The U-T this morning announced that the City of San Diego has “quietly” pushed back its decision on Midway Rising, the massive 50-acre redevelopment project slated for the Sports Arena area until “an unknown date later in the year.”
As UT reporter Jenifer van Grove mused, the project has been “promised for May and then June,” and now pushed back even more. She wrote:
The City Council’s Land Use & Housing Committee is not slated to hear the item before the council’s summer legislative recess, Councilmember Kent Lee, who chairs the committee, told the Union-Tribune.
The committee hearing is required before the full council can consider final approval of the deal. The earliest possible committee hearing date is in September, marking four years since council members initially selected Midway Rising over competitors in a competition to lease and redevelop the city’s property at 3220, 3240, 3250 and 3500 Sports Arena Blvd.
The mega-project that Mayor Todd Gloria has signified as his “legacy” project is “slated to remake the city’s sports arena property in the Midway District with thousands of apartments and a new entertainment venue ….”
The proposed real estate transaction, which would see the city enter into a long-term ground lease with the Midway Rising development team for the 49.2-acre site that includes the existing sports arena, remains unscheduled.
“The city continues to review and process the remaining documents associated with the Midway Rising project. At this time, there are no confirmed dates for committee or City Council consideration,” said Joya Patel, who is the communications director for San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
Time to rise up and make this a local No Legacy for Toad Kings event.
Great news that Midway Rising has stalled. Probably because Senate Bill SB-958 just changed and the project will now have to have CEQA level analysis for Transportation, Geology, Hydrology and deep foundation designs that will substantially increase construction and mitigation costs.
A few weeks ago, at the request of former City Council District 2 Candidate Mandy Havlik and I, State Senator Weber Pierson stated she would change her Senate Bill SB-958 to take out the words “or geotechnical or hydrological effect.”
We told Senator Weber Pierson that she was being set up by the Midway Rising developers and Mayor Todd Gloria to take the hit for construction defect litigation by allowing high rise structures on mat foundations on liquefiable soils with a low water table, without CEQA level review or deep foundations down to formational materials.
Thank you very much to Senator Weber Pierson for making the change yesterday on 06/15/2026. This is a big deal to first take out transportation from the bill due to public pressure, and now geotechnical and water issues.
The updated SB-958 bill for High-Rise structures is now to get rid of CEQA review and mitigation for:
“air circulation, noise and light refraction or reflection, or the potential to attract wildlife”
Midway Rising is located on reclaimed tidelands, near the San Diego River and Mission Bay. The San Diego coast is part of the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds. Not analyzing “light refraction or reflection, or the potential to attract wildlife” will result in unnecessary bird strikes and bird deaths due to new high rise buildings.
That means that statewide issues related to noise, light, and wildlife will no longer be subject to CEQA. This SB-958 bill is still insane and should be stopped. It will be heard again at the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. Please send in comments to stop the unnecessary bill with statewide implications to destroy CEQA in general. The San Diego Birding Alliance and wildlife experts should opine on this dangerous law.
Please submit a position letter on SB-958.
https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/
SB-958 Text.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB958
“SECTION 1.Section 21081.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
21081.5.
SECTION 1. Section 21080.82 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
21080.82. (a) For purposes of this division, the environmental impacts of a project that are associated with increased building height alone, including, but not limited to, air circulation, noise and light refraction or reflection, or the potential to attract wildlife [DELETE or geotechnical or hydrological effects,] shall not be considered significant impacts on the environment if the project meets all of the following conditions:”
SB-958 History
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB958
“06/15/26 From committee with author’s amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES.”
Seems a regressive step to weaken CEQA to enact a state-wide law “to get rid of CEQA review and mitigation for: ‘air circulation, noise and light refraction or reflection, or the potential to attract wildlife'”. To structure a law to sidestep these potential effects, and if these factors are never analyzed, how will anyone know about the harmful impact until it’s too late. The mayor’s tactic to leapfrog over the EIR shortcomings has morphed into a damaging aspect of not only Midway Rising, but who knows what other projects in California. Midway Rising is literally adjacent to a significant bird migration route.