SAN DIEGO — An appeal to overturn the historic designation of the Mission Hills library failed at Tuesday’s San Diego City Council meeting.
It's sparking frustration once again from those supportive of replacing the building with affordable housing.
“I think it's really disappointing,” said Clint Daniels, who lives near the library.
He filed for an appeal a day after the city approved a proposal made by Mission Hills Heritage to designate the property three years ago.
“At the time Mayor Faulkner wanted to use that site for permanent supportive housing to address the shelter crisis in San Diego and once word got out that the mayor wanted to use that site for permanent supportive housing missing hills heritage made an effort to stop permanent supportive housing,” said Daniels.
Since then the building has looked anything but historical. It's been left abandoned and rotting.
This is the last example of mid-century modern architecture in that district, some say San Diego needs to preserve old architecture.
They want the city to clean it up and convert it into a community center.
However, Daniels says the city’s decision simply pleases neighbors who want to block affordable housing and push homeless people out of the area.
“We had a perfect opportunity to use city assets and city land to create more housing. Now we just made that much more difficult to do,” said Daniels.
CBS 8 reached out to Councilmember Stephen Whitburn who represents Mission Hills but did not respond to our request for an interview.
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