SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Residents who live in the beach areas of Tijuana are asking the city to stop providing construction permits for high-rise buildings along the coast.
They say the added housing density is creating more traffic, pollution and congestion while shrinking the water supply for everyone.
Gabriela Guinea Johnston, who heads a citizens group, says she’s gathered more than 2,000 signatures on a petition for the city council demanding a moratorium on all construction of high-rise buildings.
She said her group, for three years, has been trying to get the city to halt large-scale developments without any luck.
“The moratorium is for those who want to build large projects,” Guinea Johnston said. “If you want to build a five-story apartment building, that would be okay, but if you want to build 20 floors of housing, that won’t work.”
She says the area where she lives was built to handle 22,000 residents, but there are now more than 50,000 not counting those who live on canyons.
“The water capacity is not there, it can’t handle so many people, it was never designed for that.”
Instead, Guinea Johnston would like to see more parks, schools and hospitals built to provide a better quality of life for her and her neighbors.
“There needs to be more public transportation for residents so they don’t have to rely on their cars to get around. Our quality of life is horrible with all the contamination we’re facing in Tijuana already — we already lack services such as water, sewer and drainage.”
Another impact, according to Guinea Johnston, is that the new projects raise the price of housing, especially apartment rents.
“They are building luxury units that cost more than $200,000 this is not going to help the affordable housing shortage in the city,” she said. “The average workers here along the coastal zone will have to live far away from where they work because they just can’t afford to live here.”
Guinea Johnston wants the city to act on the moratorium as soon as possible.
“The government is not promoting a reduction in density but it is promoting gentrification.”
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