It’s the failed-housing-project story that keeps on giving — the push to develop an affordable housing project on the Del Mar Fairgrounds, that is.
Not surprisingly, there have been some new developments in the two-year-long saga between Del Mar city leaders and members of the 22nd District Agricultural Association (DAA), the governor-appointed board that runs the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Since we last updated the story, the 22nd DAA has demanded an apology from the city of Del Mar for publicly requesting a criminal investigation into one of its board members, Mark Arabo, and the Del Mar Mayor released a letter clarifying the city’s actions and doubling down.
Remember: This whole thing started back in 2024, when the Del Mar Fairgrounds and the city of Del Mar signed an exclusive agreement to work toward building an affordable housing project on the Fairgrounds property.
The negotiation process went through several rocky periods and then, eventually, the Fairgounds board essentially killed the deal in August. There were several factors that likely contributed, the main one being that the project had become too complicated in scope, board members said. It was clear it would have required an annexation process and a longer timeline to move forward.
The process itself was also “messy,” and had too much “animosity,” one board member said at an Aug. 18 board meeting, referring to the disagreements between the two agencies.
Now, even though the housing project is dead, the disagreements just keep on rolling — as does one very interesting mystery.
Who is Debrah Barnes?
On Aug. 3, the Del Mar City Council interrupted their vacations to hold a special meeting and request a formal investigation by District Attorney Summer Stephan and U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon into Attorney General Rob Bonta and 22nd DAA Board Member Arabo.
City leaders say they requested those investigations because a resident named Debrah Barnes submitted an email to the city raising concerns about Bonta and Arabo’s potential conflicts of interest regarding a different housing project proposed for Del Mar’s North Bluff known as Seaside Ridge.
City officials have repeatedly rejected Seaside Ridge claiming the application is incomplete, fails to meet the location’s zoning standards, and unnecessary given other affordable housing units the city had in the pipeline (meaning the now-dead Fairgrounds project). Del Mar and Seaside Ridge developers are currently locked in a legal battle over those rejections.
So, Barnes’ implication was that both Bonta and Arabo may have sought to block the affordable housing proposed for the Fairgrounds, because they have ties to one of the developers of Seaside Ridge — and wanted to use their influence to help that project move forward instead of Seaside Ridge.
Because of these concerns, city leaders publicly called for investigations into Bonta and Arabo. Many people felt the calls for an investigation felt thin at best, especially coming from a government body that was opposed to the Seaside Ridge project.
The state required Del Mar leaders to include a backup site in the city’s housing plan where they would let developers build affordable housing if the proposal at the Fairgrounds fell through. Del Mar’s backup site is the exact location Seaside Ridge developers want to build their project. Now that the Fairgrounds project is no more, Seaside Ridge should, theoretically, be moving forward. But it doesn’t look like Del Mar will let that happen without a fight. You can read more about that here.
On Oct. 1, District Attorney Stephan declined to pursue a criminal investigation or charges against Bonta. Although her announcement didn’t explicitly mention Arabo, a press release last week from 22nd DAA Board Chair Sam Nejabat indicates the Fairgrounds board interprets the decision to apply to Arabo, as well.
But one question persists: Who is Debrah Barnes?
Nejabat, in his press release, called for an independent review into the identity of Barnes, saying “legitimate questions remain regarding the circumstances surrounding this complaint.”
The implication seems to be that someone who may have not liked the Seaside Ridge project made her up.
No one can seem to be able to verify if Barnes even exists. I have tried, with no luck, to find her; her letter to the council, included in the Aug. 3 agenda, has a phone number and address in the signature. Calls to the phone number don’t go through, and online searches show the number has previously been connected to multiple different names, none of them Debrah Barnes. Similarly, a search on the address showed it’s been connected to multiple different people over the years, not Debrah Barnes. Calls to these people went unanswered.
The letter from District Attorney Stephan also said that the DA’s office couldn’t verify the “complaining party’s identity or legitimacy as a complainant.”
And so, the identity of the person who wrote that initial letter has only become more intriguing. Del Mar leaders and city staff continue to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they only referred Bonta and Arabo to be investigated because of this resident and her concerns.
Residents send a lot of concerns to cities. Almost none of them end up with public calls for an investigation.
Del Mar Mayor Tracy Martinez put out a public statement on Oct. 15 defending the city’s decision to publicly call for an investigation. “The City Council, as elected public officials, has a responsibility to take concerns raised by members of the public seriously and ensure they are handled appropriately,” Martinez wrote “The concerns brought forward to the city were serious in nature and warranted review.”
As for whether Barnes exists, Martinez said in the statement that “staff exchanged several communications with the individual who brought forward concerns and had no reason to believe they were anyone other than who they said they were.”
Ashley Jones, Del Mar’s city manager, told me via email recently that the city didn’t do any investigating into Barnes. So, that means city staff communicated with Barnes several times but never verified her identity.
And though some, like Nejabat, have criticized Del Mar for not doing that work, Martinez basically said in her statement that it didn’t really matter at the time:
“The city had a responsibility to act regardless of the identity of the complainant or whether they chose to identify themselves at all. It is not uncommon for individuals to want to protect their identity when raising serious concerns about people in high level positions.”
She also pointed out that there seems to be “more interest in the identity of the complainant than determining the legitimacy of the concerns they brought forward.”
Fairgrounds Board Wants Apology
At an Oct. 13, Fairgrounds board meeting, board members told staff to invite the Del Mar City Council to a future meeting so city officials could apologize for requesting the investigation into Arabo, which multiple board members said was inappropriate and intimidating.
In Martinez’ statement released two days later, there is no mention of an apology or a future meeting between the two agencies, so I’m not going to hold my breath.
Also: At the same meeting, representatives from the San Diego Wave FC soccer club presented a proposal to the Fairgrounds board — a conceptual plan to build a new stadium, hotel, convention center, retail and dining village and parking garage on the Fairgrounds property.
On Oct. 15, the same day Martinez released her statement, she and Deputy Mayor John Spelich sent emails to several thousand Del Mar residents about their opposition to the proposal from the San Diego Wave, the Coast News reported. The emails warned residents about disastrous impacts to the environment, Del Mar and neighboring cities if the project moves forward.
In Other News
- ICYMI: County Supervisor Jim Desmond spent at least $250,000 of public funds so far this year on ads promoting himself, his work and his political views, a practice not very common among the other supervisors. At the same time, he’s running for one of the most consequential congressional races in the country. And though the ads weren’t connected to his campaign, they’ve given him significantly expanded reach in the months leading up to the election. (Voice of San Diego)
- Residents of a mobile home park in Encinitas facing double-digit rent increases successfully lobbied the City Council to consider a potential measure that would freeze park rental rates on a short-term basis. The Council will discuss it on Oct. 28. (Union-Tribune)
- In the months after Sharp HealthCare officially began running Tri-City Medical Center, and UC San Diego Health finalized a joint powers agreement with Palomar Health, it’s been a slow process for both of the new systems to get access to medical records and integrate into North County. (Union-Tribune)