On Monday, reporter Tigist Layne walked into my office to tell me she was planning to cover what she expected to be an unusual meeting of the Del Mar City Council.<\/p>\n
Councilmembers interrupted their summer vacation to hold a special meeting where they planned to request that San Diego County and U.S. prosecutors investigate California\u2019s attorney general, Rob Bonta, and an official with the Del Mar Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n
The meeting lasted barely 10 minutes and only had one public speaker, but the City Council moved forward with the request.<\/p>\n
How did we get here, and what\u2019s going on? Tigist explains in a new story that this is the latest dust up between the city, a developer and the state. Read the story here.<\/a><\/p>\n TL;DR<\/p>\n The city of Del Mar is locked in a legal battle with a housing developer<\/a> over a project known as Seaside Ridge. The 259-unit project includes some affordable units. <\/p>\n The city doesn\u2019t want to OK the project \u2014 and recently rejected it. The developer argues it\u2019s not really up to Del Mar because state housing laws allow the project to move forward. <\/p>\n To further complicate things, Del Mar needs to make way for a certain number of affordable housing units. The developer says their project will help the city reach that goal. But the city claims it\u2019s going to do that already with a project at the Fairgrounds, which has it\u2019s own challenges.<\/a><\/p>\n The allegations: A resident sent the city a letter raising concerns about connections and campaign donations that could be traced to three individuals: a Fairgrounds official, a representative of Seaside Ridge and Bonta.<\/p>\n The attorney general has told the city it needs to approve the Seaside Ridge project. The Fairgrounds official, Mark Arabo, has been critical of the Fairgrounds project, the resident wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cThe issue is whether the public can have confidence that decisions regarding Seaside Ridge have been made free of undisclosed influence and without preferential access,\u201d the resident wrote. <\/p>\n The Fairgrounds official, Mark Arabo, and Seaside Ridge denied the allegations. <\/p>\n Del Mar\u2019s city manager told Tigist the city wasn\u2019t accusing anyone of wrongdoing. Ashley Jones said they just wanted to refer the concerns of the resident to agencies that can investigate.<\/p>\n Q&A with Tigist <\/p>\n Andrea: What do you think the city was trying to do with this move? <\/p>\n Tigist: I think the city was attempting to sort of put its foot down. The deal with the Fairgrounds to build affordable housing on Fairgrounds property hasn\u2019t been smooth sailing, in fact, it\u2019s almost fallen apart a couple times, and I wonder if the city wasn\u2019t expecting there to be as many bumps in the road as there have been. Maybe they feel like the Fairgrounds board has been difficult and even resistant at times to the proposed Fairgrounds project. So, when they got this letter, maybe they thought they had finally figured out why this process has been difficult, which is that there\u2019s potentially something shady going on.<\/p>\n Andrea: Do you think this will complicate things with the Fairgrounds project? <\/p>\n Tigist: I do think this will further complicate things with the Fairgrounds project. Things have already been sort of tense between the Fairgrounds board and city leaders for the past year or so regarding this project. The Fairgrounds board has been sort of unhappy with Del Mar leaders a couple times in the past, which has led to some awkward back and forths. But given the city\u2019s actions this week, I would not be surprised if some Fairgrounds board members are really upset even to the point of potentially rethinking this housing project entirely. But we\u2019ll have to wait and see at the next Fairgrounds board meeting how they decide to proceed.<\/p>\n