Who is behind Grow the San Diego Way?

Grow the San Diego Way is a coalition of dedicated researchers, communications professionals, economists, urban planners and policy wonks who are interested in ensuring that the dialogue about housing and land use not be coopted by special interests but instead focused on the public benefit–the benefit of all San Diegans. It was started by JP Theberge, who has spent the past two decades studying, measuring and analyzing consumer behavior on behalf of Fortune 500 brands.  His company, Cultural Edge Consulting, is a market research insights company that provides analytics and insights across numerous categories from the beer to insurance to automotive to packaged goods, among other categories.  He is very comfortable around data and has a passion for digging deeper into topics of the day.

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As a member and Vice Chair of the Elfin Forest / Harmony Grove Town Council, he has been steeped in the land use discussions taking place in San Diego County for almost a decade. In that time, he has met with many levels of County staff (including senior staff in the Land Use and Environment Group and County Fire Authority), senior SANDAG management and as well as numerous developers and, of course constituents in his area and felt there was a need to educate and inform the wider community about this important issue to ensure that the narrative on housing in San Diego leads to a productive solution and not just what benefits certain special interests.  

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He has worked closely with San Diegans for Managed Growth, a group who is working on getting an initiative on the November ballot (Save our San Diego Countryside) that will bring San Diego County in line with other local jurisdictions such as City of San Diego, Encinitas and Escondido, in requiring a public vote when a General Plan Amendment is proposed by a developer.

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He was also the campaign manager for Jacqueline Arsivaud for Board of Supervisors, a virtually unknown smart growth candidate without any party endorsements who managed to receive over 16,000 votes after campaigning for only 2 months. The campaign greatly increased the dialogue on land use in the public conversation and helped put Grow the San Diego Way on the map. Jacqueline is also a contributor to Grow the San Diego Way.