{"id":66003,"date":"2025-07-14T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66003\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T22:56:10","slug":"san-diego-taxpayer-sues-over-transparency-in-101-ash-st-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66003\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego taxpayer sues over transparency in 101 Ash St. proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"101<\/a>The blighted 101 Ash St. building in downtown San Diego has been a source of controversy for years. (Photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

A public records lawsuit was filed Monday seeking documents from the city of San Diego related to the recent $250 million proposal to transform the blighted 101 Ash St.<\/a> building into affordable housing units.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Land Use and Housing Committee<\/a> recently voted unanimously to recommend approving a deal to enter into a 60-year lease to convert the long-vacant property into nearly 250 residential units for families earning between 30% and 80% of the area\u2019s median income.<\/p>\n

Copies of the ground lease and disposition and development agreement \u2014 which were not available at the time of the committee\u2019s vote \u2014 are being sought in a new lawsuit filed on behalf of city resident John Gordon, who previously sued the city over its lease-to-own agreement for the 101 Ash St. property.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity officials are attempting to approve the 101 Ash Street (disposition and development agreement) and ground lease and related documents while concealing their essential terms from public scrutiny,\u201d the complaint filed in San Diego Superior Court reads.<\/p>\n

Christina Bibler, director of the city\u2019s Economic Development Department, has said those documents will be publicly available before the proposal goes before the San Diego City Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a Monday morning news conference held outside the vacant skyscraper, Gordon and one of his attorneys, former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, argued that many of the proposal\u2019s particulars \u2014 such as how much it will cost to renovate the unoccupied, asbestos-riddled building \u2014 have been kept out of the public eye.<\/p>\n

Aguirre said another concern is that one of the companies selected to helm the project is headed by Kelly Moden, who sits on the city\u2019s planning commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo city official should be entering into a contract with the city that\u2019s going to give them an economic advantage,\u201d Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

The deal proposes a loan equaling the building\u2019s value \u2014 $45.6 million \u2014 and issuance of a seller\u2019s note to recoup the money, plus 4% simple interest, over a 55-year period.<\/p>\n

The developers are also seeking millions in housing and historic tax credits, but Aguirre said the city has already missed a deadline for low-income housing tax credits, and he questioned whether historic tax credits can feasibly be acquired, as 101 Ash St. is not a historic property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s real risk that we will have to pay for 101 Ash St. again and that\u2019s via the $45 million in bonds,\u201d Gordon said. \u201c\u2026 This transaction really is a house of cards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The blighted 101 Ash St. building in downtown San Diego has been a source of controversy for years.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[46812,852,5229,1582,276,46813,46814,21685,3549,7724,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-66003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-101-ash-st","9":"tag-affordable-housing","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-john-gordon","14":"tag-land-use-and-housing-committee","15":"tag-public-records-lawsuit","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-city-council","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114854060570069907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66003","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=66003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}