Lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a bill that would make it easier to build a planned sports arena in San Diego’s Midway District. The bill, authored by Senator Akilah Weber Pierson, passed the Senate in a unanimous vote. It awaits a floor vote in the Assembly.
About Senate Bill 958: The bill would clarify that building height alone could not be subject to the Environmental Quality Review Act, the state’s preeminent environmental law. An earlier version of the bill exempted the entire project from CEQA but Weber Pierson made changes to narrowly focus on a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down a previously approved ballot measure to lift the 30-foot coastal height limit in the district.
“If everything else is fine, your project should not be stopped,” Weber Pierson, who represents the Midway District, said about exempting the stadium’s height from environmental review.
Earlier versions of the bill were never meant to be final, Weber Pierson said, and its scope could still change as negotiations continue.
Council Back in Session for Budget Talks
Tonight, the San Diego City Council will hold a public hearing on this year’s proposed budget, which seeks to close a $118 million deficit.
The meeting is the latest deliberation following Mayor Todd Gloria’s May revision. He restored some library and recreation center hours after Councilmembers pushed back, saying those cuts pose a threat to public safety.
But there are still some tense conversations ahead.
About the police budget: Despite pushback from the Council and public, Gloria wants to increase the police budget by $15 million.
Those increases include about $2 million for license plate reading technology that city officials say helps prevent and solve crimes. Police officers used the technology during last week’s attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, but failed to locate the shooting suspects in time.
Some bathrooms restored: An earlier version of the mayor’s proposed budget would have also slashed public bathrooms by about half in many of the city’s most highly-trafficked areas. The May revision restored services at five of the beach restrooms slated for closure.
Homelessness facing consequential cuts: Gloria still plans to move forward with cuts to the Neil Good Day Center, a downtown center where homeless San Diegans can shower, rest, and pick up their mail. City officials would cut spending to the center, leaving nonprofit Father Joe’s Villages to maintain operations.
In an op-ed for Times of San Diego, president and CEO of the organization, Deacon Jim Vargas, wrote that the “closure will deepen our ongoing homeless crisis and shift costs elsewhere.”
Arts and Culture still on the chopping block: Even though breakdancers, artists, and musicians flooded City Hall late last month, Gloria still plans to cut $11.8 million from the Arts and Culture Department. In an open letter, leaders of San Diego’s arts organization ask the City Council to restore the funding.
Related: Times of San Diego reports that one of the positions also on the chopping block is the city’s filming program manager, who helped the crew of the Oscar-winning film “One Battle After Another,” secure the necessary permits to film in San Diego.
Without a dedicated filming program manager, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department will handle such permits, Times reports.
Tonight’s public hearing will be held in Council Chambers starting at 6:30 p.m.
Region’s Rural Residents Pushing Back on High Tech Projects
Residents across the region’s more sparsely populated hinterlands have for years pushed back against sprawling high-tech developments. Many of them feel like they’re living on the frontlines of these developments. And they often are.
The frustrations seem to boil down to a couple of concerns: Are locals meaningfully included in the decisions? And what will the long-term impacts of these developments be?
Over the past year, for example, a proposal to build the largest data center in California in Imperial County has roiled the community. Many are concerned that the energy usage of the nearly 1-million-square-foot facility may drive up electricity costs, or that its hulking presence may change their quality of life. But despite fierce opposition from locals every step of the way, officials have continued to advance the proposal.
But it’s not just projects connected to the AI-economy’s ever-increasing hunger for data storage and computation that have worried locals.
Residents of the communities that make up the southeastern-most tip of San Diego County have consistently raised concerns about projects that would expand green energy production as California seeks to go all in on renewables. Much-needed battery storage facilities have been particularly controversial because of their propensity to catch fire.
“I want to be clear, we are not against renewable energy,” Thomas Wall, a resident of the east county community of Boulevard, told the Union-Tribune. “Our concerns are about an industrial-sized project in people’s backyards without any consideration for the community.”
In Other News
- Local leaders warn state cuts to behavioral health services will have lasting impacts on school crisis response. San Diego County’s Mobile Crisis Response Team, which is primarily backed by Medi-Cal and state funding, could be on the chopping block. (KPBS)
- San Diego County superintendents are raking in big bucks. Data shows David Miyashiro, from Cajon Valley Union School District, and Anne Staffieri, from San Dieguito Union High School District made well over half a million dollars in 2024. (Union-Tribune)
- Law enforcement officials investigated a threat to the San Diego Zoo but determined the threat was a “hoax,” Zoo officials said.
- Get your umbrellas out. It’s going to rain. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Nadia Lathan, Mariana Martinez Barba and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.