The developers behind a plan to transform the area around Pechanga Arena into a dense, urban nightlife district say a court ruling that retained a 30-foot limit on building heights there won’t stop the project.
Four years ago, they weren’t so sure.
Midway Rising, the proposal to build a new sports arena and 4,000 homes — with half reserved for low-income residents — includes buildings up to 85 feet tall.
Accommodating those taller buildings was part of why the city in 2020 and again in 2022 asked voters to rescind the coastal height limit for the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area, which includes the 48-acre project area.
But a citizens group opposing that measure, and the taller, denser buildings it would allow, scored a legal victory last week when an appellate court ruled the city failed to follow the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately informing the public of the environmental effects of removing the height restrictions.
In response, both the developers and Mayor Todd Gloria said the decision would not stop the project.
Gloria said he and the city attorney disagree with the ruling and will appeal it to the California Supreme Court.
“In addition to the appeal, city staff have identified multiple paths to keep the redevelopment of the city’s sports arena property moving forward,” he said in a statement. “Failure is simply not an option, and we will get this done.”
Jeff Meyer, a spokesman for Midway Rising, likewise said state laws that allow projects to exceed local development restrictions if they include low-income housing will allow the project to proceed.
“While unfortunate for San Diego, this ruling has little bearing on Midway Rising,” he wrote. “There are numerous state laws in place designed to advance affordable housing, and Midway Rising is one of the largest affordable housing projects in state history.”
It’s not a new idea. In 2022, state housing officials explicitly said that a low-income housing developer could exceed the coastal height limit for a Pacific Beach project, based on the state’s so-called density bonus law.
But in 2021, when the Midway Rising team outlined their project proposal while the city was deciding between competing bids, the developers specifically said that the success of the coastal height limit ballot initiative was a big deal.
As part of that process, the city asked what the biggest risk facing the project was.
“We believe the biggest challenge facing the Midway District is the outcome of the height initiative,” the developers wrote in the bid. “Our team is prepared to advise and assist in any way to create a successful resolution of the height limit, including legal, legislative, financial, and electoral solutions.”
Elsewhere in their bid, the developers said the proposal to build 4,000 units with half of them reserved for very low and low-income renters depended on a series of factors, including “legal validity of the increased height limit initiative.” That section said the project eventually would include as few as 30% of its units reserved for very low or low-income renters.
The city selected that proposal, then lost in court over a 2020 ballot measure rescinding the height limit. They responded by putting the measure back on the ballot in 2022 — after the state weighed in on using a density bonus to exceed the restriction. It also passed, before losing in court last week.
John McNab, president and chief executive officer of Save Our Access, the group that sued over the initiative, said at a press conference celebrating the ruling that the city’s argument in favor of Measure C was that approving it would result in a new sports arena, but “what they didn’t tell you is that they wanted to put 150,000 to 200,000 more people in this area.”
He argued that if the city wants to proceed with the project, it’ll need to do a new environmental impact report and offer a new ballot measure.
“They can’t go over 30 feet,” McNab said.
