There are a lot of numbers baked into the Midway Rising project. None is more important than 2,000.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the number of affordable housing units the massive proposal promises to deliver at the city-owned sports arena property and nearby land. That\u2019s what won the developers the right to exclusive lease negotiations.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the main benefit cited by city officials and other supporters to sell the redevelopment project \u2014 more so than the new 16,000-seat arena, 2,000-plus market-rate homes, 130,000 square feet of commercial space, 8.1 acres of parks, 6.4 acres of plazas and other public space and nearly half a billion dollars of infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n
The affordable housing number hasn\u2019t changed, but the way in which the developers might be able to reach it recently caught many people by surprise.<\/p>\n
Lease negotiations appeared to leave the door open for other housing projects to essentially transfer their required affordable units to Midway Rising and pay the developers to build them.<\/p>\n
Allowing that could mean the city, overall, might end up with less \u201cnet new affordable housing\u201d \u2014 suddenly a ubiquitous term at City Hall \u2014 than might have been planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe position always was this was 2,000 net new affordable housing units,\u201d San Diego City Councilmember Kent Lee, chair of the council\u2019s Land Use and Housing Committee, said in an interview early last week.<\/p>\n
Those units would be rent-restricted for households earning 80% or less of the area median income.<\/p>\n
Under certain circumstances, city law does allow developers some flexibility to build mandated affordable housing off-site instead of being included in a largely market-rate project as generally required.<\/p>\n
The notion of other developers paying Midway Rising to build their affordable housing surfaced on Oct. 15 in an article<\/a> by Scott Lewis of the Voice of San Diego.<\/p>\n That led to a scramble the next day at a land use committee meeting where Lee requested<\/a> language in the lease aimed at keeping Midway Rising from becoming a so-called \u201creceiver\u201d site for affordable housing from elsewhere, according to Jennifer Van Grove of The San Diego Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n With that amendment, the committee voted 4-0 to advance the proposed lease to the full council.<\/p>\n There are still a lot of questions about all this, but yet another revelation about Midway Rising that seems at least a bit dodgy is certainly one of them. Never mind that other disputed and ill-fated city real estate transactions<\/a> are still fresh in the public memory.<\/p>\n After Midway Rising was selected by the city, news broke in 2022 that Brad Termini, one of the lead developers, and his wife, Stephanie, contributed<\/a> more than $100,000 to committees that helped elect Todd Gloria mayor in 2020.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office said the contributions had no impact on the selection process.<\/p>\n Then the development team made major changes to the proposal in 2023 by eliminating a 200-room hotel, citing infrastructure issues, and 250 homes that were to be priced for middle-income residents, pointing to financing problems.<\/p>\n