A proposed affordable housing project on the Del Mar Fairgrounds could be facing one major obstacle: an underground train tunnel.
The tunnel is part of a larger $160-billion regional plan created by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG. The idea is to move the train tracks that run along the fragile Del Mar bluffs into an underground tunnel by 2035.
The tunnel itself will cost an estimated $4 billion or more and would run a couple hundred feet underground and at least a mile inland from the tracks’ current, precarious location.
The LOSSAN corridor, which is the 351-mile railroad route from San Diego to Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, is the second busiest rail corridor in the United States. It serves more than 8 million passengers a year, according to SANDAG.
Almost two miles of that corridor runs seaside along the Del Mar bluffs, which have been slowly eroding for years, causing multiple bluff collapses.
That’s where the Fairgrounds comes in: One of the several options SANDAG officials and Del Mar city leaders have discussed is a tunnel route that would run underneath the Del Mar Fairgrounds property.
At a Nov. 13 Del Mar City Council meeting, councilmembers approved a list of principles for the relocation project that listed the Fairgrounds as an option SANDAG should study. This would put the tunnel away from residential areas, a major concern among Del Mar residents.
But the Fairgrounds, run by the 22nd District Agricultural Association, strongly opposes this idea.
Fairgrounds CEO Carlene Moore in a Nov. 9 letter to Del Mar wrote that SANDAG has already studied and identified issues with the concept. That study has allowed the Fairgrounds to pursue other opportunities, she wrote.
“SANDAG’s existing assessment has allowed us to discuss siting affordable housing under the reasonable assumption that we would not host a portal opening or a train running somewhere through our property — and that we would not have years of potentially disruptive construction here while the tracks and/or portal were built,” Moore said in the letter. “As stewards of this historic property, we believe continuing to plan for the siting of an affordable housing development could be imprudent if SANDAG initiates further study of a Del Mar Fairgrounds alignment.”
The last piece of the puzzle: The city of Del Mar has been banking on a proposed affordable housing project on the Del Mar Fairgrounds property to fulfill its state-mandated affordable housing requirements.
Del Mar has to accommodate for 113 affordable housing units to meet its Housing Element goals. A Housing Element is a state-required plan outlining how a city can accommodate enough new housing to meet its population’s needs.
The city has been working with the 22nd District Agricultural Association for more than a year to build an affordable housing project on the Fairgrounds that would yield 54 lower income units, but no agreement has been reached so far.
The Del Mar City Council received Moore’s letter before the Nov. 13 meeting and agreed to meet with Moore and other Fairgrounds leaders to discuss how to encourage SANDAG to consider the negative impacts a tunnel would have on the Del Mar Fairgrounds and the proposed affordable housing project.
“The housing program that we are working with the Fairgrounds is priority number one for this city, it’s super important,” Councilmember Dwight Worden said. “I still support studying an alignment through the Fairgrounds, but personally, I think it’s not feasible and it’s not going to work. I think there’s enough traction in the community and interest in this option that it’s incumbent upon SANDAG to study it and report it out like they have the other ones.”
Mayor Tracy Martinez added that an affordable housing project on the Fairgrounds would benefit Del Mar without impacting the character of the city as opposed to, for example, a large affordable housing project built downtown.
Though Del Mar’s leaders can work with and offer input to SANDAG, the transportation agency has not yet ruled out the Fairgrounds as an option.
We can’t forget about Seaside Ridge: Del Mar has until April 2024 to reach a final agreement with the Del Mar Fairgrounds to build 54 affordable units, according to Del Mar’s Housing Element. City Manager Ashley Jones said via email that an agreement is on track to be finalized by February.
If, for some reason, they don’t reach an agreement, Del Mar will have to rezone one of its backup sites, or parcels of land. One of those backup sites is the North Bluff property, and one of the projects proposed for that property is called Seaside Ridge.
Seaside Ridge is a controversial housing development that I’ve been following since May. City officials are against it, but the developer is trying to use state housing laws to override the city’s wishes.
The development proposes 42 low-income units, 43 moderate-income units and 174 market-rate units.
Del Mar isn’t on board with it. City officials argue they already have enough sites identified in their Housing Element to meet their housing goals, and they would have to rezone the site to even consider moving forward with it.
But the developers argue that the city has no choice in the matter because at the time they submitted their application to the city, Del Mar’s Housing Element hadn’t been approved by the state. In fact, it had been rejected by the state three times.
And according to the Builder’s Remedy, if a city doesn’t have a compliant Housing Element, the city can’t use its zoning code or general plan to deny an affordable housing project.
The developers are also applying the Housing Crisis Act, which says cities can only rely on rules that were in place at the time the developer’s preliminary application was submitted when they’re reviewing a development project.
The developers and the city are still going back and forth about the project. Del Mar officials have now asked the developers to resubmit their application four times and have repeatedly said they don’t agree with the developers’ “legal theories.”
In Other News
- ICYMI: It’s Beef Week, and we’re following some of the biggest battles in the region. In North County, the beef between Palomar Health’s top executives and a couple of its board members is heating up, resulting in intense boardroom exchanges, no-confidence votes and even a lawsuit. (Voice of San Diego)
- Homeless services nonprofit Interfaith Community Services received a $5 million grant through Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ charitable fund that will be put toward its new family homeless shelter in Escondido. (Union-Tribune) Related: The money comes amid some financial setbacks for the nonprofit, which was running low on pandemic relief funds and recently lost funding from the city of Escondido toward its other homeless shelter, Haven House. (Voice of San Diego)
- Oceanside residents are demanding stricter rules when it comes to short-term rentals, which includes Airbnb’s. The Planning Commission is recommending that the City Council research and approve an extensive rewrite to the short-term rental ordinance. (Union-Tribune)
One weeks pay for one months stay!
We have a baseline for wages but not accommodation.
This makes no sense and simply doesn’t work.
The average lowest rent in 2022, ranged from $1,200 to $1,500 per month in many places.
The monthly income, based on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for a full-time job of 40 hours per week,,amounts to around $1,256.96 per month before taxes.
HUD’s Definition of Affordable Housing: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines housing as affordable if a household pays no more than 30% of its income on housing costs, including rent or mortgage, utilities, and insurance.
We need to mandate that all new multifamily complexes include a percentage of baseline units (300 Sq Ft) that can ONLY rent for 40 hours net pay at minimum wage.
When the persons income exceeds +X% (determined by local authority) of minimum wage they are expected to move on to a market rate unit.
This will eliminate the need to subsidize market rate units and create a viable option for those on fixed incomes.
The minimum wage in California is now $21/hr. Please use the figure, not an outdated one, to promote the States abhorrent mandates. We do not need to trash San Diego.