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SPRING 2023
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The Kensington Grapevine is transition- ing to a digital format Future editions
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Remember the McMahon family in
your prayers as they grieve the loss
of their six-year-old son who was
tragically hit on March 22, at Adams
and Biona.
Kensington
Home Values
Prayers for Our Neighbors
What’s happening to
home prices in our
neighborhood since
2020? See pg.4
04
GRAPEVINE
2035 Gas Appliance Ban
by James Steidl
As part of the Community Choice Energy
program and green initiatives, San Diego has
set a goal of achieving 100% clean energy
by 2035 and has already committed itself to
eliminating almost all buildings of anything
gas-powered everything, including stoves.
KUSI News reports that in addition to outlaw- ing the installation of new natural gas appli- ances in new construction, San Diego plans
to introduce a retrofit mandate for existing
home and building owners.
Decentralizing energy production makes
sense on many levels, but a homeowner,
with 18 solar panels
Kensington Power Line Under- grounding Initiative Update
On June 21, 2016 the San Diego City Council
unanimously approved undergrounding for
Talmadge Park North (often called the Alder
Loop). City staff estimated that the project
Grant Gives Homeowners Up to $10,000 to Help Sell Their Home Calfree.org (California Foundation for Real Estate Education) is offering grants up to $10K to
help homeowners market their properties when selling with participating agents.
Calfree.org provides real estate services to seniors and households with disabilities while pro- moting financial literacy regarding real property.
Realtors receive Google ad credits for their clients listing when the realtor donates to Calfree.
org, which then provides services such as mortgage relief to households that experience finan- The City of San Diego has initiated a cial difficulties as a result of disabilities.
project that will demolish existing
streetlights from 1926. The project in- tends to destroy the historic lights in
Kensington and other neighborhoods
of San Diego. These 100 year old Em- pire-style metal lamps and poles date
back to the 1920’s and are recognized
as an integral historic characteristic of
this community in 1996 by the City’s
own Historical Greater Mid-City Sur- vey-San Diego Preservation Strategy.
The street light project in Kensington
is connected to a new campaign to
accelerate streetlight repairs across
the city, which have taken nine
months on average in recent years.
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Historic Street Lamp Removal
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would begin construction in 2018 and be completed by mid- 2021.
Moing the power lines underground would require green utility
boxes called transformers to replace the power lines.
The project has not yet started and the City tells us that construction
is delayed until 2027 at the earliest. The delay is due to having to ne- gotiate a new franchise agreement with SDG&E and lack of funds.
“We have asked our City Council Member to give our project a
higher priority, but I don’t expect that to happen,” states Bill Bam- berger, former KenTal subcommittee member of the Kensington
Undergrounding committee.
Kensington Undergrounding 2027 from pg. 1
can still run an electricity deficit in the winter even when the home
is equipped with all gas appliances. That means a conversion to
all electric appliances would make a goal of net zero impossible.
Adding more panels may not even be possible due to available
roof space and total costs could make the ROI unfeasible.
This leaves many with no choice than to pay higher electric bills
If you would like your voice sent to our municipal and state repre- sentatives, please visit kensington1.com to sign a petition to keep a
mandate retrofit of existing gas appliances out of the plan for 2023.
Proposed 2027 Electrical Undergrounding Plan for Kensington
Proposed Mandatory Retrofit
Banning Gas Appliances
Continued from page 1
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