Dear AIA Member,
We need your help. As you are aware, the San Diego City Council recently voted to increase the Workforce Housing Offset, better known as the Linkage Fee, which dramatically increases the fees for commercial projects.
While the American Institute of Architects supports affordable workforce housing, we believe the linkage fees are a short-sighted solution that does very little to solve San Diego’s housing crisis. There are better and fairer ways to provide affordable housing solutions than specially taxing just one type of business. The duty to address the issue of affordable housing falls to the entire community.
Please join us to sign the Stop the Jobs Tax petition:
Tuesday January 21st
12:00 to 6:00 pm
(wine & cheese after 4:00 pm)
AIA San Diego Offices
233 A Street, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92101
Parking is available in the pay lot across A Street from the AIA offices. Metered street parking is also available nearby.
This is the final opportunity to sign the petition! Let’s find ways to provide large-scale and effective solutions to San DiegoCounty’s housing problems that embrace collective responsibility and creative thinking!
AIA San Diego: BUILDING for LIFE
PS For those who can’t make it Tuesday, the petitions are available at the locations indicated below.
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| URGENT – LAST WEEK TO SIGN THE JOBS TAX PETITIONALL NAIOP MEMBERS:
This is the final week to sign the jobs tax petition. WE NEED 34,000 SIGNATURES AND YOUR SUPPORT IS CRITICAL!!!
All registered voters who live in the City of San Diego are eligible. Remind your colleagues, friends and neighbors that this is the last week to sign the petition. The following NAIOP members have petition booklets at their offices:
| Turner Construction 9330 Scranton Road, #300, San Diego
Johnson and Jennings General Contracting
6165 Greenwich Dr. Suite 180, San Diego
Voit Real Estate Services
4747 Executive Drive, Suite 800, San Diego |
Cassidy Turley4350 La Jolla Village Dr #500, San Diego
CBRE
4365 Executive Drive, Suite 1600, San Diego
Sheppard Mullin
501 West Broadway, #1900, San Diego
JLL
4747 Executive Drive, Suite 300, San Diego |
Information previously provided is below. If you have any questions please contact Craig Benedetto at craigb@calstrat.com or James Lawson at jlawson@calstrat.com.
BACKGROUND
On December 10, the San Diego City Council voted to increase the Workforce Housing Offset, also known as the Linkage Fee. This is a direct tax on job creation – a jobs tax – charged to ALL new commercial construction projects. Every commercial use, including non-profits, hospitals, restaurants, hotels and offices, are charged on a square foot basis. The City Council increased this tax by 350 to 750 percent, depending on the type of use. To protect San Diego job creators and working families, a JOBS Coalition of small and large businesses has launched a referendum to STOP THE JOBS TAX.
WHY WE NEED TO REPEAL THIS MASSIVE TAX INCREASE:
- It hurts the local economy, kills business expansion and jobs and drives businesses to other cities. The impact to an individual business could be thousands – if not millions – of dollars.
- It puts San Diego at a competitive disadvantage. San Diego is the ONLY city in the county that charges this tax. In addition, many cities San Diego competes with across the country for new jobs do not charge this tax.
- The jobs tax also is a “zombie tax” because it will continue to automatically increase year after year without any review or approval by elected officials.
- While its impact on jobs is devastating, it will not produce a significant number of new subsidized housing units. Best-case projections call for 100 new units a year; San Diego has 45,000 families waiting for subsidized housing. It’s time to find real solutions. The financial impact is shown below:
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