San Diego received a $624,000 state grant to help the city update community development plans and expand housing capacity in the University, Mira Mesa and Uptown neighborhoods, the city announced Wednesday.

The grant was awarded through the Building Homes and Jobs Act, which allows cities to apply for funding and technical assistance to help with preparing and implementing community development plans and help streamline housing approvals by city councils.

San Diego applied and received the grant to help create additional capacity for as many as 65,000 new housing units in University, Mira Mesa and Uptown neighborhoods.

“This grant will help us to continue identifying areas around our city suitable for new development and ultimately lead to increasing the housing stock in San Diego,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “These plan updates are crucial as San Diego works to build more supply, reduce development costs and accommodate smart growth around major job and transit centers.”

In Faulconer’s tenure, the city has updated or amended 14 community plans in neighborhoods, allowing for more units of housing or denser housing zoning. Those updates have expanded the legal housing capacity by more than 74,000 housing units.

San Diego recently accepted its responsibility to plan 107,901 units of the region’s future housing needs of 171,685 over the next decade — according to the San Diego Association of Government’s regional housing needs assessment.

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