Most new homes in Serra Mesa don’t need a public hearing. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs, often called granny flats) and junior ADUs (JADUs, a unit carved out of the main house) are approved by City staff if they meet the code. No notice goes out, so it’s easy to miss how many there are.
We counted them using the City’s open development permit data, filtered to the official Serra Mesa community plan boundary.
The numbers
| Year applied | Applications | ADUs | JADUs | Total units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 32 | 34 | 5 | 39 |
| 2025 | 33 | 32 | 8 | 40 |
| 2026 (January to September) | 19 | 16 | 5 | 21 |
That is about 100 units in under three years, nearly all on single-family lots. For comparison, Serra Mesa had about 1 in 75 of all ADU and JADU applications citywide in 2024 and 2025.
What they look like:
- Garage conversions are the most common. 37 of the 84 applications turn an existing garage into a unit.
- Detached backyard units are 27 of the 84.
- The rest are additions attached to the house or space taken from the existing home.
Serra Mesa hasn’t slowed down. From January to September there were 19 applications this year, against 16 over the same months of 2025 and 19 in 2024. Citywide it’s a different picture: applications over those months fell by half, from 1,665 in 2025 to 833 this year.
Have your say at the planning group
Update, 15 October: the October 15 meeting was cancelled. The group’s next regular meeting is Thursday 19 November at 7 pm; check for a posted agenda first.
The Serra Mesa Planning Group meets at the Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa Library, 9005 Aero Dr, or on Zoom. Anyone can speak for two minutes during community forum, and two items in this post were expected to come up in October:
- Smoke shop alcohol license, 3355 Sandrock Rd. The owners want to sell beer, wine and spirits to take away. The planning group’s recommendation goes to the City’s Hearing Officer, who decides at a public hearing that hasn’t been scheduled. To get notice of the hearing, email the City project manager, May Rollin, at MMRollin@sandiego.gov and quote PRJ-1157548.
- KB Home’s 199 homes on Gramercy Dr. City staff will decide this without a public hearing, so the planning group is the only public meeting where it is discussed. The group is writing to the Mayor a second time, and the City was due to give a talk on how this kind of review works.
The bigger projects
The ADUs add up, but a handful of larger projects will add about five times as many homes. This list is organized from new/pending projects at the top to approved/in-progress projects at the bottom.
- KB Home on Gramercy Dr: 199 homes on the old Mission Village site, where the burned Guild Mortgage building stands. In City review. The City has sent the application back for changes. What you can do: speak at the planning group.
- Cardinal Ln school staff housing: 108 apartments for San Diego Unified staff in Birdland. Early planning. The developer is doing site studies, and an independent financial analysis is due in November. What you can do: nothing to attend yet. The district has said it will present to the planning group, and there will be an environmental review open to comment. We’ll post both dates on the project page.
- The old library site: 59 affordable apartments at 3440 Sandrock Rd. Under construction since April. Applications for the apartments should open in mid-2027, with move-ins late that year.
- Starling Place: the Housing Commission is turning a former short-term rental into 80 supportive apartments. Under construction. The state grant requires it to be finished by 14 December 2026.
- Dezi on Mission Village Dr: 25 townhomes and 35 apartments at Ruffin Rd. Under construction. Townhomes went on sale in June from about $980,000; the apartment building is still being built.
About the data
Applications are counted by the year they were filed. Cancelled and expired applications are left out. A unit counted here may not be built yet; 13 of the 32 applications from 2024 have passed their final inspection. The City’s data only goes back to 2024 in this form.
If you spot a project we’ve missed, let us know.
This post was written with the help of AI. The figures come from the City’s published data.