{"id":256827,"date":"2026-04-08T02:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:35:13","slug":"san-diegans-are-onboard-with-midway-rising-polling-by-development-team-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256827\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diegans are onboard with Midway Rising, polling by development team says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/a>People stroll though a retail area in a rendering of the proposed Midway Rising project. (Photo courtesy of Midway Rising development group)<\/p>\n

A super majority of San Diego residents supports the Midway Rising<\/a> development, according to a new poll paid for by the developers behind the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support for the project is weaker in the areas closest<\/a> to it \u2014 the second city council district, Point Loma and Ocean Beach \u2014 but still above 50%. There\u2019s even stronger consensus in both areas that the current state of Midway is in need of redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The Midway Rising developers<\/a> hired the polling and strategy firm Lieberman Data & Insights to gauge public opinion during a crucial time for the project, which would turn 48-city owned acres around Pechanga Arena into an urban district with 4,000 homes, parks and public space, businesses and a new, 16,000-seat sports and entertainment venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late last year, courts struck down<\/a> the city\u2019s attempt<\/a> to raise the height limit in the area to make way for the project. State Senator Akilah Weber has proposed a bill<\/a> to exempt the project from the state\u2019s landmark environmental law. And Mayor Todd Gloria has said he expects<\/a> the council to vote on a proposed lease with the developer.<\/p>\n

Those council members getting ready to weigh in on the measure appear to be the intended audience for the poll, since the project is not expected to face a public vote anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The pollsters spoke to 650 registered voters in the city, including 250 in District 2, to get a larger sample of public opinion near the project.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sixty-seven percent of all respondents favor the project with over half of those saying they\u00a0 \u201cstrongly\u201d favor it.<\/p>\n

Among respondents in District 2, 56% support Midway Rising, while 57% of residents in Point Loma and Ocean Beach do as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The highest support among sub-groups comes from renters (78%) and registered Democrats (77%), Fifty-eight percent of homeowners and 48% of Republicans said they want to see it built. <\/p>\n

Asked only whether they agreed that the Midway Area needed to be redeveloped, 70% of citywide respondents and 69% of those in District 2 agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a controversial project because everyone agrees we should do something there,\u201d Drew Lieberman, founder of Lieberman Data & Insights, said. \u201cEven the things that tend to bother people about land use and development don\u2019t bother them about this project, it kind of bucks a lot of the typical trends we would see here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is one thing the polling omits: mention of the project\u2019s height<\/a> within the project description provided.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been a particular concern for opponents of the project, which includes buildings up to 165-feet tall.<\/p>\n

Times of San Diego asked the pollsters about this omission, and they said they tested how voters responded to criticisms of the project, including one about tall buildings. Some critics think approval of Midway Rising would lead to a slippery slope that clears the way for tall buildings along the coast.<\/p>\n

Lieberman said the height-limit attack had the least impact out of the three negatively skewed questions he tested. The negative messaging that had the most impact was focused on the influx of traffic predicted from the project, followed by concerna that the new housing would be too expensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People stroll though a retail area in a rendering of the proposed Midway Rising project. (Photo courtesy of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1335,10176,3101,3365,74,76,75,18018],"class_list":{"0":"post-256827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-development","9":"tag-midway-rising","10":"tag-ocean-beach","11":"tag-point-loma","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-sports-arena-area"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256827","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=256827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}