FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 10, 2023

CONTACT:
MayorPress@sandiego.gov
 

SAN DIEGO – Mayor Todd Gloria today issued the following statement after the City Council voted unanimously to approve his recommended updates to the Street Preservation Ordinance, which will help improve the condition of the City’s streets: 

“When our streets are trenched to perform underground work, our residents deserve to have that street left in good condition when the work is finished. It’s a simple concept: You break it, you fix it. I’m pleased the City Council approved our updated Street Preservation Ordinance, and as a result, our roads will receive full and timely restoration, as well as full cost recovery to protect taxpayers from picking up the tab. I am grateful to the representatives from industry who provided valuable feedback over many months and worked with us to move this policy forward.” 

The updated ordinance will ensure that private utilities, City crews and contractors who excavate in the right of way are held to a high standard of complete and timely repairs. The amendments will also enhance street safety by requiring higher quality resurfacing after trenching and tighter time limits for temporary asphalt patches, which often sink and make the streets uneven. The updated guidelines also will improve coordination among all projects operating in the right-of-way, reducing repeated work on the same street to limit impacts on communities.  

To alleviate these impacts and associated costs, other changes to the ordinance include adding restoration requirements for concrete streets and alleys; reducing existing moratoriums on asphalt overlay from 5 years to 3 years and slurry seal from 3 years to 1 year; requiring most trenching and restoration work to be completed within 180 days; and adjusting the street damage fee to ensure the public is made whole for the total cost of damages and reduced service life from activity on our right of way. This will increase the longevity of roads and account for the costs of damages upfront, rather than allowing repairs to become an unfunded burden on taxpayers.   

The updated ordinance will come back to the City Council for a second reading in the coming weeks. 

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