Coming up, we've been hearing from
more condo owners in Tierrasanta
who are scrambling to find
property insurance after their
policies were abruptly cancelled.
New ADU's towering over single
family homes in the college area.
Neighbors are upset, and the developer
says more housing is needed.
SDGE bills expected to drop
dramatically in February.
Why some customers say they're so
frustrated while you're at work all day,
send your dog on a precious pick here.
Excursion. We ride the magic pink
bus CBS 8 News live at 6 starts now.
More than 300
condo owners in Tierrasanta are
scrambling to find property insurance
right now after farmers insurance
cancelled their policy because
of wildfire risk. Good evening.
Thanks so much for joining us.
I'm Marcella Lee.
I'm Carlo chiquito.
The owners are trying to find
insurance now on the secondary market,
which is much more expensive.
CBS's David Gofton is working
for you on this and joins
us live from Tierra Santa.
We're out here live in front
of the Villa Monterey clubhouse
and people are literally lining up to
get into this town hall meeting tonight.
We started working on this issue earlier
this week after several residents emailed
us with a lot of concerns and questions.
I'm a senior citizen living on a
fixed income, and I have a budget.
That's how I survive.
Allison Brenner and more than 300
other condo owners in the Villa
Monterey Complex in Tierra Santa are
worried they might have to move out
because they can't afford property
insurance to cover wildfire risk.
Right now, I'm not a wage earner.
I'm 74 years old and I can't go out and
get a job to supplement this income.
And I live alone. Farmers
Insurance recently decided not to
renew $127 million insurance policy
that covers property and wildfire
damage for the entire complex.
Farmers also recently canceled
policies for a 240 unit condo complex
in Rancho Penasquitos and a 338
unit complex in Rancho Bernardo.
It all comes down to wildfire risk
since 2017. The insurance carriers
have paid out like 2 times what
the Northridge earthquake cost.
Kimberly Lilly is an insurance
agent who advocates for condo owners
through a trade group called the
Community Associations Institute.
She says large insurance
companies like farmers,
recently updated their modeling
programs that assessed wildfire risk,
and as a result,
they are dumping out of the market.
It's heightened risk, there's no doubt,
based on the catastrophe.
Modeling that wildfires cost
more every time they happen now,
Lily says one possible solution?
Separate off wildfire insurance from
the main property insurance policy.
Wildfire would be very
much like an earthquake.
It would be a catastrophic coverage
that you can opt in for or out of
and then create higher deductibles
for the wildfire policy.
So instead of the normal
5 or $10,000 deductible.
They would say for wildfire it's a 2550,
even $100,000 deductible.
But then they could price a very
low policy for that association
could be covered for everything
they need to be covered for.
In Tierrasanta, the condo association
is now shopping the open market for
a new policy that could cost each
condo owner an extra $7000 per year.
Now that I'm retired,
I should be happy,
go lucky and enjoying life.
And right now this is a terrible.
Burden on me?
As we say, the town hall meeting
is underway here at the clubhouse.
One possible solution that the residents
are discussing would be to make the
individual condo owners pay for their
own property insurance, a unit by unit,
as opposed to one huge blanket policy
that covers the entire complex.
But to make that change,
the residents would have to vote to
change the bylaws of the association.
If you're painting a pretty
concerning picture, right?
Here, is it just farmers insurance
that's not renewing policies on those
large condominium complexes right now,
or is this happening with other
insurance carriers as well?
Well, let me say first of all I have
reached out to farmers insurance
for the past two days and they did
not respond to any of my questions.
The experts I spoke with said because
farmers is such a big insurance company,
once they start canceling policies,
it certainly does seem to
affect a lot of condo owners
situation. We need to keep an
eye on David Garson reporting
live for us. Thanks David.
Students at Lincoln High School
in Lincoln Park are protesting
after an alleged sexual assault.
This is the scene a few hours ago
when more than fifty students
gathered out front on Imperial Ave.
holding signs and chanting.
Students tell CBS eight that one student
raped another student earlier this
month and that the alleged suspect is
still being allowed to go to school.
San Diego Unified School District
released a statement today saying they
support the right to assemble and that,
quote all allegations
are taken seriously and.
Are investigated because there is
an ongoing investigation by law
enforcement that involves students.
We cannot comment on
details of the situation.
Right now you're looking at a car that was
involved in a police chase a few hours ago,
which ended in Encanto.
San Diego police tell us it started
at Market Street near the 8:05.
They say officers tried to stop the
car with New Mexico plates because
it was related to a case involving
an assault with a deadly weapon.
But they say the driver took off,
leading police on the 8:05 and State Route
54 before exiting on Woodman Street.
