On Monday, reporter Tigist Layne walked into my office to tell me she was planning to cover what she expected to be an unusual meeting of the Del Mar City Council.
Councilmembers interrupted their summer vacation to hold a special meeting where they planned to request that San Diego County and U.S. prosecutors investigate California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, and an official with the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
The meeting lasted barely 10 minutes and only had one public speaker, but the City Council moved forward with the request.
How did we get here, and what’s going on? Tigist explains in a new story that this is the latest dust up between the city, a developer and the state. Read the story here.
TL;DR
The city of Del Mar is locked in a legal battle with a housing developer over a project known as Seaside Ridge. The 259-unit project includes some affordable units.
The city doesn’t want to OK the project — and recently rejected it. The developer argues it’s not really up to Del Mar because state housing laws allow the project to move forward.
To further complicate things, Del Mar needs to make way for a certain number of affordable housing units. The developer says their project will help the city reach that goal. But the city claims it’s going to do that already with a project at the Fairgrounds, which has it’s own challenges.
The allegations: A resident sent the city a letter raising concerns about connections and campaign donations that could be traced to three individuals: a Fairgrounds official, a representative of Seaside Ridge and Bonta.
The attorney general has told the city it needs to approve the Seaside Ridge project. The Fairgrounds official, Mark Arabo, has been critical of the Fairgrounds project, the resident wrote.
“The issue is whether the public can have confidence that decisions regarding Seaside Ridge have been made free of undisclosed influence and without preferential access,” the resident wrote.
The Fairgrounds official, Mark Arabo, and Seaside Ridge denied the allegations.
Del Mar’s city manager told Tigist the city wasn’t accusing anyone of wrongdoing. Ashley Jones said they just wanted to refer the concerns of the resident to agencies that can investigate.
Q&A with Tigist
Andrea: What do you think the city was trying to do with this move?
Tigist: I think the city was attempting to sort of put its foot down. The deal with the Fairgrounds to build affordable housing on Fairgrounds property hasn’t been smooth sailing, in fact, it’s almost fallen apart a couple times, and I wonder if the city wasn’t expecting there to be as many bumps in the road as there have been. Maybe they feel like the Fairgrounds board has been difficult and even resistant at times to the proposed Fairgrounds project. So, when they got this letter, maybe they thought they had finally figured out why this process has been difficult, which is that there’s potentially something shady going on.
Andrea: Do you think this will complicate things with the Fairgrounds project?
Tigist: I do think this will further complicate things with the Fairgrounds project. Things have already been sort of tense between the Fairgrounds board and city leaders for the past year or so regarding this project. The Fairgrounds board has been sort of unhappy with Del Mar leaders a couple times in the past, which has led to some awkward back and forths. But given the city’s actions this week, I would not be surprised if some Fairgrounds board members are really upset even to the point of potentially rethinking this housing project entirely. But we’ll have to wait and see at the next Fairgrounds board meeting how they decide to proceed.
You can follow Tigist’s reporting by subscribing to her newsletter the North County Report. Subscribe here.
Can’t Wait to Meet You
I’m hosting a discussion with our amazing South County reporter Jim Hinch at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Civic Center Branch of the Chula Vista Public Library, 365 F St. in Chula Vista.
We’re going to talk about his investigations and stories he’s following in South County.
If you have any questions or topics you’d like for us to cover, shoot me a note at andrea.sanchez@voiceofsandiego.org.