.
Quizzed about her stance on development as a District 4 candidate, Abraham said she wasn’t against housing but wants “a balanced approach to it.” “They could build houses there because it’s zoned for housing,” Abraham said, speaking of Klauber Avenue which received city clearance to host 123-single-family homes on 5.66 acres.
“It’s the amount of homes that’s the problem. How do we build more homes when we don’t have access to fresh food?”
