Editordude: “Save Our Access,” the group that brought the lawsuit to block the implementation of Measure E, the lifting of the 30-foot height limit in the Midway District, responds here to the recent court ruling in their favor.
Regarding the 30′ Height limit lawsuit
Save Our Access brought the lawsuit because of how the city asked the public to lift the 30′ height. Established law says that an Environmental Impact Report must be made that includes public participation when major changes to a neighborhood plan is made. The city failed to do that.
We now know the reason that Councilperson Campbell and Mayor Gloria attacked the 30′ height limit. They wanted to privatize 3 huge parcels of public land with high rise towers.
1. The city made the issue about a new Sports Arena which the developer at the time did not offer. They hid the fact that the affordable housing would be minimized and a wall of market rate housing would block access to the beach.
2. The city hid their plans for the NAVWAR site which was to create a city within a city with density greater than Manhattan and towers up to 34 stories high.
3. The city failed to tell the public that they were privatizing the public-owned Sports Arena. The city failed to show the development impacts of the former main Post Office site, 15 acres of public land, which was sold by Diane Feinstein’s husband to a party that would handsomely enrich themselves from the lifting of the height limit.
The city also failed to enable the public to benefit by the giveaway of what are called air rights – or the ability of developers to build greater than 30′. Those rights are worth $2.5 to $5 billion and city hall determined those rights should be given away for free.
Save Our Access believes that public land should benefit the owners – the public. The greatest use of our public land in the Sports Arena – Midway – NAVWAR district is a spectacular sports themed park that, like the former Bay to Bay proposal, connects the bays and showcases San Diego’s cutting edge outdoor lifestyle.
Meanwhile, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott told the San Diego U-T, “We disagree with the ruling and intend to appeal.”
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Here’s the Minute Order from Judge Bacal.
I wish there were a legal basis to say that putting a measure on the ballot, to repeal something that was previously voted into law, required the same process that was followed when the measure was originally put on the ballot. Volunteers walked the streets gathering signatures in the early 70s. That was a huge, committed effort. All these years later, to allow a group of nine politicians to leapfrog all that hard work is a travesty. I hope to hell this is struck down permanently.