Mayor Gloria Announces Proposal to Improve Conditions of San Diego Streets

Mayor Todd Gloria announced Tuesday that he is bringing forward amendments to the city’s Street Preservation Ordinance, which will help fix more roads faster.

The proposed changes to the outdated ordinance will ensure that private utilities, city crews and contractors who excavate in the right of way are held to a high standard of complete and timely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. 

“San Diegans deserve better streets, and the updates to the Street Preservation Ordinance will deliver a big impact quickly,” Gloria said. “We’re holding utilities — both public and private — accountable to provide full restoration of our streets after digging them up, without expecting the residents of San Diego to subsidize those repairs for private companies. It’s a simple concept: If you break it, you should fix it.” 

The proposed 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.

Changes to the street preservation law will be considered by the city council’s Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Wednesday.