In the middle of the summer, right off the bayfront, the Marina Village Banquet and Conference Center in Mission Bay is desolate. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is looking to change that.
He wants to declare the parcel of land, along with two others, surplus land. That would allow the city to lease out the land long-term to developers.
During Tuesday night’s Mission Bay Park Committee meeting, the city presented its “Mission Bay Park surplus land development” proposal. Residents weren’t impressed. Some city leaders’ comments were met with boos and loud outbursts.
Declaring the three parcels surplus land would pave the way for a hotel to be built at Marina Village, something adopted in the Mission Beach Park Master Plan.
The two other plots of land are located where Sportsmen’s Seafood Restaurant is currently located and at Dana Landing Marina across the street. The redevelopment could help the city’s budget problems.
Despite those potential benefits, declaring the land as surplus is a major concern for people living in the area. They worry it could become a land grab for developers to build housing.
“We don’t trust administration” was a comment heard from multiple people in the audience, in response to the city saying it doesn’t want to see housing on the land.
But under state law, once declared surplus land, priority has to be given to low-income housing developers.
“We tried to get an exemption from this law because nobody wants to put housing here on Mission Bay Park,” said Rachel Laing, the mayor’s communication director.
Since the city was denied that exemption, Laing says though they’re required to go through the surplus land process, they believe there’s only a very small possibility a housing developer would bid on the land.
“There are so many hurdles that would cost tens of millions of dollars to overcome, which would include public vote, coastal commissioner approval, that they would never get. It’s so unlikely,” Laing said.
Attorney Bob Ottilie received a round of applause when he started speaking against the plan and told people to say no to the surplus strategy. Ottilie, who helped write Measure C, says he’s not against commercial development like the hotel, but he’s against housing. He used his six minutes of public comment to litigate against the city’s proposal.
“If you follow the law, you run the risk. If you negotiate in good faith, you end up with housing. And if you don’t negotiate in good faith, you end up in litigation that leads to housing. And that’s the risk,” Ottilie said.
“We think we have sufficient off-ramps if things aren’t going that way, we can pull back and figure out our next steps. Housing is not that goal,” said Council President Joe LaCava.
In the end, the Mission Bay Park Committee members voted against the proposal. They’re hoping that will persuade San Diego city councilmembers to vote no as well, keeping the bayfront accessible to all.
The San Diego City Council voted last month to delay its decision on the surplus land. It’s expected to consider the issue again next month after their August break.