What's Being Built in Serra Mesa (2026)

Figures cover the Serra Mesa neighborhood (the boundary outlined on the map), over the last 12 months, compared against the average San Diego neighborhood. Source: City of San Diego open data and SANDAG regional GIS. San Diego’s permit data lists the building and combination building permits, demolitions, grading permits and discretionary land-use approvals (conditional use, site development, neighborhood development, planned development, coastal development) that the Development Services Department issued in about the past 21 months. Trade permits (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, solar), traffic-control, right-of-way and sign permits are not included, and about 1 in 1,000 permits has no map location. In addition, about 3% of permits have no street address: they show as “Address not published” and cannot appear in an address’s history. Address history for permits reaches back only about 21 months, so an older permit at an address will not appear. The City does not issue building permits on the military bases (Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Naval Base San Diego and the Point Loma naval bases), the UC San Diego and San Diego State campuses or the San Diego City, Mesa and Miramar colleges, so permits are not shown for those locations; the City’s permit data also holds almost none on Shelter Island or the north Embarcadero (Port tidelands), so permits are not shown there either. A permit counts as active for up to one to two years after it was issued, by project cost, while its status is Issued, Inspecting or Inspection Followup. Open data updates on a delay, so the most recent records may be incomplete. For general information only — not legal, financial, or real-estate advice.