San Diego Unified punts vote on sweeping affordable housing plans

At a marathon Wednesday night meeting that at times turned chaotic, a divided San Diego Unified school board delayed a vote on most of its affordable housing plans until next month, rather than move ahead on proposals to build nearly 1,500 homes on district land.

Dozens of people crowded a room where the board had been set to consider development plans for five sites around the city, in what would have been a major step forward in the district’s strategy of investing in new housing to shore up its workforce and enrollment and bring in needed revenue to fund schools.

That planned vote would have let the district move to the next stage, including interviewing the development teams selected for each project.

Instead, trustee Richard Barrera moved to have most of the developers return next month for a special public workshop and deliver roughly 10-minute presentations to the board before it votes. The developers whose plans were deemed not viable would not return.

Later in the discussion, Barrera said the board wanted to be impressed by the proposals coming before them, prompting Petterson to ask if he were saying he wanted to start from scratch.

“Let me just clarify here,” said his colleague Cody Petterson. “Are you saying they should change their proposals?”

“I want proposals that meet our goals, period, so let’s see — let’s see what you come back wit...