{"id":496013,"date":"2026-01-06T07:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/496013\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:51:11","slug":"ca-supreme-court-restores-30-foot-height-limit-in-midway-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/496013\/","title":{"rendered":"CA Supreme Court Restores 30-foot height limit in Midway District"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Aerial<\/a>An aerial view of the Midway District along Sports Arena Boulevard. (Photo courtesy of city of San Diego)<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court<\/a> has rejected San Diego\u2019s bid to preserve a 2022 voter-approved measure that lifted the 30-foot coastal height limit in the Midway District, effectively ending the city\u2019s legal fight. <\/p>\n

The court last week denied the city\u2019s petition for review of an appellate ruling<\/a> that found San Diego violated the California Environmental Quality Act<\/a> by failing to adequately study the environmental impacts of taller buildings before putting Measure C on the ballot. <\/p>\n

The denial exhausts the city\u2019s appeals and requires a trial court to rescind the measure and reinstate the height limit in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area.<\/p>\n

The high court also declined to depublish the appellate opinion, making it binding precedent for lower courts and a notable addition to CEQA case law, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. <\/p>\n

This decision marks a major setback for the city, which has for years sought to spur redevelopment and housing in the largely commercial Midway area after a similar 2020 ballot effort was also struck down. <\/p>\n

In October, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled the city\u2019s supplemental environmental analysis was inadequate in areas including noise, air quality, biological resources and geology. <\/p>\n

The Supreme Court denied review and depublication on Dec. 30 without comment, with Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero recusing herself. <\/p>\n

State officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, had urged the court to hear the case, arguing it raised statewide concerns tied to California\u2019s housing shortage. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear the city\u2019s appeal, this precudural decision does not change our committment or our momentum to redevelop the sports arena site. We continue to disagree with the lower court\u2019s ruling, but we are not standing still,\u201d Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a joint statement. \u201cThe city is actively pursuing options that will provide a clear and durable path forward for this transformational project \u2014 one that will deliver thousands of new homes, including affordable housing, permanent jobs, a modern entertainment venue and significant economic benefits for San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents with Save Our Access<\/a> hailed the outcome as a reaffirmation that San Diego must comply with state environmental law and said they remain prepared to challenge future development plans. <\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An aerial view of the Midway District along Sports Arena Boulevard. (Photo courtesy of city of San Diego)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":496014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,223133,1582,276,223134,223135,223136,223137,100527,3549,7264,157545,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-496013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-appellate-ruling","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-california-environmental-quality-act","tag-california-supreme-court","tag-height-limit","tag-measure-c","tag-redevelopment","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-save-our-access","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115847068637732649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}