As San Diego cracked down on sprawling ADU projects, a few sneaked in just under the wire

Developers didn’t make a mad rush to take advantage of the city’s controversial backyard apartment incentive before it expired Aug. 22 — but they did get a handful of large projects OK’d just under the wire.

And some of those projects appear to be classic examples of what the incentive’s critics call “ugly,” “egregious” and an “exploitation” of a city policy that aimed to help solve the local housing crisis.

One project will put 73 backyard apartments — formally called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs — on one single-family lot. Another project calls for 19 ADUs on a single-family lot, and another proposes 15.

The two largest projects are both being developed by Christian Spicer, an investor and developer who has faced the most criticism for his use of the city’s ADU bonus incentive.

The projects are also located in neighborhoods where the ADU incentive has been particularly controversial. The 19-unit project is in Pacific Beach, and the 73-unit project is in Encanto, where a firestorm of backlash against the rule was sparked last January.

That backlash eventually led the City Council to significantl...