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Preservation and Development: Building Solutions Together
Why San Diego builders know working with SOHO leads to better projects
and stronger neighborhoods
November/December 2025
 Working together works. The Western Metal Supply Co. building and Petco Park show how preservation and development can hit a home run for everyone. Courtesy Google street view
For more than five decades, SOHO has helped developers and communities find solutions that respect history while shaping the future.
We have conscientiously built a strong reputation as a trusted, collaborative partner in San Diego’s growth. Our track record working with developers is well known among those who understand preservation at its best, because when a historic resource is saved, everyone wins—the neighborhood, the community, and yes, the developer.
This success most often happens when a developer brings their project to SOHO early on. Local builders have long recognized that our reputation for fairness and reasonableness is more than talk—it’s legendary. Our experienced team, led by Executive Director Bruce Coons, has created solutions, compromises, and consensus that preserve San Diego’s historic resources and character, while allowing projects to move forward in ways that benefit all stakeholders.
Historic preservation is not anti-development. On the contrary, preservation is the history of development. Our neighborhoods, landmarks, and cultural sites are all products of earlier generations of builders and visionaries. To dismiss this reality is to miss the most basic truth: preservation and development are not opposites, but partners in shaping the future of our city.
Unfortunately, not all processes work as they should. Too often, we’ve seen the city undermine community-driven solutions by imposing its own ideas, frequently to the detriment of historic resources and neighborhoods. This top-down approach ignores the very consensus that makes preservation and development work hand in hand.
It is also important to recognize a distinction in San Diego’s development landscape. Many local developers, with a real stake in the community, understand the value of working with preservation. They know that smart, sensitive development enriches—not erodes—the neighborhoods that make San Diego unique. Some long-established developers from outside the region share this commitment as well, having worked here for so many years that they’ve become invested partners in our city’s future.
By contrast, too many out-of-town developers arrive with a short-term outlook, focused only on profit and indifferent to the long-term impact of their projects. These are the projects that generate conflict, community frustration and resentment, and costly mistakes that San Diegans are left to live with.
SOHO believes in smart development. We believe in solutions. We believe in listening to communities rather than forcing them to accept projects that do not respect their priorities, character, or history. Our work is not about saying “no,” but about finding the “yes” that works for everyone.
That’s why the narrative that preservation is anti-development simply does not hold water. The truth is clear: when preservation is at the table, San Diego gains not only stronger communities and richer cultural identity, but also more successful development projects.
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