Park Hill
07.25.2026 // Chula Vista // Funding housing on church land doesn’t come without its neighbors’ two cents
Benji Comiskey, Projects Co-Editor
Initial project rendering (Studio E Architects)
Park Hill is a 62-unit affordable housing development proposed in central Chula Vista. Its site is to be located along East Naples Street, atop a former baseball field and now dirt lot owned by the adjacent Park Hill United Methodist Church.
Given the site is on land owned by a church, this allowed the developer to take advantage of the Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act (Senate Bill 4, “SB4”)–streamlining the process of building affordable housing on these types of properties. Its location places it in a medium-resource area, with nearby access to Greg Rogers Elementary School and Greg Rogers Park, as well as public transit access via the East Naples Street and Oleander Avenue Route 704 stop–roughly a 3 minute walk from the project site.
The project is being developed by San Diego-based Wakeland Housing and Development, an organization that has already involved themselves with many other affordable housing projects in Chula Vista. To fund the project, Wakeland applied for a four-million-dollar combined affordable housing loan from the City of Chula Vista to go toward the construction of Park Hill. In this initial application, the project featured 68 affordable units and offered one, two and three-bedroom units.
Site Plan prior to amendments (Studio E Architects)
However, given the public nature of the loan application, it opened the door for public debate. Opponents raised concerns over neighborhood character, traffic, strain on infrastructure and privacy, arguing the loan should not be approved. Proponents claimed the project is fairly modest as-is, provides affordable housing to an area that is currently lacking, in addition to citing concerns over the project's survival if it did not acquire the funding. Since the Park Hill project makes use of SB4, it would be one of the few occasions where infill housing could be built in the primarily single-family neighborhood: naturally, this was used in both arguments for and against the project.
This debate initially delayed the Chula Vista City Council’s loan application vote in early June 2026. Despite this, in late June 2026 the project obtained the loans, albeit with amendments that would see the density reduced to only 62 units among other modifications.
Even with this reduction, the construction of Park Hill will be beneficial to central Chula Vista, especially considering it is in an area that has little affordable housing. Alongside this project, another nearby proposed affordable housing development would also help to create more opportunities for those in need to live in and benefit from being in this area. Construction has not yet commenced as of this writing.
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SOURCES:
https://pub-chulavista.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=59538