{"id":22854,"date":"2025-10-25T10:11:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T10:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22854\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T10:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T10:11:20","slug":"midway-rising-developers-say-losing-height-vote-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22854\/","title":{"rendered":"Midway Rising developers say losing height vote doesn’t matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Buildings<\/a>A rendering of the Midway Rising project, which is set to include housing, retail and more. (Rendering courtesy of Midway Rising development group)<\/p>\n

The developers behind a plan to transform the area around Pechanga Arena<\/a> into a dense, urban nightlife district say a court ruling that retained a 30-foot limit on building heights there won\u2019t stop the project.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, they weren\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n

Midway Rising<\/a>, the proposal to build a new sports arena and 4,000 homes \u2014 with half reserved for low-income residents \u2014 includes buildings up to 85 feet tall.<\/p>\n

Accommodating those taller buildings was part of why the city in 2020 and again in 2022 asked voters to rescind the coastal height limit for the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area, which includes the 48-acre project area.<\/p>\n

But a citizens group opposing that measure, and the taller, denser buildings it would allow, scored a legal victory last week when an appellate court ruled<\/a> the city failed to follow the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately informing the public of the environmental effects of removing the height restrictions.<\/p>\n

In response, both the developers and Mayor Todd Gloria said the decision would not stop<\/a> the project.<\/p>\n

Gloria said he and the city attorney disagree with the ruling and will appeal it to the California Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the appeal, city staff have identified multiple paths to keep the redevelopment of the city\u2019s sports arena property moving forward,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cFailure is simply not an option, and we will get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>From L to R: Mary Decker, Mandy Havlik and Angela Vedder attended a press conference at the sports arena to support Save Our Access and the effort to maintain the 30-foot height limit for in the Midway District. (Photo by Dave Schwab)<\/p>\n

Jeff Meyer, a spokesman for Midway Rising, likewise said state laws that allow projects to exceed local development restrictions if they include low-income housing will allow the project to proceed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile unfortunate for San Diego, this ruling has little bearing on Midway Rising,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere are numerous state laws in place designed to advance affordable housing, and Midway Rising is one of the largest affordable housing projects in state history.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a new idea. In 2022, state housing officials explicitly said that a low-income housing developer could exceed the coastal height limit for a Pacific Beach project, based on the state\u2019s so-called density bonus law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in 2021, when the Midway Rising team outlined their project proposal while the city was deciding between competing bids, the developers specifically said that the success of the coastal height limit ballot initiative was a big deal.<\/p>\n

As part of that process, the city asked what the biggest risk facing the project was.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the biggest challenge facing the Midway District is the outcome of the height initiative,\u201d the developers wrote in the bid. \u201cOur team is prepared to advise and assist in any way to create a successful resolution of the height limit, including legal, legislative, financial, and electoral solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in their bid, the developers said the proposal to build 4,000 units with half of them reserved for very low and low-income renters depended on a series of factors, including \u201clegal validity of the increased height limit initiative.\u201d That section said the project eventually would include as few as 30% of its units reserved for very low or low-income renters.<\/p>\n

The city selected that proposal, then lost in court over a 2020 ballot measure rescinding the height limit. They responded by putting the measure back on the ballot in 2022 \u2014 after the state weighed in on using a density bonus to exceed the restriction. It also passed, before losing in court last week.<\/p>\n

John McNab, president and chief executive officer of Save Our Access<\/a>, the group that sued over the initiative, said at a press conference celebrating the ruling that the city\u2019s argument in favor of Measure C was that approving it would result in a new sports arena, but \u201cwhat they didn\u2019t tell you is that they wanted to put 150,000 to 200,000 more people in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that if the city wants to proceed with the project, it\u2019ll need to do a new environmental impact report and offer a new ballot measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t go over 30 feet,\u201d McNab said.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rendering of the Midway Rising project, which is set to include housing, retail and more. (Rendering courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[18016,10176,74,13134,76,75,18017,18018],"class_list":["post-22854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-height-requirements","tag-midway-rising","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-city-council","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports-arena","tag-sports-arena-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}