Another small city is joining the push to take back control of housing decisions from the state, becoming the fourth in North County to support the effort.
The Del Mar City Council last week, voted to support a proposed state ballot initiative called Our Neighborhood Voices that aims to change the California constitution to give local governments control over housing and land use decisions, allowing them to override conflicting state laws.
If you’ve been following the housing discourse in North County over the past several months, then you’ve likely heard of this initiative before.
Our Neighborhood Voices is a nonprofit supported by leaders of small cities across the state. They argue that current state housing laws aren’t increasing affordable housing, but are actually worsening the affordability crisis by flooding the market with market-rate and luxury housing units.
“We are being sold a lie: that endless upzoning and luxury development will solve affordability. In truth, it fuels speculation, drives prices up, and pushes families out,” the website says.
In Del Mar, Councilmember Tracy Martinez and Mayor Terry Gaasterland brought the initiative to the Council to consider endorsing it, saying that the state has passed more than 400 housing laws in the past eight years that have stripped away local control.
The laws force city leaders to approve affordable housing projects that are viable and legally compliant with development standards, create and fulfill plans to accommodate for housing at all income levels, allow developers to build bigger projects if they include affordable housing and more.
“The mayor and I truly believe in affordable housing,” Martinez said. “We’re advocates for that, but we’re also advocates of having accurate numbers and being able to maintain some of the things that are unique to this area… and that’s our community character, and I think that’s under assault as well.”
Martinez and other city officials argue that the city’s RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation), which is the number of units that each city is required to build, was calculated wrong because of the temporary and seasonal workers that work at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
RHNA numbers for each county are determined by the state housing department in consultation with SANDAG. Then, SANDAG allocates specific numbers to each city.
Del Mar’s total RHNA allocation is 163 units, the lowest allocation in San Diego County. The city also has the lowest population in the county.
“Most of the new state housing laws don’t provide any incentive or requirements for low- or moderate-income housing,” Martinez continued. “Naturally affordable homes and apartments are being torn down to put in luxury units that raise all the rents in the area.”
Martinez and Gaasterland also criticized the state for not providing financial support for these housing mandates, like money for infrastructure improvements, new schools and increased water supply demands.
Councilmembers approved the resolution in a 3-0 vote, with Councilmember Dan Quirk absent.
I previously wrote about how the new City Council in Encinitas, led by Mayor Bruce Ehlers, is also banking on the proposed ballot initiative to restore local control, since, by all indications, it doesn’t seem like state lawmakers have an appetite for relaxing or changing those laws anytime soon.
State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, told me back in March that the rhetoric being expressed in cities like Encinitas is not reflected in Sacramento. Blakespear is the former mayor of Encinitas. If anything, she said, there’s a perspective that housing laws need to get stricter on cities because some cities are creating barriers to housing.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the state’s housing department would probably agree – they have been known to take legal action against cities that try to evade state housing laws.
That’s where this ballot initiative comes in. Ehlers previously told me that the goal is to get the initiative qualified for the 2026 or 2028 election.
City leaders in Oceanside and San Marcos have also endorsed the initiative.
One Developer Isn’t Giving Up
View looking through the fence near where a potential affordable housing project could be built on Del Mar bluffs on April 25, 2023. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler
In the last North County Report, I wrote about how a San Diego judge dismissed a lawsuit from the developer behind the proposed Seaside Ridge project in Del Mar.
The developer of Seaside Ridge has spent the past three years trying to get an affordable housing project approved for an ocean bluff site near Del Mar’s Dog Beach — but the two sides are at an impasse.
Last year, Seaside Ridge developers filed a lawsuit against Del Mar for repeatedly rejecting the project. Del Mar officials say they already have enough affordable housing projects in the pipeline to meet their affordable housing goals.
But Seaside Ridge says the city doesn’t have a choice in the matter because of a controversial state housing law called the Builder’s Remedy, which says if a city doesn’t have an approved Housing Element, a housing plan required by the state, by the time an affordable housing project is proposed, then the city can’t deny it.
And when Seaside Ridge first proposed the project, Del Mar did not have a state-approved Housing Element in place.
In the recent ruling, the judge said the developer needs to exhaust all administrative remedies at the city level before the courts can intervene, according to a report by the Union-Tribune.
After the ruling, developers of Seaside Ridge sent a letter to Del Mar officials demanding that city staff determine the project application to be complete, or if they’re unwilling to do so, that the matter be scheduled for a vote by the Del Mar City Council within 60 days.
“If the city council approves Seaside Ridge – either by backing a positive recommendation by staff or by supporting our appeal of staff’s incomplete determination, then wonderful,” said spokesperson Darren Pudgil in the letter. “If they don’t, then our lawsuit against Del Mar will move forward. Either way, after nearly three years of back and forth with city administration, we are owed a decision by the Del Mar City Council.”
Stay tuned, folks. The saga continues.
Meet the Beat: Voice in North County
Join me, Voice of San Diego’s North County reporter, on July 24 at the Escondido History Museum at 6 p.m. to talk about the stories I’m watching that impact residents in North County. Seats are limited. RSVP here.
In Other News
- ICYMI: The region’s largest public healthcare district, Palomar Health, has been experiencing ongoing and significant financial loss, but their plan to turn things around doesn’t include layoffs or cuts to services. (Voice of San Diego)
- Encinitas’ former top city officials quietly withdrew an application for the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund – which awards funding to cities to move homeless people into housing – before the new City Council was seated. Officials withdrew the application without approval from the previous or current City Councils. (Coast News)
- Two San Diego nonprofits announced plans to expand shelter beds in Vista. The Lucky Duck Foundation will help fund a new Lighthouse homeless shelter, like one in National City, in Vista. (KPBS)