Grow the San Diego Way is a 100% volunteer-run 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. This is a grassroots effort, not funded by special interests in any way… a labor of love you could say.
JP Theberge, Founder and Executive Director JP is of Argentine descent and was raised in Latin America. He has spent the past two decades studying, measuring and analyzing human behavior on behalf of Fortune 500 brands, non-profits and government via social science and data analytics. His company, Cultural Edge Consulting, is a market insights, research and strategy company that provides analytics and guidance across numerous categories from sustainability to the beer industry to insurance to automotive to packaged goods and even in the manufacturing and construction products industries, among other categories. He is very comfortable around data and has a passion for digging deeper into the topics of the day.
As 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 many years. In that time, he has met with many levels of County staff (including senior leadership in the Land Use and Environment Group and County Fire Authority), senior SANDAG management and as well as numerous developers. Him and his team have successfully sued the County and developers numerous times to ensure the public safety needs and conservation objectives of the unincorporated communities were taken into account.
In 2018, JP 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 not driven by conflicting interests, but by a shared goal of providing housing for all in a way that is consistent with our values as a region. This is why he started Grow the San Diego Way and dedicates much of his spare time into it.
He also worked with San Diegans for Managed Growth, the group behind Save our San Diego Countryside, an initiative that was intended to encourage developers and decision-makers to follow the principles of sound planning and the consensus driven General Plan of San Diego County.
In his spare time, JP spends time with his wife and 3 kids and a menagerie of rescue animals (including a pig, alpacas, peacocks and the odd turkey or two).
