Why doesn't San Carlos enforce rules on home construction delays?

How long should it take to build a single-family home? Two years? Maybe three? In the city of San Carlos, it can take over six years without penalty and government officials are apparently ok with that.

Despite a city ordinance, “Construction Time Limits,” that is on the books, there is one single family home project in San Carlos that received a building permit in June of 2018 and remains unfinished. The property, located at 171 Coronado Avenue, was originally promised to the neighbors to be “completed by the fall of 2020” in a letter sent by the developer. Yet, an unsightly fence, porta-potty, dust, truck noise, and street damage have been fixtures in the hillside neighborhood for over six years.

Yes, there have been contributing factors to the lengthy construction time, including a pandemic. Yet somehow many other homes in the city were built during the same period in far less time.

What makes this situation particularly galling is that the city has an existing ordinance to prevent exactly this kind of lengthy disruption to its local neighborhoods yet chooses not to enforce it. What happened to residents on Coronado Avenue could happen anyplace, anytime in San Carlos and it’s time for local officials to step up and say “enough.”