A developer suing the city of Del Mar for repeatedly rejecting its affordable housing project now wants to postpone the lawsuit to see how a similar case in LA County will play out.
Background: Seaside Ridge is the developer of a proposed affordable housing project in Del Mar. The city has repeatedly rejected the project because city officials say they already have enough affordable housing projects in the pipeline to meet their affordable housing goals.
But Seaside Ridge says the city doesn’t have a choice in the matter because of a controversial state housing law called the Builder’s Remedy, which says if a city doesn’t have an approved Housing Element, a housing plan required by the state, by the time an affordable housing project is proposed, then the city can’t deny it.
It’s very similar to a case in a city called La Cañada Flintridge that became one of the first real tests of the Builder’s Remedy. In that case, a judge sided with the developer who was using the Builder’s Remedy to get their affordable housing project approved and ordered the city of La Cañada Flintridge to approve the project.
But La Cañada Flintridge has since appealed the judge’s decision, which means it will be heard in front of an appeals court.
Now, Seaside Ridge wants to wait and see what that court decides.
Read more about what went down in La Cañada Flintridge.
Fifty Homeless Shelter Beds Moving from San Diego to South Bay
The city’s facing yet another shelter setback.
San Diego Rescue Mission, a homeless service provider that doesn’t contract with the city, is set to move a few dozen shelter beds from its Bankers Hill facility to a newer one in National City this fall.
Tough timing: While the move will increase shelter offerings in South Bay, the change comes at a challenging time for the city of San Diego. The city expects to be down 732 city-funded shelter beds by early next year following the expected closure of several shelters, including one that shuttered last month. This tally doesn’t include the Rescue Mission beds that now accommodate women and children, which aren’t city funded. The city is also seeing increased demand for shelter among families – even after adding more beds last month.
Why the move? Rescue Mission Vice President Paul Armstrong said the nonprofit’s recent capital campaign supporting three new shelters and renovations at its Bankers Hill facility “came in less than hoped” and forced adjustments to ensure sustainability.
Meanwhile in Oceanside …
Officials with the city of Oceanside are making plans to clear hundreds of people from an encampment along state Route 78.
The city plans to do that with millions of state dollars it received alongside Carlsbad. Our Tigist Layne reports that city officials laid out their plans at a recent City Council meeting.
“The goal of this program is to address 100 percent of the encampment residents within the encampment area,” one city official said during the meeting. “We want to not just have measurable results, but also tangible results.”
Layne has everything you need to know about the plan and potential issues the city may run into.
In Other News
- Some South Bay residents are upset the county is handing out free air purifiers in a raffle, calling the move insensitive as neighborhoods grapple with bad odors from the sewage-blighted Tijuana River. (KPBS)
- Diversifying the panel that helps redraw political boundaries every 10 years won’t be a decision before voters this November as a proposed ballot measure to fundamentally change the redistricting process got delayed until 2026. Supporters still disagree on the best approach. More Voice coverage: Former Voice reporter Maya Srikrishnan closely covered the fight for diverse groups to gain better representation during the last redistricting battle in 2021. She uncovered how the proposed map significantly reduced Latino voting power in Council District 9 and how Black San Diegans became priced out and therefore lost power in Council District 4. (Union-Tribune, Voice of San Diego)
- Working parents struggle to find free or affordable after-school care as waitlists swell. Data gathered from San Diego Unified School District by KPBS showed the waitlist for one program called PrimeTime soared from 900 students last year to about 4,200 as of Aug. 15. (KPBS)
- Metropolitan Transit System reported a 10 percent year-over-year increase in ridership. (Times of San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Lisa Halverstadt, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
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