Donna Frye: ‘Measure E Deserves a No Vote’

Donna Frye came out today opposed to Measure E, the San Diego ballot proposition that would destroy the 30-foot height limit in the Midway area.

In today’s Letters to the Editor in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Frye called it “just plain wrong” to promote the idea that the Midway area can only be “successful” if the height limit is rescinded.

Frye- former councilwoman for San Diego and the “woman who should have been mayor,” also took the measure to task for not including any public benefit nor requiring any affordable housing.

Plus the “half-baked measure” was placed on the ballot “with no environmental review,” she wrote, and added, “The public has a right to know the impacts associated with the new height limit before, not after, giving their approval.”

Frye hit on a number of facilities surrounding the myths about Measure E:

Measure E does not require affordable housing.

Proponents fall over each other in claims that all of San Diego’s ills will be solved by passing Measure E, and that ‘San Diego needs more affordable housing, and the redevelopment of the Midway will bring more.’ Not true. What is true is that San Diego does need more affordable housing, but Measure E won’t automatically sweep in with affordable rents and prices.

Measure E does not have any public benefit.

Here is Donna Frye’s letter:

It is just plain wrong to suggest that development in the Midway area cannot be financially successful unless the voter-approved height limit is rescinded.

Coastal communities throughout San Diego have fared quite well economically and provided a strong tax base for the city while respecting the 30-foot height limit.

The push for more density might make sense if Measure E included some public benefit, but it doesn’t. It just allows developers to build higher and higher.

The San Diego City Council put this half-baked measure on the ballot with no environmental review and no requirement that any affordable housing be built.

The public has a right to know the impacts associated with the new height limit before, not after, giving their approval.

Measure E deserves a no vote.

Donna Frye

By the way, Donna Frye has endorsed Barbara Bry for San Diego mayor.