Close observers of the issue knew it would happen. In its latest move on Monday, the San Diego City Council — in an unanimous vote — placed the measure to eliminate the 30-foot height limit in the Midway on the November ballot.
If approved by voters, the measure would wipe out the height limit in a 1,324-acre area of the Midway District that includes the sports arena and nearby city-owned land, and not to the entire Midway.
This is the latest chapter in a saga which Councilmembers Jen Campbell and Chris Cate began when they convinced their colleagues to place a nearly identical measure on a November 2020 ballot. Voters approved Measure E with a 57% resultant tally. But a judge invalidated Measure E because city officials hadn’t studied the environmental impacts of taller buildings — required by law — before putting the measure in front of voters.
Cate, the lone Republican on the Council, and spearheading the current move, got all the Democrats to vote for the ballot measure, which only needs a simple majority of voters to pass.
Council President Sean Elo-Rivera was quoted as saying taller buildings in the Midway District would help solve the city’s housing crisis by building dense housing in the area, close to freeways and the oft-touted Old Town Transit Center.
This line of thinking has captured everyone of the liberals on the Council. Just saying “affordable housing” makes their eyes glaze over and puts smiles on their lips. A new sports arena will be coming and a certain fraction of the housing will be “affordable.” This is all the assurances they need. And all those jobs, too, for their labor friends.
Of course, there would be the same jobs if the entire area was converted to low-cost and affordable housing, and the Sports Arena itself could provide much more housing if eliminated. And it all could be done with the current height limit. But profit-margins are simply too important.
Voters, like the council, will be tantalized with dreams and promises that the housing crisis will be solved. No more homeless, too.
The citizens’ group, Save Our Access, which filed the original lawsuit that forced Measure E to court for a favorable ruling, says the ballot measure would destroy the height limit in too wide of an area, and that it should be targeted more narrowly.
Yet, November 2022 could be different than November 2020. Neither voters in the Midway or voters throughout District 2 voted to approve the original measure back in 2020 as they were most likely to be negatively impacted. They knew then and still know, there’s no infrastructure in place or planned to support the influx of 20 to 30,000 more residents. The Midway is already a mess and many local travelers avoid it. Perhaps the rest of San Diego voters will come to understand these things.