San Diego County doesn’t have much land that can be quickly developed for industrial users. It’s boxed in by the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican border, Camp Pendleton and its unique topography.

A 2009 study by the San Diego Association of Governments, the region’s planning agency, found just 2,040 acres in the sprawling 4,526-square-mile county presented almost shovel-ready opportunities for commercial developers. More than 60 percent of the immediately available acreage was in unincorporated Otay, Carlsbad, Otay Mesa and Oceanside. Only a fraction of that land would be available to industrial users, though there are processes by which zoning can change.

The lack of space and the high cost of the supply in desirable central locations might have been a factor in some companies’ decisions to expand elsewhere but it’s not clear the shortage is hurting the businesses already here – yet.

That’s because manufacturing businesses and the jobs they supply are changing.

Most San Diego manufacturing companies aren’t working out of big factories or producing massive products. They’re in smaller labs, working on small contraptions or brewing beer, or in non-traditional facilities tinkering with a component that’ll go inside another product. They’re renting or settling in existing buildings in locations close to other companies they collaborate with.

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