City Council to Vote on December 17 on Changes to State Surplus Land Act to Exempt Mission Bay Park
By Donna Frye
On July 9, the OB Rag published an article by Geoff Page that alerted us to a city staff report requesting that the city council declare three city-leased properties in Mission Bay Park as “Surplus Land”.
The reason cited by the city for declaring the properties “surplus” was the State Surplus Land Act (SLA). The city wanted to issue three new leases for a period longer than 15 years which, according to the city’s understanding of the SLA, would first require the properties be offered to housing developers. The developers could force the city into negotiations to build housing in Mission Bay Park on dedicated public parkland because of the SLA.
The city claimed they had no intention of building housing in Mission Bay Park yet failed to disclose to the public that they had already received an “unsolicited proposal” on July 17 from the current tenant, Southern California Pipe Trades Retirement Fund through their entity SCPT Marina Village, LLC, and was joined by Suntex Marina Investors LLC and Monarch Investment Fund Management Co.,LLC (Suntex-Monarch) to do just that.
The proposal included building up to 900 housing units. That information was not shared with the public until August 22 and that was only because of a Public Records Act request. Nor was it shared publicly with the city council at their July 29 meeting where they voted to continue the matter to get more information.
Since that time, the public has spoken out to protect and preserve Mission Bay Park from housing development and so far that community advocacy has been successful. The Mission Bay Park Committee met on August 5 and voted to oppose declaring Mission Bay Park properties as surplus land.
On November 5, the Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations (ED &IR) Committee listened to the public and supported adding language to the City of San Diego’s Legislative Platform to amend the state Surplus Land Act to help protect and preserve Mission Bay Park and other public parkland, regional parks, open space and canyons and support legislation to amend the Surplus Land Act to exclude Mission Bay Park.
On December 17 at 10 a.m. the city council will be taking a vote to amend the legislative platform as proposed and supported by the ED&IR committee. It is Item 700 on the agenda. [Here is a link to the agenda.]
Please contact the city council or attend the meeting on December 17 at 10 am. I understand that this is a busy time, but if you would take a few minutes now it would be greatly appreciated. Your voice matters and your participation has made a huge difference especially when you consider where we were back in July when the item was on the city council consent agenda!
Please let the city council know that you support the changes the committee made to the state legislative priorities regarding the Surplus Land Act that :
1. Support legislation that would amend the State Surplus Land Act to clarify that not all public land is suitable for housing, particularly where development would conflict with the City Charter or voter-approved measures, including, but not limited to, dedicated public parkland such as Mission Bay Park, Balboa Park, Mission Trails Regional Park, other regional parks, open space, or canyons.
2. Support legislation that would amend the State Surplus Land Act to exclude Mission Bay Park.
Here is a link to the webform for you to provide comments on Item-700 for the December 17 meeting.
Additionally, here are other ways to contact the city council, call or email the councilmembers directly.
CD1 619-236-6611 joelacava@sandiego.gov
CD2 619-236-6622 jennifercampbell@sandiego.gov
CD3 619-236-6633 stephenwhitburn@sandiego.gov
CD4 619-236-6644 henryfoster@sandiego.gov
CD5 619-236-6655 marnivonwilpert@sandiego.gov
CD6 619-236-6616 kentlee@sandiego.gov
CD7 619-236-6677 raulcampillo@sandiego.gov
CD8 619-236-6688 vivianmoreno@sandiego.gov
CD9 619-236-6699 seanelorivera@sandiego.gov
Editordude: an earlier version of this post had an incorrect City Council meeting time; the correct time is 10 a.m.