A beloved Mission Bay Park, a controversial state law, and the summertime battle over Marina Village

By Greg Moran / inewsource / October 14, 2025

Tucked in the far southwest corner of Mission Bay Park, the aging Marina Village conference center and boat docks seem an unlikely place for the latest controversy over housing in San Diego.

But in July, the 28-acre site became the flashpoint over several related issues: a half-century old state law reconfigured to push local governments to build more affordable housing, skepticism over the city of San Diego’s real estate dealings, and the future of Mission Bay parkland.

While the move to designate the Marina Village parcels surplus land seemed to come out of nowhere and publicly surfaced in early July, a review of city and state records by inewsource show that the property lease was being discussed inside city hall starting in the first half of the year.

In early spring, city staff began communicating with state officials on the state’s Surplus Land Act, which governs how public land has to be made available for affordable housing projects, and one potential developer had begun lobbying real estate staff.

At the same time, a development group comprised of Suntex Marinas, one of the nation’s largest marina operators, and the Monarch Group — a small but extraordinarily well-connected La Jolla real estate firm — was working on a proposal that would bring a large hotel, revised marina and as many as 900 housing units to the Marina Village site. City officials have repeatedly said the proposal was “unsolicited.”

The developers hired a trio of lobbyists who met with several city staff members in the Economic Development Department, as well as one senior staffer for Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, whose District 2 includes Mission Bay Park.

Both efforts became public over two summer months, touching off a controversy that, for now, appears to be dormant.

The city has backed away from its initial effort to designate the Marina Village parcels as surplus land — a move that under the law would trigger opening the land to the possibility of affordable housing. And most council members have signaled they’re opposed to developing housing in the park.

Yet the Marina Village skirmish became the latest example of San Diego residents suspicious of city hall motives — like the property owners in neighborhoods devastated by flooding in 2024, the controversies over 101 Ash Street building, and the Midway Rising redevelopment deal.

And the issues that the battle raised are still not entirely resolved and could surface again.

“This is not only a Mission Bay Park issue,” said former city councilmember Donna Frye, who first sounded the alarm over the surplus land designation in an article for the publication OB Rag. “It’s an issue of city-wide concern for any public park land.”

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