The two-year battle over a controversial backyard apartment in Crown Point escalated to a new level this week, with two visits by San Diego police, accusations of trespassing and new threats of litigation.
The source of the controversy is a zoning loophole that has pitted neighbor against neighbor in coastal communities by allowing backyard apartments — also called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs — to be built directly along property lines.
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A worker squeezes between a fence and a wall to finish painting an ADU on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In Crown Point, Heidi Martin and her family have been unable to paint the last wall of their new ADU because it’s right on the property line and neighbor Marc Umemoto has repeatedly refused to let them use his yard to finish it.
Umemoto blames the city for allowing an ADU to be built so close to his property that it walls off his yard, keeping sunlight and breezes out and changing the character of his home just a few blocks from Mission Bay.
And he blames Martin for taking advantage of that rule.
After many months of failed negotiations between the neighbors, the contractor for Martin took the unusual step Monday of trying to paint the final wall from Martin’s property using a long pole with a roller attached.
When the painter lost his balance and stepped onto Umemoto’s property around 10 a.m., Umemoto called the police and accused the contractor of trespassing.
The officers who arrived refused to make an arrest or issue a citation, both neighbors say.
When the painter again lost his balance just after noon, Umemoto again called the police. Different officers arrived, and they too left without arresting or ticketing anyone.
“I had a long discussion with the police, and they won’t do anything unless they witness it themselves,” Umemoto said Tuesday. “And it’s not a severe enough trespassing for them to be cited.”
To Umemoto, this policy should be a warning to all San Diego residents that it’s essentially useless to put up “no trespassing” signs or install cameras — which he did shortly after the Martins began construction of the ADU.
“It’s kind of a waste of time,” he said.
A worker squeezes between a fence and a wall to finish painting an ADU on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
But to Martin, this week is yet another regrettable chapter in an unfortunate dispute that she says has unfairly portrayed her as some sort of neighborhood enemy.
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She has repeatedly pointed out that her family is building only one ADU — nothing like the large ADU developments that have generated so much controversy — and that they are not investors buying up properties for ADUs.
“The guys should be done painting by tomorrow, and I hope it’s over after that,” Martin said. “It’s just been a mess.”
She said the police, quite reasonably, told the painters to be safe and not focus so intently on avoiding Umemoto’s property that they injure themselves.
“We’re not doing anything wrong — we just want the wall painted,” she said.
Martin noted that she had to abandon a longtime plan to stucco the final wall because Umemoto wouldn’t allow it. Instead, they are using elastomeric waterproof paint to cover the final wall’s yellow gypsum-based sheathing board.
She said her lawyers made multiple offers to Umemoto to get his permission to use his yard for just one day so they could finish the ADU.
A worker finishes painting an ADU on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Umemoto confirms such offers were made but said they got bogged down by liability release forms, other red tape and his frustration with the Martin’s arguments.
“It may have been a good solution, but their reasoning for it was unacceptable,” he said.
Umemoto said he considered going to court to block the painting but decided it was probably too late. He’s still considering suing for damages.
The City Council outlawed building backyard apartments on property lines in April 2022, but the new rule couldn’t take effect in the city’s coastal neighborhoods without a second approval from the California Coastal Commission.
That approval wasn’t finalized until last September — nearly two and a half years after the city’s move. In the interim, dozens of backyard apartments were built directly on property lines in coastal neighborhoods.