Help preserve San Diego’s Mills Act Program

A special hearing of the City Council will be held at the Balboa Park Club at 6pm next Monday regarding the Mayor’s “Proposed Changes to the Mills Act Program.” Mayor Sanders is once again proposing inappropriate changes to the Mills Act. These changes would ensure that few historic homes would benefit from the provisions of the Act.
The Mayor’s claims that it reduces City revenues are completely unfounded. In fact, from numerous studies, we (and the Mayor) know the it actually increases net revenue to the City and that historic designation improves an area so significantly that it causes adjoining non-historic property values to rise an average of 16%, offsetting the Mills Act tax reductions, plus extra City revenue.
Mayor Sanders believes San Diego loses $2,000 on average per house in property tax revenue. He wants to limit this loss to $100,000 (or 50 Mills Act contracts a year). But the Mayor continues to ignore factual proof that historical designation drives property values and neighboring property taxes (at time of sale) upward, thus increasing tax revenues. Professor Andrew Narwold, Economics Department, University of San Diego tested Zip Codes 92102 and 92103 and demonstrated the Mills Act increases property tax revenue for the City of San Diego.
You should also be aware that the city paid developers $150 million dollars last year as incentives and subsidies and yet the Mills Act’s new annual investment by the City of $150,000 is where the Mayor sees a budget problem. This is another attempt to appeal to the interests of developers and to not provide what is best for the citizens of San Diego. The Mills Act is the single most important and successful incentive to encourage voluntary designations by owners of historic buildings. Please attend this important meeting at the Balboa Park Club (2150 Pan American Road in Balboa Park) at 6pm next Monday, November 24. Our neighborhood’s historicity aided in the American Planners Association (APA) announcement in October of 2007 that Hillcrest was one of the ten great neighborhoods in the nation. (This was the first time the APA honored any communities.)