{"id":89692,"date":"2025-12-10T22:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89692\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T22:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:31:11","slug":"how-san-diego-created-the-path-that-kept-midway-rising-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89692\/","title":{"rendered":"How San Diego created the path that kept Midway Rising alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Walkways<\/a>People stroll along a walkway linking buildings in a rendering of the proposed Midway Rising project. (File photo courtesy of Midway Rising development group)<\/p>\n

Midway Rising is still alive<\/a>, and if its developers succeed in pushing the project through despite the latest legal setback, they\u2019ll have San Diego to thank.<\/p>\n

California has been expanding the scope and power of its density bonus law<\/a> for years. Some of the biggest changes to the law came from San Diego elected officials and court cases.<\/p>\n

And now those San Diego-driven expansions that are helping bypass a 50-year-old local ballot measure long seen as a sacred cow in San Diego politics.<\/p>\n

The Midway Rising project would redevelop the Pechanga Arena area into an urban district with 4,000 homes, a new entertainment venue and acres of parks. It appeared to suffer a legal setback in October when a court overturned a ballot measure eliminating the coastal height limit in Midway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quickly, developers said that wasn\u2019t a problem, even though the project includes 85-foot-tall buildings in an area where new buildings are restricted to 30 feet. When they proposed the project<\/a>, and again when the measure was on the ballot<\/a>, they had said they needed to get rid of the height limit.<\/p>\n

But after the fall court decision, they said they were already prepared to rely on California\u2019s density bonus law, which lets developers waive local development restrictions \u2014 like height limits or density requirements \u2014 if they reserve units for low-income residents. The initial proposal included 2,000 affordable homes, far above the requirement for the state program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident in Midway Rising\u2019s ability to move forward as planned under state density bonus law,\u201d said Jeff Meyer, Midway Rising\u2019s spokesperson, in a statement. \u201cAt its core, our project is a fully integrated mixed-use housing development, and we look forward to working with our local and state partners to make affordable housing history in San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city attorney\u2019s office confirmed it will release a public memo outlining its legal opinion of their argument when the city council is ready to vote on the project.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s a strategy that wouldn\u2019t have been possible without recent expansions to the density bonus law that started right here in San Diego, not in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago this would have been an eye popper and insane to even try,\u201d said Dave Rand, a land-use attorney who has worked on hundreds of density bonus cases across the state. \u201cNow it\u2019s a snoozer, legally speaking, at least from my perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1979 density law started by allowing developers to boost the units in a project 25% above the city\u2019s limit.<\/p>\n

In 2020, former San Diego Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez authored AB 2345<\/a>, expanding the available bonus to 50% above city zoning. In 2023, San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez doubled the bonus again, with AB 1287<\/a>, giving developers a 100% boost.<\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s contribution to the law\u2019s newfound weight didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

In 2022, city planners and the developers of a Pacific Beach project<\/a> asked state housing authorities if waivers from the density bonus law could breach the coastal height limit. The state concluded that the height limit did not get any special treatment<\/a> for being enacted by voters in 1972. It could be waived just like any other local restriction.<\/p>\n

But just in case that was unclear, Chula Vista-based state Senator Steve Padilla in 2023 introduced SB 713<\/a> to change the definition of local restrictions subject to density bonus law so it explicitly included citizens\u2019 initiatives.<\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s biggest contribution to the now-mighty density bonus law, though, came from a 2022 court ruling over a Bankers Hill project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That case essentially set the precedent that developers don\u2019t need to prove<\/a> the waivers they use are necessary to make their project work. If city officials want to question whether waiving restrictions will make the project cheaper, it\u2019s the city\u2019s responsibility to prove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most significant density bonus case ever,\u201d Rand said.<\/p>\n

Former San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott recognized the significance of that ruling. After winning, she took the unusual step of (unsuccessfully) asking the court not to treat her victory as a statewide precedent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After stacking all of these changes atop each other, Rand said it\u2019s odd, almost funny, that there\u2019s any debate about whether Midway Rising can crack the coastal height limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no provision in the law that says you can use it unless the restriction is a sacred cow locally,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no sacred-cow exemption.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean developers can rely on this playbook in every coastal neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The boundaries of San Diego\u2019s coastal height limit are larger than the local boundaries of the statewide \u201ccoastal zone,\u201d<\/a> which is governed by the California Coastal Act.<\/p>\n

In California\u2019s coastal zone, it\u2019s not as simple as saying a state law trumps a local law. When two state laws clash \u2014 like if a project tried to use density bonus in the coastal zone \u2014 courts would be expected to reconcile the conflict.<\/p>\n

But in areas like east Pacific Beach, Midway, University City and parts of southern San Diego that lie west of Interstate 5 \u2013 all considered part of the city\u2019s coastal zone under the terms of the city\u2019s 1972 vote \u2013 it\u2019s not that complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why this is a nothing burger,\u201d Rand said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t in the coastal zone. This is just another standard, it\u2019s the same as any other height limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People stroll along a walkway linking buildings in a rendering of the proposed Midway Rising project. (File photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49850,49851,46726,26452,49852,10176,49853,74,76,75,18017],"class_list":["post-89692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-coastal-height-limit","tag-david-alvarez","tag-density-bonus","tag-developers","tag-lorena-gonzales","tag-midway-rising","tag-pechanga-arena","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports-arena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89692","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=89692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}