After years of back-and-forth negotiations with developers and the Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar’s push to add more affordable housing remains up in the air, but there are hints of trouble.
First, there’s a plan to build affordable housing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
In 2024, the 22nd District Agricultural Association (22nd DAA), a state agency that runs the Del Mar Fairgrounds, entered into an Exclusive Negotiating Rights Agreement with the city of Del Mar to study whether and where 61 affordable housing units could be built at the Fairgrounds.
Twice now, that agreement has almost fallen apart.
In February 2025, the agency’s board paused housing talks with the city for a month after Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland publicly shared support for an underground train tunnel route that would run underneath the Fairgrounds. Fairgrounds officials said that would be detrimental to its operations.
Then, in July 2025, the board almost paused discussions again after learning that the Del Mar City Council voted to support an initiative called Our Neighborhood Voices that aims to change the California constitution to give local governments control over housing and land use decisions, allowing them to override state housing laws.
That made things awkward for the 22nd DAA whose board members are appointed by the governor of California.
Currently, the 22nd DAA and the city of Del Mar are waiting for the results of feasibility studies that will reveal where an affordable housing project could be built; those studies are expected to be completed by the end of March.
The two parties are also working on amending the initial exclusivity agreement to include language that makes sure a housing project would align with state housing law, gives the 22nd DAA the final say on if the project will move forward and where it will go and more.
Is another pause on the horizon? At a board meeting on Jan. 13, the board considered an agenda item to “vote on whether the District CEO should discontinue affordable housing discussions with the city of Del Mar.”
The board took no action on the item, but Board Trustee Mark Arabo did indicate that he might bring forward at a future meeting a proposal to pause the affordable housing discussions until amendments to the agreement are finalized and feasibility studies are completed and presented to the board.
He wants the agreement to outline all compensation to the 22nd DAA by the city of Del Mar and include language that any housing at the Fairgrounds is not counted toward Del Mar’s housing numbers unless expressly approved by the 22nd DAA board, he said at the meeting.
“I want to be very clear to everyone and to the public, I’m very supportive of affordable housing,” Arabo said. “I respect the city of Del Mar’s efforts to meet state obligations, but I see our responsibility as a fiduciary one to protect the District, and now with the Department of Justice going back and forth with the city of Del Mar, I wouldn’t want this District to be a part of a fight with the city of Del Mar and the Department of Justice.”
What he was referring to: California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office sent a letter to Del Mar officials in December warning that Del Mar could face penalties from the state if it continues refusing to process the application for an affordable housing project called Seaside Ridge.
Seaside Ridge is a controversial housing development that I’ve been following since 2023. It proposes 42 low-income units, 43 moderate-income units and 174 market-rate units.
City officials are against it, arguing that the application is incomplete, doesn’t meet the city’s general plan and zoning requirements and that the city already has enough affordable housing projects in the pipeline to meet its affordable housing goals.
But the developer argues that the city has to approve the project because of a state housing law called the Builder’s Remedy, which says that if a city doesn’t have a state-approved housing plan, or Housing Element, in place by the time a project application is filed, then the city can’t deny it. When Seaside Ridge first proposed the project, Del Mar didn’t have an approved Housing Element.
The back and forth led Seaside Ridge developers to file a lawsuit against Del Mar last year, but a judge dismissed it in June, ruling that Seaside Ridge must exhaust all administrative remedies at the city level before the courts can intervene. In September 2024, the Del Mar City Council considered an appeal from Seaside Ridge of staff’s denial of the project, but in the end, no councilmember voted to move the appeal forward, leaving city staff’s decision in place.
Seaside Ridge has since refiled its lawsuit, with the case expected to go back to court sometime later this year.
Del Mar officials responded to Bonta’s office again laying out the reasons why they believe Seaside Ridge’s application is incomplete and denying the developer’s assertion that the Builder’s Remedy applies to the project. Officials also requested a meeting with Bonta’s office, but “there are no additional updates at this time,” said Del Mar City Manager Ashley Jones via email.
Around Town: About That ICE x Escondido Contract
Over in Escondido, a contract approved by the Escondido Police Department that allows federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents to train at a local city-owned shooting range is getting a lot of heat.
Last week, L.A. Taco reported that the Escondido Police Department quietly approved a $22,500 contract with the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 15. The agreement runs through January 2027 and includes options to extend it through 2029, bringing the total value to as much as $67,500.
The contract allows the Department to lease the shooting range, located along Valley Center Road, for ICE officers to conduct training.
Residents have taken issue with the contract itself and the fact that it never went before the Escondido City Council and the public before approval.
Escondido police Capt. Erik Witholt told the Union-Tribune that the contract was approved administratively and without the need to go to the City Council because of the relatively low amount. He added that the police department doesn’t train the ICE agents, they just use the facility.
Mayor Dane White told L.A. Taco that Escondido’s contract with the Department of Homeland Security has been in place since at least 2014. Councilmember Consuelo Martinez said in a social media statement that she was not aware of the contract and wants ICE and Border Patrol out of Escondido.
What’s next: The City Council has announced they will put the issue on the Council meeting agenda for Feb. 25.
Also: San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who is one of nearly a dozen candidates running for the 48th Congressional District seat currently held by Rep. Darrell Issa, is calling for Escondido to cancel the contract.
“What ICE is doing across this country is fueling fear, unrest and harm – and local governments shouldn’t be helping it happen,” Von Wilpert said in a press release.
In Other News
- A math teacher at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad was arrested Wednesday morning on suspicion of possession of child sexual abuse material. (Union-Tribune)
- Cities, agencies, nonprofits and volunteers across San Diego County are preparing to conduct the annual one-day, point-in-time homeless count on Thursday. (Union-Tribune)
- Vista Mayor John Franklin gave his final State of the Community address on Monday. Franklin is running for the District 5 Board of Supervisors seat currently held by Jim Desmond, who is termed out. (Coast News)
- The Encinitas City Council approved a contract with a San Diego-based engineering company to do a comprehensive inspection and analysis of the city’s entire stormwater system, which has experienced drainage issues for decades. (Coast News)