Police deployed Spike scripts to
finally stop the car on 68th St.
officers say they detained two people,
the driver and a passenger,
and they also found.
Firearms inside the car.
Federal prosecutors will not seek
the death penalty for a man accused
of killing his two young children
in Mexico because he thought
they had serpent DNA in them.
This was a horrible story.
42 year old Matthew Coleman
confessed to shooting his 10 month
old daughter and two year old son
with a spear gun back in August of
2021 before leaving their bodies on
the side of the road in Rosarito.
According to search warrants obtained
by CBS 8, the Santa Barbara man was
obsessed with Q Anon conspiracy theories.
And feared that children would
grow up to become lizard people.
No date has been set for his trial.
More people could be charged in connection
to the killing of Tyree Nichols.
Five former police officers are already
facing second degree murder charges.
Two more officers were relieved of duty
yesterday and the Memphis Fire Department
has fired 2 paramedics and a Lieutenant
for not following policies and protocol.
Everything that could go wrong
seems to have gone wrong in the
circumstance to the police.
Nichols's family and attorneys are
holding a news conference this evening
to address the latest developments.
A public funeral for
Nichols is set for tomorrow.
Vice President Kamala Harris
says she will attend,
along with the Reverend Al Sharpton
and other civil rights activists.
Home owners in the college area
are frustrated tonight by the
number of Granny Flats they're
seeing built in their neighborhood.
CBS 8 Brian White talked with
neighbors about their concerns and
a developer who's building some
of the accessory dwelling units,
also known as a Du's,
right there on their St.
Here in the college East area,
neighbors don't like what they're
seeing accessory dwelling units are.
AD's like this one are popping up more
and more and they say it's changing
the character of the community.
This is what's going up behind our property.
Joe Newsom has lived here in college
east for 25 years and he doesn't
think these AU's being constructed
are a good fit for this neighborhood.
It's going to be an increase in
the number of people per property,
the amount of parking, traffic, noise
across the street.
In front of Joe's house,
the same thing is happening by
the same developer who originally
bought this single family home.
Now three separate two-story
AU structures are being
built on the same property,
for a total of 6 units added here.
It means the integrity of this
neighborhood that I'm in
is going to get ruined.
Dave Nicolai calls these AU's
glorified apartment buildings and
says regular families don't stand
a chance when bidding for homes.
They outbid them and then they build.
8 units and 20 cars.
I don't know how they can get
away with it. He took
me into the backyard of a home
next door that's owned by a 93
year old woman who now has a shadow
cast over her garden.
You see how ominous this is?
It just towers over
her house. So this is our one bedroom unit.
Daniel Scholnick is the developer adding
these accessory dwelling units here.
He's taking advantage of the
city's AU bonus program the way
it works in a transit priority
area for every deed restricted.
Moderate income AU he builds he
can add an additional market rate
AU we're out of land.
And so the only way we can really
solve this affordability housing crisis
is by repurposing existing land. AD
is under 750 square feet are exempt
from certain development impact fees.
Neighbors saying that's unfair.
Where are they all going to park?
This whole area is just going
to be aligned with cars.
Scholnick says this property will
have five to six off street parking
spaces and he says most of the same.
Tools such as setbacks and height limits
are the same for his AU's as they are
for the single family homes around them.
The only difference is we're able to
add more doors and house more people
with the same amount of square footage
in college east. Brian White, CBSE.
Thanks Brian. The city of San
Diego now has millions of dollars
in new funding to help fight
homelessness in the East Village.
The City Council approved the
use of a $2.45 million grant that
had been awarded to the city.
This money came from the encampment
Resolution funding program back in October.
It will go toward placing people into
long term housing and subsidizing
short term bridge housing.
The Chula Vista City Council is
holding a special session tonight
to fill the vacant District 3 seat.
10 candidates are still in the running.
If the City Council is unable to
decide on a candidate by February 3rd,
they will then hold a special
election to fill the seat.
People we spoke to at last week's
special session said they want a special
election so that their voices are heard.
You've decided that you're just gonna
pick who you think is the right person
in a district you don't even live in.
How could you possibly
know the candidates?
The community has not had the
opportunity to vet the applicants.
District 3 covers the southeast
area of the Chula Vista City,
which includes Paseo Ranchero and Otai Ranch.
Much more still ahead for you,
the White House says. It's going to
end the COVID-19 health emergencies,
what that might mean for most Americans.
We got lots of sunshine out there,
at least we had earlier today,
and also some high clouds
they're streaming through.
But what's in store for the rest
of the week? Details ahead.
Also in our Rhiner report,
a new California campaign wants to
ensure everyone has food on the table.