Council race could hinder sports arena property effort
It may take deft handling of a political and procedural Rubik’s Cube for plans to redevelop the city’s sports arena property to make a leap forward this year.
The process at City Hall to select a developer has been balky out of the gate and has a tight timeline that, realistically, must be completed by the fall.
The three development teams competing for exclusive negotiating rights with the city need the 30-foot height limit lifted in the area for their projects to work.
A proposal to exempt the Midway District from the 50-year-old height restriction for coastal areas is targeted for the November ballot, but could be imperiled by a high-profile City Council race.
Incumbent Jennifer Campbell is running in the June 7 primary against a small handful of challengers, including former Assemblymember Lori Saldaña. Campbell backs lifting the height limit as she did in 2020, when voters passed Measure E to do away with the 30-foot restriction. A judge later ruled the ballot measure illegal, nullifying the results.
Saldaña opposes lifting the limit but more broadly has been running on a theme that developers are in control of, and corrupting, City Hall. The candidates are running in the new District 2, which recently was redrawn to account for once-a-decade updated census figures and includes the Midway area and coastal communities.
The current district represented by Campbell is different, but also covers Midway and neighborhoods along the coast. The 2020 citywide vote revealed those areas were the least supportive of Measure E, though, while some communities were opposed, at least a slim majority in others backed lifting the height restrictions.
Still, if Campbell and Saldaña advance to the November general election, a height-limit measure on the same ballot could be added trouble for the in
cumbent, who already has been under fire from some community groups that complain that Campbell has been inattentive, engineered a short-term rental ordinance that’s too permissive — and supported Measure E.
A broad coalition of San Diego’s political establishment — including top elected, civic, business and labor leaders — are backing Campbell and have been waging an unrelenting attack campaign against Saldaña, clearly with hopes of knocking the challenger out in the primary.
Should Saldaña and Campbell survive for a fall showdown, even some backers of sports arena redevelopment and the height limit may argue for pushing the ballot measure back to 2024.
In other words, saving Campbell — or more precisely, avoiding four or eight years of Saldaña on the council — might be more of a priority for them at the moment, while the height limit question can wait.
Granted, that may seem incongruous with this week’s action by a unanimous City Council to essentially speed up the sports arena selection derby, reversing a recent move that
would have stretched out the proceedings.
The opposition to Saldaña extends to reasons far beyond her position on the height limit and the density of the housing and commercial projects proposed for the Pechanga Arena property. Though a favorite of many progressive Democrats, environmentalists and some in labor, Saldaña is viewed by many in San Diego’s establishment as a thorn in the side and a disrupter.
Campbell, also a Democrat, has worked closely with major business and labor groups on issues since her election to the council in 2018. Leaders of those organizations were part of an earlier coalition aimed at thwarting an attempt last
year to recall Campbell, which fizzled early on.
Campbell’s supporters include Mayor Todd Gloria, county Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher, state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Reps. Scott Peters and Sara Jacobs, among others.
Meanwhile, a campaign committee separate from Campbell’s has sent several mailers to households in the district accusing Saldaña of accepting trips, meals and gifts paid for by special interests when she was in the Legislature. One noted she opposed a 600-acre solar energy farm near Jacumba Hot Springs — Saldaña and others objected to the scope of the project — and claimed Saldaña was opposed to
renewable energy in general.
That committee, called New San Diego, was organized by attorney Gil Cabrera, a Gloria appointee to the airport commission, and largely financed by allies of the mayor.
Geoff Page, a reporter with the OB Rag, looked into the claims against Saldaña and could find no basis for several of them.
Another committee, Community Voices San Diego, has taken a different tack of sending mailers that pump up the lone Republican in the race, Linda Lukacs, and criticize Saldaña, according to another article by Page. It’s unclear who is behind that committee.
The strategy to try to
boost a perceived weaker opponent and defeat a stronger one has become increasingly common in all levels of politics.
The law forbids independent expenditure committees such as these from coordinating with the campaigns for candidates they support.
Whether or not the District 2 election affects the timing of another Midway District height-limit ballot measure, Campbell appears to be keeping a low profile on the issue. Campbell, along with Councilmember Chris Cate, spearheaded 2020’s Measure E to lift the height limit. This time around, Cate has taken the lead.
Campbell still supports the redevelopment and lifting the height limit, however.
“It will provide a new, beautiful neighborhood,” Campbell said at a recent candidates forum in Point Loma. “We all know how blighted that area is.”
The sports arena redevelopment is one of several star-crossed real estate deals left over from the Mayor Kevin Faulconer era. A developer, Brookfield Properties, had been selected to exclusively negotiate with the city for the project and in 2020 largely financed a $600,000-plus campaign to pass Measure
E. That was about 10 times the amount opponents spent.
The height-limit exemption was supported by nearly 57 percent of city voters, but a judge overturned the election, contending the city did not properly assess the environmental impacts of the taller buildings before placing the measure on the ballot. The city appealed the decision, but is moving ahead on a separate track.
So, now there’s a redo. Five developers issued proposals. Gloria sought to whittle that to three and then fully vet them, but a council committee disagreed and wanted all five studied. This week, the full council — including committee members who recommended all five be considered — went Gloria’s way.
City officials say they expect to select one of the developers to engage in exclusive negotiations before the end of the year. But in reality, that choice needs to be made at least several weeks before the November election, if the developer is to be counted on to finance a campaign to raise the height limit.
Even without the Campbell-Saldaña intrigue, that could be a tall order.